I saw the Movie 'No Impact Man' (refrigerator, electric, composting)

[DrEarth]

The guy lived without consuming in NYC for 1 year. It was pretty much a publicity stunt for his book.

[need4Trees]

I saw it too, wasn't impressed tho.

[haggardhouseelf]

I felt really bad for their kid. Especially when it got cold and dark that winter. And I LOL'd when they went to the neighbor's to get ice! Ha!

[SifuPhil]

I just finished watching it and I'm of a split mind on it. From an eco-viewpoint, he was going in the right direction; eating local food, cutting down on the waste stream and biking were all great. Cutting off the electric was a bit extreme - I thought he could have substituted energy-efficient bulbs and cut down on general usage instead, especially with a child in the house.

And that was my other main concern - if this was indeed his project, why involve the family? Why not go out and live like a homeless person for a year? You want to be "No Impact Man", do it the hard way.

His trip upstate to the farm involved not only the train but, unseen to the camera, SOME type of vehicular conveyance to the farm itself - I doubt he walked. The worms in the apartment for composting I thought was silly - he had flies and fleas all over the place; again, a health hazard.

Overall, a neat idea and one that people might want to consider implementing parts of.

[bs13690]

I saw an episode of Law & Order the featued a guy like this. His wife got killed for some reason and he was obviously modeled after NIM.

[joe moving]

he did this to show the extreme. you dont need to do the extreme. you can live in NYC in a tiny apartment with 1 or 2 wall ACs, whatever heat, an energystar refrigerator and never drive, shop at the farmer market, and you will be pretty low impact compared to many.