There’s a guy known as “No Impact Man”. You can google him to find out about his attempts to live without carbon emitting vehicles of any kind, eat food grown within a 250 mile radius of the city, use minimal electricity, use no paper and raise a daughter with his wife in some fancy building on Fifth Avenue for one full year. I am not working on a book deal, I have narrower financial resources at my disposal, and I lack the desire to take on a year-long ordeal like his. Instead, I’ve decided to try being Low Impact Girl for the next six days, beginning at 11 pm on Sunday, June 3rd.
Some parts of my life will remain the same since I’m already kinda green, but I’ll be adhering to my general practices more strictly. I will recycle all of the paper, glass, and 1 or 2 plastic I use, but will try to start by using less. I already carry unused napkins and empty glass bottles around in my messenger bag until I can recycle them, but this week I’m going to be hyper-conscious about what I’m throwing away at work. I normally do all of my grocery shopping with canvas bags, but this week I am not allowed to use any new plastic bags. This includes packaging for my lunch and other zip-lock bag applications as well as shopping ventures.
Then there are my new regulations. I will not be using public transportation this week. I will have to bike, walk, or inline skate everywhere no matter what the weather has in store. I can’t use a fan or A/C in my room unless it’s above 80 at night or above 90 during the day. My cell phone will be on only from 4 pm to 10 pm (or if I crash my bike) and I’ll only get to turn my computer on for an hour a day, so blogging will be reduced. Outside of this, all the electrical things except my refrigerator and alarm clock will be unplugged since even plugging appliances in saps electricity. I’m also not buying any “stuff” besides food. I’m going vegetarian for the week and drinking only water. I’ll make efforts to buy organic and items with reduced packaging, but I’ll still be using the stuff I bought last week even if it isn’t organic or has extra packaging.
With any “extra” time that I acquire as a result of being Low-Impact, I’m planning to read The Big Green Apple — Ben Jervey’s book on how to live have an eco-friendly life in the city. I’ve also got a New York Times magazine from April on the Greening of Geopolitics. Since I’m not going off of carbon-based fuel dependency completely, I’m letting myself watch movies and keep overhead lights on if I’m with other people. The experiment is based on the question: how much can I cut out and live my life as normally as possible without many of the amenities that most Americans take for granted.
Consider how you can lower your impact for this week by asking “One less?” Whether you use one less square of toilet paper, get one less bag at the grocery store, use one less gallon of gasoline by walking some place nearby or planning to run errands more efficiently, or watch TV for one less hour. If you want “one more” consider buying one more product grown locally, replacing one more light bulb in your home with a more efficient one, or recycling one more piece of paper that you’d normally just toss in the trash.
Greenhouse gases aside, as sophisticated human beings, we should be able to live full and amazing lives without creating massive landfills and living with a heavy dependency on non-renewable resources even if we seem to have an endless supply. This is the time to figure out how to make it happen.
More power to you…I pray that the weather is compliant (please tell me that you’re not going to bike through a thunderstorm!).
We’re trying here in our apartment. Cambridge recycles all numbers of plastics–they’re hard core. As light bulbs die we’ve been replacing them with high efficiency bulbs that are supposed to last 7 years, and Becca and I bring our backpacks when we go grocery shopping. I should really not leave my computer on so much, but seeing as I’m still job searching I can’t tear myself away from it!