No Impact Man: A Review

Colin Beavan, a New Yorker, decides to try and live is life with no appreciable impact on the environment for a year. Going to the extreme of trying to live in a New York apartment with not electricity, not using any type of transportation that uses electricity or fossil fuels. The only exception being a trip to visit the farmers that he is purchasing food from in the farmer's market.

Beaven had his motives questioned throughout the movie by both environmentalists and non environmentalists alike. Was his motivation for making the movie fame and fortune, or did he genuinely care about the environment.

I had never heard of this movie before, or about Colin Beavan's blog by the same name, No Impact Man. Immediately I thought that trying to go the the extreme of living with no impact on the environment in the manner he was going was extreme, and a bit silly. I definitely can understand why his motivation was called into question.

In my opinion Beaven's heart is in the right place, and in the end this movie is more about his personal journey to find out what things he can do without in his life. The part I found the most amusing about the movie was the dynamic between Beaven and his wife Michelle Conlin who seemed to be more along for the ride than an active participant.

While I wouldn't recommend going to the extreme of living for a year like this, I do think it is worthwhile to take a look at how you're living your life, and whether there are things that you can do without that would improve your impact on the environment.