In the pursuit of sustainable living in NYC, a man and his family give up TV, carbon powered transportation, and toilet paper. noimpactman.blog | NY Times
...at worst, an ethically murky exercise in self-promotion
Not entirely unethical, as people don't have to buy the book if they don't want to, but rather a silly exercise, I think.
I do think all the little pieces in and of themselves are great: commuting by foot, eating local, eschewing new products for gently used ones, etc. I wish we could all do these things regularly and without feeling/talking superior about them.
"No Impact" is flat out impossible. Fun for a book, of course.
no toilet paper???? ewwwww!!! as americans don't have the tradition of one hand for eating and one hand for wiping like they do in some parts of the world. We wouldn't know what to do!
But ya know the whole "no TP" thing is silly too, as anyone who has researched cloth diapers knows, the environmental impact of landfill space vs. laundry/soap/energy is pretty much even.
I suppose if they are walking to a stream, bringing water by bucket, heating it with wood fire (carbon neutral?), washing by hand with inert "soap", disposing of the wash water in a planting bed, and hanging in the sun to dry (which will actually disinfect the cloth if the sun is bright), then cloth wipes/diapers would be less impactful.
ha, i said something similar to my brother-in-law and his wife years ago when they started using cloth diapers. they are very eco-friendly folks, and they balked at my comments and indicated that i didn't know what i was talking about. not to mention, they use a diaper service to pick up the soiled diapers and have them cleaned. i'm sure that person isn't coming by foot to get those smelly packages either.
its great, cute, ironic, funny, commendable, compelling, and inspiring...but that crazy old subway is going to run whether you ride it or not, so what kind of dingbat rides a razor scooter in the snow?
6 Comments
Not entirely unethical, as people don't have to buy the book if they don't want to, but rather a silly exercise, I think.
I do think all the little pieces in and of themselves are great: commuting by foot, eating local, eschewing new products for gently used ones, etc. I wish we could all do these things regularly and without feeling/talking superior about them.
"No Impact" is flat out impossible. Fun for a book, of course.
no toilet paper???? ewwwww!!! as americans don't have the tradition of one hand for eating and one hand for wiping like they do in some parts of the world. We wouldn't know what to do!
But ya know the whole "no TP" thing is silly too, as anyone who has researched cloth diapers knows, the environmental impact of landfill space vs. laundry/soap/energy is pretty much even.
I suppose if they are walking to a stream, bringing water by bucket, heating it with wood fire (carbon neutral?), washing by hand with inert "soap", disposing of the wash water in a planting bed, and hanging in the sun to dry (which will actually disinfect the cloth if the sun is bright), then cloth wipes/diapers would be less impactful.
ha, i said something similar to my brother-in-law and his wife years ago when they started using cloth diapers. they are very eco-friendly folks, and they balked at my comments and indicated that i didn't know what i was talking about. not to mention, they use a diaper service to pick up the soiled diapers and have them cleaned. i'm sure that person isn't coming by foot to get those smelly packages either.
its great, cute, ironic, funny, commendable, compelling, and inspiring...but that crazy old subway is going to run whether you ride it or not, so what kind of dingbat rides a razor scooter in the snow?
you can hear an interview with no impact man at wnyc
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