The blog formerly known as

Category Archives: Books

October 8, 2009

No Impact Man Book Discussion: Chapters 2 & 3

As I mentioned before when discussing the first chapter of No Impact Man, the discussion questions are open to anyone, whether you have read the book or not. So please feel free to join in!

DAY 1: A Stuffed Up Nose

Chapter 2 begins with Colin, having decided to embark on the No Impact Project, waking up the morning of Day 1 unable to blow his nose. See, Colin didn’t plan ahead of time what eco-friendly changes his family would make. No, he chose more of a sink-or-swim method, figuring it out as he went along. As he writes,

The idea was not to become an environmental expert and then apply what I’d learned. The idea was to start from scratch — with not a clue about how to deal with our planetary emergency — and stumble forward. To see what I could find out. To see how I evolved.

And in fact, that’s exactly how I started Fake Plastic Fish. First, I wanted to see what my impact actually was (hence, collecting my plastic) and then find o… Read the rest

September 21, 2009

In which I run into No Impact Man again, and nothing happens…

… you know, because of that chemistry accident several years ago while he was working late at the lab so that now things just slide right through him instead of creating an imp… Oh, forget it. That was the scenario Michael created tonight after we saw the No Impact Man movie again and heard Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man himself, answer questions at the Shattuck movie theatre in Berkeley with our friends Nancy and David. I’m guessing Michael has seen Watchmen one too many times.

Anyway, while the movie is a great gateway into the No Impact Project (in fact, it’s powerful enough to make some bloggers cry), the No Impact Man book is the hard stuff, the thing your parents warned you about. And I think it’s about time to start discussing! (Disclosure: If you purchase via the link on this page, My Plastic-Free Life earns a small percentage.) Don’t worry. If you don’t have the book yet, you can still play. The bo… Read the rest

September 3, 2009

No Impact Man teaches me to suck eggs.

In May of 2007, I listened to a radio program that changed my life. The show was To The Best Of Our Knowledge’s Going Green episode, and the interviewee was Colin Beavan, self-described No Impact Man. His efforts to live sustainably caught my imagination. He and his family were attempting to live for one year generating zero environmental impact, while living in their ninth floor New York City apartment. I think maybe I related to him as a fellow urbanite. I realized I didn’t have to move to the country and live off the grid in order to lower my ecological footprint. But there was something else, too. Something in his voice that let me know here was someone who wasn’t blaming everyone else for the state of the earth but had decided to see what he himself and his family could do about their share of the mess we’re in.

Several weeks later, I managed to look up his web site, and it was through following links from the No Impact Man blog th… Read the rest

July 17, 2008

Gratitude for Diane’s Big Green Purse

These days, when I read environmental books or articles, I usually have on my heavy duty critical thinking cap. Sometimes, I get so involved in picking apart the nitty gritty details of a book that I can’t see the forest for the trees. Yes, that’s a huge cliche, but it’s apt. And I also forget the person behind the book, the author who put their time and energy and maybe even love into bringing the book into the world.

Back in May, I wrote a review of Sierra Club’s Hey Mr. Green, at the end of which I mentioned Diane MacEachern’s Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World and took issue with the vagueness of the book’s recycled content statement. Well, a few days later, Diane herself left a comment here which made me rethink the way I read, review, and critique books. Here is her comment:

Thanks for the feedback on the recycled paper labeling for BGP. Actually, I had heard from the publis… Read the rest