No Impact Man

Ben Kerr
Professor Tate
English 20
February 6th, 2012
How Good is ‘Good Enough?’
An environment consists of the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives in or operates. The environment is a home shared by every person on Earth and there is a duty, as a people, to protect it. Today, it is threatened by the actions of the people living here. The planet’s climate is warming, polar ice caps are melting, and the very existence of its inhabitants is at risk. A new kind of lifestyle must be adopted to cure the damage done thus far. People must use less energy, conserve nonrenewable resources, and minimize their negative impact on Earth. An example of this new way of living is that of Colin Beavan in his book, “No Impact Man.” It is a true story about the year he spent having no impact on the earth and living an entirely eco-effective life. Along with his family, he does so by minimizing his use of electricity, generating no waste, and watching every move they make to ensure his family makes no impact on Earth. Beavan is initially motivated by the global, highly publicized problems, his relationship with his family, and the guilt he feels for his lack of environmental action. Throughout the project, these motivations evolve and he is ultimately motivated by more personal, community problems, maintaining his new relationship with his family, and the guilt he feels about leaving the project.
At first, Beavan is concerned with the largely publicized environmental problems. However, throughout the project, he becomes more and more concerned with the small hometown problems. It started at initially when the news of global warming (already out for twenty years) actually entered Beavan’s “liberal subconscious,” (6). One example was that of polar bears in the arctic that were drowning as a result of the melting ice (8). He went on, using global warming to explain other current disasters, such as plagues, disease, natural disasters, and the rising sea level that will eventually cause the loss of some peoples’ homelands (9). However, after the project, Beavan began to see the problems in a different light. In his documentary “No Impact Man,” he said, “I don’t care about the freaking polar bears anymore.” This showed that he was now looking at things from a more local prospective instead of a global prospective. In the movie, this is also shown at the ‘giving back’ phase. Here, Beavan is giving speeches to college students about a large part of the problems faced by our environment being the breakdown of the community. He says people do not know each other very well as neighbors. This leads to an uncaring attitude for others, meaning one would not go out of his or her way to help someone in a time of need. This relates somewhat to their care for the environment because you are not likely to be involved in the community’s actions toward a better environment, such as charity walk. You also do not feel a personal connection to protect those around you as well as yourself. This, to him, could be solved through a community standpoint, instead of a global view.
On a different note, Beavan believed he could better the unity within his family. By the end of the project, he achieved a nicer relationship and instead moved on to working to maintain that new balance. At the beginning of the book, Beavan could describe his daily routine in a single paragraph. He would simply go to work, come home, watch television, go out to eat, and sleep once he was tired. By the end, it took him nearly three pages. He was more active with his family, such as taking his daughter to the park or talking with his wife. This shows just how much this project affected their daily lives. Without the luxuries and distractions of every-day life, they were able to get that much more out of their day. For example, eliminating television and certain types of transportation, such as their cars, they family was able to get outside much more often, to see nature more intimately. Also, cooking meals together replaced the time spent using these unnecessary amenities. This benefited them, and made them a closer family. Before the project, Beavan noticed his family was not as happy as they could be (8). They spent little time together and were still growing more distant. This project had a good influence on all of that. In the movie documentary, it was shown that just spending more time together worked wonders on their relationships. He even noticed that simply walking everywhere made them happier and made them feel more free (85). Their daily schedule was so much different than before (198).
As influenced by the media, Beavan began the project feeling guilty for his lack of environmental action. Ultimately, though, he feels guilty at the thought of still maintaining his environmental impact. He used to only condemn others for the global suffering (8). He would blame George Bush or other political figures for the current state of the planet. He never changed anything on his own. Another example was the “Fur Dilemma,” (4-5). In this, he explained his previous hatred for his wife’s use of fur as clothing. He worked to change her mind to match his on the matter. He later felt like a hypocrite because his views on today’s environment should have been changed. He wondered if he was, “just too frightened and too lazy to try,” (10) to act out against global warming. He knew that as a people, “we are responsible for the environment,” (215). After the project, he felt guilty with simple uses of electricity, such as turning a light on or off (212). He found that there should be some kind of balance in the use of natural resources to where you are “still happy,” (190), but are not wasting them. The desperation to find this balance created the guilty feeling on the possibility of still having too much of a negative impact.
Throughout his project, Beavan’s motivations change from a political influence, his initial relationship with his family, and his guilt for the global influence he has, to a more local sense of duty, his new, improved family relationship, and his guilt for the new ecological views on the project. He comes to understand that it is not just a matter of if he can or cannot make a difference. To him, anyone can make a difference. It is the people who do or do not try to make that difference that are separate in the fight on environmental destruction. After this project, Beavan does everything he can to try creating the influence his community needs to result in a better, more eco-friendly place in which to live. It is his intention to pass this on to future generations and generate a final, better world.

Works Cited
Beavan, Colin. No Impact Man. New York: Picador, 2010. Print.
No Impact Man : The Documentary. Dir. Laura Gabbart, Justin Schein. Perf. Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin. Eden Wurmfeld Films, Shadowbox Films Inc., 2010. DVD.

Cited: Beavan, Colin. No Impact Man. New York: Picador, 2010. Print. No Impact Man : The Documentary. Dir. Laura Gabbart, Justin Schein. Perf. Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin. Eden Wurmfeld Films, Shadowbox Films Inc., 2010. DVD.