What I got myself into with this project: 50 emails a day asking about my toilet habits and another 50 asking about my personal finances. Oy vey! How much money are we saving? Here’s a hint: I rarely carry cash anymore unless I’m on a jaunt to the farmer’s market. I forget to put my […]
Consumerism and Materialism
Deeper sickness, better cure
“Environmentalists see the asphalting of the country as a sin against the world of nature, but we should also see in it a kind of damage that has been done to humans, for what precedes environmental degradation is the debasement of the human world. I would go so far as to say that there is no solution for environmental […]
A fish is an animal that livED in the sea…
…at least that’s how the song is going to go about 50 years from now if nothing changes. The oceans are going to turn into liquid deserts. Goodbye sushi for the up market and fish and chips for the down. If you follow eco-topics at all, and you read the New York Times or The Independent or the BBC’s […]
Oh no, here come the weirdos with the cloths
Here is a scene that repeated itself a hundred times in the beginning of the No Impact project: we sat down in a restaurant, the server came over all smiles, we said hi, picked the paper napkins from the table, handed them to the confused-looking server, said we brought our own, and pulled our clothes from our pockets with […]
Please don’t say it’s a fight
A couple of days ago, Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek’s innovation and design guru, posted on his blog that “We now have two approaches to sustainability—live light on the land and cut back consumption vs. live like the crazy consumer that you are but use different chemistry that recycles, reuses and reinvents stuff.” “Hair-shirt sustainability vs. Go-Go growth sustainability,” he wrote. “Colin […]
Why we avoid the subway
Today I’ll answer one of the many questions that are still coming in. I’ll respond to them over time, okay? The one that I’ll answer today: why don’t we take public transportation? Aren’t buses and subways a good thing? Yes, public transportation is wonderful and once the No Impact experiment is over, we’ll probably use it, at least when […]
A million questions—just a few answers
So many people emailed me yesterday, thanks! I’m answering your questions here instead of by email so everyone can see. I’ll answer more in subsequent posts. Also, thanks to everyone for all the comments on the posts. I have to read through them still, but I’ll try to answer questions there soon, too. Can you […]
I hereby sacrifice my teeth to the environment (kind of)
A newspaper reporter asked me today by email to confirm that, among other measures, we stopped using toothpaste and started using baking soda to brush our teeth. She also asked why. Here is what I said (in slightly improved words): We’re taking actions now that I’m pretty sure are sound but for which I don’t […]