I just finished reading Colin Beavan’s 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. One of the main themes throughout the book is whether there is worth in individual action when so much of the environmental damage being done is at a Corporate level.
Do we make any difference when we hang dry our laundry, switch over to CFL light bulbs and buy organic?
Beavan’s year long project to try and make no impact was both highly praised and highly criticized. Isn’t shifting the onus of the environmental crisis onto the individual simply giving an easy out to industry? Isn’t the real change policy change?
Luckily, change comes both from the individual and the collective.
- I choose to be part of The Compact, which means I buy nothing new.
- Because I buy nothing new, almost everything I buy comes to my house free of packaging.
- Because I’m not buying crap, more new crap is not being manufactured.
- Because I recycle, compost and minimize what comes into my house; my family of four produces a very small amount of garbage.
- Because I save so much money with this lifestyle, I only have to work (and commute) two days per week.
The list of my individual actions goes on and on. Although really, none of it is all that earth shattering.
On the collective/ big picture side of things, I write a blog about issues of frugality, sustainability and simple living which is read by thousands of people per day, who then also take action on an individual scale.
I believe that no one is going to try and make changes on a large scale without first making changes at an individual level. It is these personal changes that empower people to start seeing the bigger picture. Like the breathing mask that drops down in an airplane. You have to take care of yourself before helping those around you.
So was there worth to Colin Beavan’s year of no impact? Absolutely so. Not only did he change his life for the better, but he wrote about it and inspired others to make changes as well.
Beavan also founded No Impact Project which, “is an international, environmental, nonprofit project, founded by Colin Beavan in the spring of 2009. It was inspired by the No Impact Man book, film, and blog.”
See? First the personal, then the collective!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it up, make it do or do without.”
P.S. I will be writing a more in-depth piece about Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man book after I attend his reading this Thursday, which I’m very much looking forward to.
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