"No Impact Man" Makes Impact on How Environment is Treated

Tube-free toilet paper might be the best thing since organic bread…for eco-friendly folks, anyway, right?

Wrong. 

I used to think that only those passionate about the environment really needed to do what they could to take care of our Earth, and that would be enough. But when Colin Beavan, author of "No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process," came to speak at Allegheny College, I became aware that we are, in fact, in an environmental emergency that could threaten more than just the temperature.   

Beavan, your average author living in New York City with a wife and kid, was shocked to see people jogging in shorts and NYU students in tank tops one day in the middle of January. Doing some research, he collected some facts saying carbon-based transportation (airplanes, cars, etc.) in the United States counts for 116 million tons of carbon dioxide that heats the earth through the greenhouse effect-and that's just from Thanksgiving travel. Toxins from waste gets into perfectly good drinking water; air pollution causes children to develop severe asthma; we burn more fossil fuels than we have to power our TVs. 

But is the way we live making us happy? Holiday travel can be stressful, transportation helps us neglect our own capable bodies, causing obesity and health declines (add some McDonald's with that and you're on the clear pathway for it). TV keeps us away from spending time with our families. Is this how we want to live? By doing what makes us temporarily happy, destroying the earth in the process?

With these questions in mind, Beavan decided to live one whole year attempting to make a zero net impact on the environment. This included no trash, no electricity (air-conditioning and television included), no carbon-based transportation, no paper products, and no purchasing of food beyond a 250-mile radius. For the little impact he would inevitably make, he would make up for by planting trees and picking up litter with various organizations. 

For the most part, he succeeded-not only in staying away from things like toilet paper, but succeeded in answering some questions about the way we humans live. Why drive your car to the gym and run on a treadmill for 20 minutes when you can take the stairs or walk to the store? He philisophized about it in his book (which later became a movie), and currently appears at talks across the country. He also appeared on the Colbert Report and wrote a featured column for The New York Times.

So, people want to know from him--what can we do? How can we lead healthier, better lives, and save the place we live at the same time? 

This is what Beavan leaves open-ended. At his talk, he said to, "Take what you're good at, and use it to make a difference, whatever it is." 

As for me, I say take a reusable bag or two when you grocery shop. Buy more local foods. Take your bike to town instead of your car. And heck, even buy some tube-free toilet paper. 

He was just your average man who made a difference. Why can't you?