The Eco-Extremity of 'No Impact Man'

I have to admit, I've been somewhat skeptical about No Impact Man: the movie, the book, the blog, the hefty no-impact apparatus. Maybe it's the hype about the Prada-loving wife. Maybe it's apprehension about people who seem too eco-aggressive (while their egos are clearly high impact). Nonetheless, I'm curious. So I helped arrange a special screening next Sunday, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater here in Bloomington, Indiana.

I haven't yet seen the movie, but it has gotten a good bit of attention, with more screenings this month around Earth Day. Lower impact lifestyles are all the rage right now – but what does it feel like to really adopt one? Are they sensible, or simply sensationalist?

Whether you are eco-conscious or just eco-anxious (or in a state of eco-denial) you might also be curious about Colin Beavan, a self-described “liberal schlub who got tired of listening to himself complain about the world without ever actually doing anything about it.”

Several years ago, in November, 2006, Beavan began a year-long “No Impact Project” in which he, his wife Michelle Conlin, and his then two-year-old daughter (and their four-year-old dog) went off the grid, attempting to live in the middle of New York City with as little environmental impact as possible.

No Impact Man tells the story of that year: its challenges, humorous moments, and the difficult choices demanded by a lower impact lifestyle. The rules of the game were: no more electricity, no more automated transportation, no more non-local food, no more conspicuous consumption. (There’s even something in there about toilet paper.) Begging the question: can you do this kind of thing without driving yourself or your family crazy?

The goal was to attract broad public attention to a range of pressing environmental issues – food system sustainability, climate change, water scarcity, and materials and energy resource depletion. 

If you’ve ever wondered how far your should stretch your own lower-impact efforts (or rolled your eyes when a relative or friend suggested using a solar oven instead of the gas grill), you might enjoy this vicarious plunge into eco-extremity.

No trash, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no product packaging, no air-conditioning, no television...the list goes on. You can learn more about how the family is living today at Beavan’s blog. And if you live in or near Bloomington, please join me on Sunday April 11 at the BCT! (Special pricing for members of Bloomingfoods.)

Lucid, Luminous Joan Baez

I'm just home from hearing Joan Baez, 20 feet away, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater here in Bloomington, Indiana. Her voice, still extraordinary, has filled my mind and spirit, and when she was singing there were times when I felt she was capturing the hearts of the audience in the fullness of her notes – those hearts were just pulled out of our bodies into the air to rise up somewhere and be released into the Big Universe. Uni-verse.

The photo here of Joan playing the guitar was taken by Ron Baker; I found it at his site, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. There are some nice pictures there of lots of great performers: Gillian Welch, Eliza Gilkyson, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Roseanne Cash, The Be Good Tanyas...take a look!

Lucid, luminous, human, serious, gracious, witty, Joan Baez. As she performed, I was astonished by the fact that somewhere inside me, long ago, many of those songs were installed, right down to specific inflections. There they were again.

She talked about her mother: "Joan, did I take my ginko bilboa today?" "I don't remember, Mom." She did a wicked imitation of Bob Dylan in "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and then said "Mellencamp? Are you really going to go on tour with that guy? Seriously, come talk to me after the show." (And of course we all laughed). Our own local rock star, John Mellencamp, was in the audience of about 640, with at least one of his handsome teen-aged sons, Hud and/or Speck, lending the occasion an additional thrill.

Baez has a wonderful website, and if you follow this link you'll find out how she and her band celebrated Obama's victory on election night.

At the end of the night she led us all in "Amazing Grace..That Saved a Soul Like Me." She has a brilliant way of subtly leading an audience in song, conducting a choir of voices, and we didn't sound too bad. ("Beautiful," she said.) And after the instruments were packed up in the bus (parked throughout, at the front of the theater), she came out the front doors with her dazzling smile, and shook hands with everyone waiting to say hello. Magnificent, magical Joan Baez.