No Impact Man

Aside from becoming recently addicted to Facebook, I have also been spending some of my time visiting my new favourite blog.

http://www.noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

It's fascinating stuff. This guy is living his life for a year attempting to make no impact on the earth and our environment. This Saturday he turns off his power - yes, like all his power. He's going to generate his laptop from a solar panel!! He cleans his own laundry in his bathtab, stomping his shirt stains clean with his feet! All the power to him (no pun intended), I'm completely in awe.

I like to think of myself as an environmentalist, within reason. I use cloth diapers. I compost. I recycle. I reuse whatever I can. I try to limit my garbage. I finally swore off plastic bags. And chemical cleaners. I have a low-flush toilet. I rarely use my air conditioner in the summer. I hang all my clothes on my line to dry. I pick up my cocker spaniel's poop and flush it down the toilet. I buy organic food - well, sometimes, when it is convenient and not overly expensive. I'm trying to remember my refill coffee cup when I head out for java so I don't need any of those useless Starbucks and Tim Horton's cups.

But give up coffee like No Impact Man and his wife Michelle? I'm so not there yet I'm afraid. Give up my mini-van? The large gas-guzzling machine I swore at age 22 I'd never own, yet which has become a bit like a close knit member of my own family, a necessary evil which enables me to transport 2 toddlers and a dog and a husband and potential cargo all over the city? Or the country for that matter? Nope. Can't give it up yet. Cannot do it.

There's not even a moral to my story. Just that I'm enjoying reading No Impact Man's blog and it is making me re-think various choices I make each day. And sadly, I'll still ponder these daily thoughts with my sometimes-not-fair-trade-bought cups of coffee :-)