Comments on: No Impact Man

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:29:30 +0000

Thanks for the heads up on the doc Vanessa…You’ve got me stoked about it! I love it…I often find myself putting my foot in my mouth when I spew facts about these neighborhoods only to find out 4 of the 5 people I’m talking with have just built a brand new home in “Insert Name Here estates”.

I’m all about owning my own property, but with ownership should come responsibility of the land, the water and materials you use on your property…

I feel a rant coming on !

Cheers,

By: gettinggreen

gettinggreen — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:51:05 +0000

I agree, Colin — I think cities are often better than rural areas in some respects at being green (but not others, like growing our own food). But I do agree with Morgan, suburbs are really horrid. Look for a doc coming out called Radiant City, it’s a fantastic skewering of all those cookie-cutter, cul-de-sac pods.

By: Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man

Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:23:51 +0000

Geez, Walter, can’t you give a guy a little credit just because he lives in a City? I’m thinking, why don’t all 16 million of us move to your town, and then we won’t live in the City anymore, and then we can be sustainable! I’m just joking around. But the fact is that New Yorkers have the lowest energy use profiles of any US city. Cities are much better than suburbs when it comes to sustainability. You don’t see us city slickers driving our SUVs to the grocery store. Anyway, this is a great site and a great idea, and please can we be fellow travellers instead of competitors? All the best, Colin

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:26:09 +0000

…Sorry…one more comment about Urban sprawl. I’m seeing it first hand in our city…our municipal government is super guilty for allowing this to happen as well. They are purposely building neighborhoods with no sidewalks so that they can squeeze a few more houses on the block, talk about providing incentive to drive! And where do these roads all lead you? I’m glad you asked…they all wind their way past Wal-Mart! LOL!

At some point, action instead of talk from our governments needs to happen…cookie cutter houses need to be banned. Sorry…I have a thing against houses that all look the same, aren’t efficient, use conventional materials and the focal point always happens to be a big ass garage door that can accommodate your H2!

Sorry…now I’m ranting!

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:19:01 +0000

Walter…

I agree to some extent, but come on…city cats need to make the changes too and I believe that cities can be completely green.

That city did bum me out a bit, I was begging people to tell me where to throw my plastic containers, water bottles, and other recyclables and always, I got caught in the famous conversation…

Canadian (me) – “Dude…can you tell me where I can put this glass bottle?”

NYC – “Bro, are you done with it?

Me – “Yes!”

NYC – “Then throw it in the trash!”

Still makes me want to throw up in my mouth. I couldn’t bring myself to do it…so I would set the bottle beside the trash can ( I know…all I did was litter!)

But…cities like San Fran realize people are lazy, and know some precesses need to be transparent. So they allow their citizens to throw everything in to a black garbage bag (should be bio-degradable though) and then the city picks it up and hauls it to a sorting facility. There, over 80% of the material is recycled, reused and composted…It’s an amazing model providing jobs, reducing waste, and they can sell the compost!

Now think for second about smaller cities…Urban Sprawl…two big SUVs parked in the drive way. These are the worst offenders. They don’t car pool to work, they don’t walk to the corner store…they drive to the big box stores…even though they can afford it they don’t recycle…and to top it off they are living in houses that are too damned big for their needs!

I think a balance needs to happen (an can) in any lifestyle setting!

Keep your chin up bro and help those New Yorkers out with information, leading by example and actions!

Cheers,

By: Walter Jeffries

Walter Jeffries — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:11:56 +0000

I have a hard time with the idea of sustainability, No Impact and NYC all being in the same sentence, paragraph, etc. By the very definition, if he’s in the city he ain’t sustainable or no impact. He can’t even be low impact. Cities are environmental Hell.

By: Lori V.

Lori V. — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:43:53 +0000

Well, I’m all for his experiment, and I’ll follow it… but don’t ask me to quit using toilet paper! I’ll use Seventh Gen. recycled stuff, but I will NOT wipe my @$$ with my hand!

By: gettinggreen

gettinggreen — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:10:55 +0000

Um, thanks mom! But for real, I was just kidding — I think he’s doing a great thing. I can’t imagine actually leaving no impact, like zero-zilch-nada impact on the planet over the course of a year. Plus he’s written books before, whereas I’m hardly an accomplished author! I’ll probably be stealing some of his ideas for this blog, anyway

By: pat farquharson

pat farquharson — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:01:04 +0000

Howcome he started at the same time and has a book deal!!??
Dont worry. I wont even look at his stuff!

By: patty t

patty t — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:11:16 +0000

embrace the rivalry! even greenies need nemeses (ack- too much e), this could help both of yas