No Impact Man

OK, so the main reason I was watching this was research for my reduce and offset resolution this year (#9). It actually kinda freaks me out, though. I like to think I live pretty low to the ground. I don’t consume that much, but this is the real deal. No waste, no electricity, no TV. But the fact is going as far as this guy went was pretty out there.

What scares me, is that for all the things he did, he still gained benefits from a lot of things (like the solar panel he had) that were outside help. Also, the deprivation aspect of his attempt (no toilet paper?!?) kinda made me think it’s the wrong approach. So, I kinda thought the most interesting thing he said was what he said about an hour into the documentary, that basically he’d discovered it wasn’t about using as little as possible, but was about getting what we need in a sustainable way that doesn’t hurt the planet.

Is it possible to have a a good life without wasting so much ?

Another interesting point was that his advice on the “one thing” everyone should do more than anything else to live better was to volunteer with an environmental organization. Hmmm.

I’ll go into how my resolution #9 is going in another post as well as my angle on this approach versus what I’m thinking I need to prove to myself.

(Super special thanks to Tim L. who recommended this documentary to me – and who walks the walk much more than I do on the enviro talk.)