Once you start questioning the fabric or your life—as we have had to for the No Impact Man project—the inquiry never ends. You find yourself examining all your living assumptions, in this case, whether or not to give money to homeless people—street charity. For many years, my answer to this question was no. But I’ve changed. Why? As it […]
Environment
Opportunities in the crisis
We don’t use carbon-producing transportation during the No Impact project, so we have to find ways to make a little bit of summer vacation right here in New York City. Today, we went with Isabella, my two-year-old daughter, and played in the Washington Square fountain. “That was so funny, daddy,” by which she meant that was so much fun. […]
World’s easiest-ever green living tip
How, in a city like New York, can you not make trash but still have exactly what you want exactly when you want it? You know, like coffee, bagels, fresh juice… It all comes in throw-away containers. My solution, in the beginning of the No Impact Man project, was to run out and buy a reusable cup. That […]
Interview with Senator John Edwards
As you know, No Impact Man as a project asks the question, “What can I, as an individual, do to help the planet?” And I believe strongly that individual action is important, but I don’t believe it replaces political action. I believe the two are complimentary and strongest when they come together. For that reason, […]
Doing stuff instead of watching stuff
A while back I went to Shabbat dinner at my friend Rabbi Steve Greenberg’s house. At a certain stage, he handed out booklets and we all sang together. I’m not Jewish so it was new to me, in a wonderful way, and I felt jealous that we did not all sing together in my house. […]
How to be an extreme, green take-charge-of-your-life machine
Somehow I got invited to be part of the LifeRemix network of talented bloggers who write mostly about productivity and other elements of how to live your life (I provide the environmental contribution). Once a week we write a group-authored post, and this week it was about—you guessed it—productivity. Each of us had to offer […]
Yummy chemicals in your tum-tum (and your testicles or ovaries)
You know how I have been going on about plastic water bottles and how bad they are for the environment and such? Well, what if, for kicks, I was to tell you that not only is bottled water awful for the environment and awful for ensuring a good, clean water supply, but that some plastic bottles—along with a bunch of […]
Why I sometimes drone on about wacky spiritual questions…
…because if people like me, who have the money to consume, don’t find something to do that is more meaningful and fulfilling then just, well, consuming, then the planet may well be screwed. At the same time, I see how I can deceive myself into spinning round the gerbil wheel and working my butt off to get […]