It’s old news—but to me still sad news—that a baby minke whale that swam into New York City’s harbor ended up dying last month. I grew up in Massachusetts, in a seaside town, and this is going to sound weird, but I’ve had recurring dreams about whales and dolphins all my life. Dolphins and whales are supposed to be […]
Environment
Worms in the apartment
I just spent the entire day–and I mean entire, as in beginning at 7 AM and ending at 9:15 PM–with a TV crew. They are doing a segment on the No Impact experiment for a major network (details to come). I hope it’s good for the cause and good for the project. Meanwhile, I’m spent. […]
Money is green
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 […]
A moment of silence for the iced quad
It’s taken me weeks of begging and cajoling, but I finally get to welcome as guest author to the blog the real star of the No Impact show, my best friend and wife Michelle. The poor woman has just weaned herself off decaf as the last move into our entirely local food diet, so please […]
A grape stomper’s laundry day
A week or so ago, I reminded everyone that we’d be snapping off the main circuit breaker in the apartment and plunging ourselves into nighttime darkness. I asked for people to send in hints about how they handled chores with no electricity. A woman named Allie emailed me about how she did her laundry while working at a boarding […]
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 […]
My food mentor’s book is out!
You know I won’t be buying it—no purchases of anything new allowed for the No Impact family—but that doesn’t mean you can’t. As for me, I can borrow it from the library. Or persuade my friends who still buy things to get it. Or go to the book store with Michelle and hang out in the food section and […]
A product even No Impact Man would love to buy
If you’re a recent transplant to Manhattan, or if you’ve never been here at all, you may not realize that on the top of nearly every building stands what looks like a huge wooden rocket. On top of buildings of steel and glass, these wooden monoliths seem like gigantic anachronisms. It’s hard to believe that in 2007, these mega-kegs […]