25 & Trying

No Impact vs. Reality.

Low Carbon Transit in NYC

Always me with the random posts about environmentalism. As you loyal readers may (or may not, its cool) know, I work for an environmental nonprofit – one that forces me to confront many of the issues that we face when it comes to changing our behavior for the environment. I am actually surprised that some of the employees here don’t really concern themselves that much with individual impact. They are doing their part by working towards large change, right?

I guess I sometimes fall into that category too. Sometimes I throw things out because it is too hard to find a recycling bin. Sometimes I watch mind-numbing reality TV in attempts to “decompress from my day.” Sometimes I even eat meat when I know I shouldn’t. Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and many of my other food activist idols have all told me why I should change the way I eat. And I have, for the most part. But I have my hiccups.

For example, every time I eat at my parents house for dinner I have an emotional crisis. My parents don’t bother to buy grass-fed beef or chicken from a farmers market. They buy from Whole Foods – which is a promising start – but they don’t understand at ALL the choices they are making with regard to vegetables (organic is a MUST with some of them – unless you enjoy eating pesticides.) and fruit. BUT they are my parents. And eating a meal there is part and parcel to being respectful in my book.

So these are the times when I feel guilty about my carbon impact. “No Impact Man” is a film, but it’s also a book. And a blog. And a movie. It is also a man, Colin Beavan, whose family embarked on a journey to decrease their carbon impact. They went without electricity, cars/public transit, and supermarket food. They used reusable diapers, composted their trash, and used only natural cleaning products. They also bought nothing new.

I loved watching their journey – especially that of Colin’s wife, whose reality TV habits and shopping had become a focal point of the transition. Since its’ debut, the project has spawned a nonprofit organization that helps educate people how to “live no-impact for one week,” and create communities around the experience. It has become something of a fad in the environmental  community, but a fad that has had some lasting lessons and positivity.

The act of going to extremes to validate a point has worked on a number of occasions. Watch Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” and you won’t be running to McDonald’s. Visit a chicken farm, and you won’t be having KFC that night for dinner. (probably.)

After the film ended, husband and I made a list of a few things we could do to start minimizing our INDIVIDUAL impact – regardless of what we do as day jobs for the environment. Some of these include:

- Eliminating 2 days of TV/week

- Eliminating 2 days of Starbucks/week

- taking the stairs down instead of the elevator (and up sometimes, we live on the 9th floor.)

- Consciously following recycling rules in the building

- Ensure that food rules are in full effect. Make effort to eat only farmers market – produced vegetables and meat. When that is not possible, organic for all vegetables and refrain from any meat of which we don’t know its origin.

It sounds like a lot. And in a way, it is. In a way, it isn’t. It is all about deciding what we need vs. what we think we need. But, I have to confront something that I think is what I want my own impact to be in the world of the environment. I want to stop the elitism image of environmentalists. It is pervasive.

Even in “No Impact Man,” I found myself saying “well, the only reason this was so easy for them in NYC was that they were rich.” Every week, I hauled myself 100 blocks down to the closest Whole Foods market to buy food. In East Harlem, where I lived, it was a food desert. There was nothing but processed foods that I wouldn’t eat unless I was dying on the ground from low blood sugar. And that makes me elitist.

Because there were thousands of people in the neighborhood who had no choice. They couldn’t afford Whole Foods (aptly nicknamed “Whole Paycheck). On my way back to the house, sometimes I would sit on the subway and feel like an idiot. Who travels 100 blocks for food?

I want environmentalism to be for everyone. I want people to have the tools they need to make good choices, and ones that they can afford. I think that NO ONE should be forced to shop where they will inevitably give themselves Type 2 Diabetes. It is something I feel extremely passionate about. This is the legacy that is most important to me in being an environmentalist. No Impact Man shows us an idea. Let’s take it to the next level.