No Impact Man

627 Words3 Pages
1 Mark Krupnik English 20 9/22/2011 No Impact Man, an example for everyone. “Negative Impact + Positive Impact = No Net Impact” (Beavan, 15). That was the goal of Colin Beavan's one year crusade against his own impact on the environment. In his book No Impact Man, his main goal was to share his story , inspire others and educate people. His personal reasons for attempting this daunting experiment are much more complex and not always clear to the reader. What were his motivations for living a year without an impact on the environment? How did he stay motivated and continue the project for the whole year? The answers to these questions range from his guilt over his family's consumption of resources to his own up-bringing and family history. One of the earliest and most profound reasons for his experiment was the guilt over his own family's waste in their daily lives. Before he started the No-Impact Man project, by his own count, in four days they had consumed and collected 3 full bags of trash. Cardboard, Styrofoam, plastic cups, aluminum containers were just a few of the things found in his collected bags. This seem to horrified him more than anything else. Another guilt which he felt about his family was the fact that because of the convenience of plastics and throw away containers, they had no time really spent together as a family. Even the family dinner was forgone in place of fast-food and take-out. This was also disturbing and worrisome to Beavan since it went against everything his grandparents tried to teach him. Beavan grew up not but a 5 minute walk away from his grandparents and spent a great deal of time with them. Both having been born and lived though the Great Depression, they had a “Waste not, want not.” attitude that they tired to instil in Beavan. Not environmentalists by a long shot, they still did simple things such as reusing paper

More about No Impact Man

Open Document