First of all, I wanted to remind you all that there is a sneak peak at the No Impact Man documentary in New York tonight (Thursday). Click here for details. I hope I’ll see you there. It’ll be outdoors if the weather is nice and indoors if it’s not, so rain or shine! Now, onwards… […]
Consumerism and Materialism
No Impact Man’s Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes
For more ideas and ways to join a community of people who are searching for happier, more eco-friendly lives, got to NoImpactProject.org. 1. Stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more substantially to climate change than the entire transportation sector. Plus, a diet with no or less beef is better for you anyway. 2. Give […]
We’re In This Together
As you may know, Japan has lower per capita carbon emissions than any Western European country. For that reason, I asked my friend, Sean Saskamoto, who recently moved to Japan and who blogs at I’d Rather Be In Japan, to check in with us every so often. I thought we might be able to learn a little something about […]
Consumerdom ain’t making women happy
We talk a lot here about whether our consumption-based economy and culture makes people happy. Because, since consumption of resources is the root cause our planet’s woes, it would be an awful shame if it turned out that we were wrecking the planet without even increasing human happiness. And it turns out, by the way, […]
My eco-living lines in the sand
People often ask what I kept from the No Impact year, and there’s a lot I still try to do. I bike most places, I buy only second-hand, we don’t have air conditioners. But there are certain things that are lines in the sand for me and bottled water is one. I just can’t bring […]
Forget the stuff. Let’s just get happy.
A quote from a TED talk given by Dan Gilbert, the Harvard professor and author of Stumbling on Happiness: Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted. Synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we wanted. In our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness […]
Keeping kids healthy by eating local and unprocessed food
A big part of the No Impact project was to eat only local, seasonal, unpackaged food. That meant, basically, lots of fresh vegetables. Michelle and I both lost a lot of weight. As though to prove how good eating a local-food diet is for kids, too, BusinessWeek writer Cathy Arnst has posted a story, which […]
Keeping cool with no air conditioner
People always ask what we still do from our no impact year, and one thing is that we got rid of both our air conditioners. There are seven or eight nights in the summer where it’s really hot in New York City, but we keep a tub of cold water ready to hop into and […]