I'm reading this fascinating article in the New York Times called "a Year Without Toilet Paper". Colin Beavan and Michelle Conlin, a couple with a 2 yr old daughter, are engaged in a year-long lifestyle experiment called No Impact. The rules include:"eating only food (organically) grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan; (mostly) no shopping for anything except said food; producing no trash (except compost, see above); using no paper; and, most intriguingly, using no carbon-fueled transportation"
Beavan also has his own blog called No Impact Man. In the blog, he explains that for their two year old daughter, they bought a second-hand horse, and yes, they will use toilet paper if they have diarrhoea, and are outside at an office.
I think I admire all environmentalists because I failed as one. I did a short stint studying the effects of polychloride biphenyls (PCBs) in the summer of 1996. PCBs are this heat resistant material which were used in electrical poles. Between 1 and 2 tons of PCBs were released in the Hudson river from two General Motors plants in upstate NY in the 1950/60s when the lining of their reservoir or storage tanks cracked. Because of these toxic chemicals, a 200 mile stretch of Hudson river was polluted, and in 1970s, the state banned all fishing in Hudson river after finding evidence that higher level of PCB was detected in the fish and other animals. In one of my trips to Department of Environment Conservation, we were shown two headed frogs, and frogs who could only jump backwards because of effects on their brain.
Where I failed. I was working on a report to cost out the effect of PCBs and what the cleanup would require. About two months into the work, I got extremely disillusioned with this project, and other things in life, like relationships started taking more priorities. I never finished the report.
This could have been a great report, and I did get some interesting findings from my research. But since I never completed it, the results were lost. I literally produced no impact after months of huffing and puffing. I am still scared that I'll run into Andy, my boss, and I'll die of humiliation.
Now back to no impact principle. Around my room, everyday, I find more and more junk. Some are packaging from things I bought, some are knick knacks that I'd never use, but can't throw them away because they are from people I love, some are stuff I bought for other people but never gave them. And everyday, I'm accumulating more and more stuff. Someday soon, I'm going to drown in my mountain of things.
