The Year-Long Plan

You hear of one study saying that the energy used washing ceramic coffee cups is as damaging to the environment as the use of disposable plastic cups that won’t biodegrade for thousands of years. You hear of another that says destroying trees to make paper towels is no worse than using hot water and toxic detergent to wash cloth rags.

Everything, if you listen to conventional wisdom, is as bad as everything else. The spin merchants have got us believing that to try to make any difference is futile. You might as well give up. Throw away another plastic coffee cup. Don’t bother with the hybrid car. Go on, guzzle.

Meanwhile, I mention to a very liberal friend, a guy who used to be spokesman for a Democratic senator, that I’m trying to figure out how to live no impact here in New York. “Forget it. It’s impossible,” he says. It’s one thing to try it in the countryside, maybe in the woods, like Henry David Thoreau, or on a farm, where you grow your own food. But in New York City? No way.

The fact is that if city dwellers can’t learn to live without reducing their ecological footprint then we’re in deep trouble because most of the world’s population now lives in cities. Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins. It’s an urban problem.

True, a city like New York does have the environmental advantage of economy of scale—people share transport, buildings and resources—but cities are also responsible for the production and concentration of pollutants in massive amounts. Thanks to car and truck exhaust alone, which makes for 90 percent of Manhattan’s air pollution, the island’s residents face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from chemicals in the air.

Add to that the annual 9 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from New York’s electricity use, our 8 billion pounds of garbage and half a trillion gallons of sewage and you have a supersized serving of world-killing poisons. Energy efficient city though New York might be, we remain an ecological nightmare, which is why—in addition to the feeling that we just have to do something—my wife Michelle and I began talking about going off the grid for a year, unplugging from the matrix.

In specific terms, the challenge is to take a year to develop and live a no impact lifestyle. Our approach will be to research our ecological options and run down our damage in one area at a time—solid waste, transportation, energy, for example. Our aim, over the course of the year, is to do no net harm to the environment. We’ll wind down in stages.

But to cause no net impact is impossible to do merely by restricting consumption and waste output. Just participating in society makes us responsible for the negative environmental impacts of society’s functioning, even if our personal lifestyle does no harm. To offset our societal ecological debt, we also plan to take actions that will have positive environmental impact. For example, we’ll volunteer with the Nature Conservancy to clean up garbage off the beach. To help sop up our share of the year’s CO₂, we will take part in a reforestation project to help plant trees.

Meanwhile, I’ll research and answer many of the niggling questions that have had us and everyone we know throwing our hands in the air when trying to do less harm to the environment. Do you do more harm by living in the country or the city? Is it better to drive a thousand miles or take an airplane? Is it really true that the tiniest moped, because of its lack of a catalytic converter, causes more pollution than an SUV? Could we all, by video conferencing, virtual collaboration and tele-commuting, cut down our travel enough to cause a worthwhile reduction in carbon emissions? What, exactly, comprises sufficient individual effort that, if taken by each of us, would save the planet?

During the course of the year, Michelle, Isabella and I will traverse the range of lifestyles from making a limited number of concessions to the environment to becoming eco-extremists. This means that when we’re done, we can reenter the world of normal consumerdom equipped to decide which parts of our no impact lifestyle we’re willing to keep and which ones we’re not. In other words, in addition to the no impact year, we’ll have figured out our way forward.

 

Comments

[Rich Blohm]

Hi No,
I am also trying to reduce my CO2 contribution. I'm a beekeeper on L.I.,grow some of my own food and try to buy locally. I have a small idea to add to the mix. For years the US mint has been trying to get us to use dollar coins, Susan B. Anthony, Sakajowea and now US Presidents. The reason is to reduce the use of paper dollars which have to bee constently replaced, while metal coins just about last forever. Retailers keep them when they get them and return them to the bank. Reason is, there's no space in some cash registers and there just a bother. I try to ask for them in my change and keep them in circulation. Your thoughts?
Beeing green, Rich

[philly girl]

I still don't get it - are you not going to use running water, or heated water?

How are you going to heat up your food before you eat it.

Does not the heat that warms up your building (which then warms up your apartment where I assume your heaters are off) count?

Just want to understand the details - are they listed somewhere?

All I get so far is vegetarian, self-propelled transportation, and no appliances or electricity?

[Mark Nicolussi]

I admire your project, and I agree with your comments about city dwellers - I can see this being more feasible in NYC than in most of the country. I live in a small, suburbanized city that has succumbed to the car culture. Local foods are not readily available - nothing is within walking distance of anything else - public transportation is abysmal - we live in old, single family homes - etc etc. I fear that most of the country has evolved an infrastructure that makes us slaves to carbon, and limits even the best intended efforts to conserve to incremental reductions in our impact.

[Richard Leaf]

"Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins. It’s an urban problem."

It was the country's farmers who had to be dragged into this modern crisis by the demands of urban sophisticates such as yourself.

I could engage in finger pointing and name calling too, but would instead ask that you consider not denigrating any group. Doing so seems to run counter to your stated liberal sensibilities.

From Wordnet:
The noun bumpkin has one meaning:

Meaning #1: not very intelligent or interested in culture
Synonyms: yokel, rube, hick, yahoo, hayseed, chawbacon

[Richard Leaf]

"Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins. It’s an urban problem."

It was the country's farmers who had to be dragged into this modern crisis by the demands of urban sophisticates such as yourself.

I could engage in finger pointing and name calling too, but would instead ask that you consider not denigrating any group as that would seem to run counter to your stated liberal sensibilities.

