A Green Rebel with an idea: No Impact Man

The other day I watched the Movie No Impact Man.  Good news for all you netflixers who love documentaries: It is available to watch instantly on Netflix.

The premise: This guy and his family set out for one year to make NO negative impact on the environment.  They achieve this in a variety of ways including:
- cutting out electricity
- going vegetarian
- buying only foods that are grown locally and come   without packaging
- eliminating ALL unnecessary consumption
- creating a compost box in their apartment
- washing clothing by hand
- switching to cloth, washable diapers

And much much more, they even stopped buying toilet paper!

To watch the trailer click here: http://www.noimpactdoc.com/trailer.php

One thing that shocked me in the movie was the amount of negative criticism that this family fell victim to for their "green rebellion" project.  I suppose people felt a bit threatened by this family for rejecting societal norms to make an impact.

Some critics said that they need to focus on "changing the system", and that their individual actions alone can't make a lasting difference.  This is crazy, in my opinion.  Who changes the system? Individuals!  Imagine if lots of people followed suit with No Impact Man.  If everyone's attitude is "I can't make a difference" then nobody will.  The more "individuals" who take action, the more of a difference we can make.

Others criticized them by saying this is a gimmick for his book and movie.  Even if that is true, I think these critics are a bit harsh.  This  family, whatever their intentions are are tying to make a difference.  By creating books and a movie, they are reaching a wide number of people and getting people far beyond themselves to consider their actions and impact on the environment.