From Wordnet:
The noun bumpkin has one meaning:

Meaning #1: not very intelligent or interested in culture
Synonyms: yokel, rube, hick, yahoo, hayseed, chawbacon

[Jason Patton]

I just don't get it. I don't understand your purpose. Do you want to live like a caveman? Is it because you believe mankind can affect the warming of Earth? Really?

I would really love to have a sensible dialogue about this and not get comments from an ultra-leftist.

By the way, can you address why you still own furniture and cabinets, a scooter, a bike, windows, or really anything that is manufactured? Have you considered the energy involved with making even the smallest of these items?

[Fiona]

This is an ambitious project, the more so because you are undertaking it without much preparation, at least on the food front. My parents live on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, and they live a fairly low impact life, including eating almost entirely locally. Naturally, this is much easier in a maritime climate when living on 10+ acres. My mother maintains a large organic garden, which yields a number of cruciferous and root vegetables through the winter. She has a small greenhouse, for starting seeds and overwintering, and for growing some warmer weather veggies. But most importantly, they spend a lot of time in the summer and fall preparing for winter. She cans and pickles and makes jams. They invite the neighbors for the yearly apple harvest and make applesauce and juice. All of these activities yield them a much wider range of fruit and vegetable products through the winter months. Of course, some of them require carbon usage, either freezing, which they do with much of their berry crop, or to make the jams and sauces. All this is more difficult in NYC, but you may find getting through next winter (I'm not sure when your project ends) much more palatable (pun intended) if you do some canning, etc. this summer when the vegetables are in season. Best of luck. "We're all really impressed down here."

[Erin]

I applaud the Beavins-Conlin effort. I think a lot of people agree with me (including my super-consuming friends). I look forward to the book answering my nagging questions.

I wanted to comment on the NYT article where the man from the 100 mile diet said: “Only in strictness comes the conversion.” I completely disagree. My life, with no car (10 years baby!), no non-grocery purchases, 90% farmer's market diet, vegetarian, no clothes drier, minimal flushing (although I do use tampons and toilet paper) and minimal showering, is overall much better than my life was before. However, I think it is the “indulgences” that make my current lifestyle sustainable indefinitely. For example, if you told me that giving up my car meant never driving a car again, I wouldn't have given up my car. However, if I can rent a car, I get the best of both worlds: the enjoyment of bike riding without automotive expenses and the ability to go camping.

In a lot of cases, the suffering due to my ascetic lifestyle occurs because of the conflict with loved ones. How many times will I visit my family in a given year? Will I be shunned at salsa class because I am disheveled from biking there? Will I go out to eat if a friend is in town? Without "indulgences" I would be unbearably sanctimonious (even if I remain silent) and consequently isolated. The dancers will have to deal with some sweat, but I insist on visiting my folks.

I hope after the Beavins-Conlin year-long adventure, you'll agree that most of the "sacrifices" are privileges. With a dose of humility, the infrequent exception to “environmental rules” allows the more frequent daily adherence to those same rules. I find it is best to be an environmentalist without feeling or acting like a martyr. After all, I do this because it makes the planet and MY LIFE BETTER – in roughly equal parts.

[dan]

It's interesting to read all of the criticisms being posted here, especially the ones by individuals who seem to have immediately become offended.

What is so offensive about one family working to reduce their impact on the world around them? Even if there are holes in the experiment, is it not positive?

It seems that there is some kind of "partisan" defensive going on...as if the "liberal" actions of a man and his family are so atrocious that they must be stopped, or at the very least criticized, before they can continue.

It's incredibly difficult to have "no impact" on our surroundings. I don't think that notion has been in contention. However, the act of becoming more aware of that impact is invaluable and shouldn't be downplayed. If everyone took the time to become familiar with the origins of the things they use, the destinations of their waste, and the people they affect, we would all lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

in response to an earlier comment... it makes no sense to dispose of items the family already owns (cabinets, bike, windows). that would only cause a greater impact. the point of the experiment is to examine how an urban individual can approach a "no-impact" status.

Great work, Beavins-Conlin family. I hope your message is widespread.

[ryan]

just wanted to say after reading what you are doing i felt very inspired to somthing like this myself. thanks

[Shona]

Don't listen to the naysayers. If everyone did, we'd've all give up a long time ago. I just love the fact that there's people like you willing to put in the effort.

[Samantha Tengelitsch]

I think it's Great! And I think the more you try, the more will become habit. It's always harder in the beginning, but this will get easier in some ways as you adjust to a new life not so reliant on the earth's natural resources. Thank-you for sharing!

Also, I'm sorry some people get really picky about what you aren't doing - we should be celebrating what each of us IS doing to contribute to a greener, healthier planet and race.

[Samantha]

Three words~>

no...
toilet...
paper...

[Daniel Ross]

I have been living a low impact life since 1968, when I permanently turned off my apartment heat. I lived in the S.F. Bay Area until 1989, when I moved to Las Vegas. With the mild climate, I have been able to survive without heat and in good health until the last few years, when unrelated health problems caused me to run heat on winter mornings in the bathroom. I have proved to my satisfaction that it can be done long term. Also I have moved if necessary to be near school or work, so that I have commuted by bicycle since 1961. I now live in an old house. In winter I hang slightly crinkled aluminum foil outside and beneath the south-facing windows, to increase solar radiation into the house. I planted dense deciduous trees to provide shade in summer and sun in winter. If you have a balcony, you could use potted tomato plants, and get some food as a bonus. Also in summer, you could hang a false ceiling sloping upward toward high windows, to guide warm air out of your apartment. In winter, get double duty out of the heat energy that warms your apartment. Take fine mist hot showers, cook, run electronics. Good luck.