| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Low Carbon Footprint Smells (life without toilet paper) |
| 2007-03-23 |
| Volunteers for life in the Third World. Perhaps Al Gore could try it. Welcome to Walden Pond, Fifth Avenue style. Colin Beavan, 43, a writer of historical nonfiction, and Michelle Conlin, 39, a senior writer at Business Week, are four months into a yearlong lifestyle experiment they call No Impact. Its rules are evolving, as Mr. Beavan will tell you, but to date 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. Ms. Conlin is clearly more than just a good sport — giving up toilet paper seems a fairly profound gesture of commitment. I presume they've got the Arab left hand toilet - right hand food practice down pat. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #18 heh if they quit eating they'd quit sh*ting tout suite. Low Carbon AssPrint™ too. |
| Posted by: RD 2007-03-23 21:24 |
| #17 Redneck Jim-It's possible, but not desirable. After the Soviet Union broke up, I lived in Latvia. They also relied on the newspaper/paperback book method-when paper was provided at all. It's better than nothing, but I wouldn't want to live my entire life that way. And if my family were using rags, you can be darned sure that Northern would be immediately back in the home if EVERYONE in the family wasn't doing their own "rags" laundry. |
| Posted by: Jules 2007-03-23 21:08 |
| #16 Burning paper and biological wastes creates all sorts of nasty pollutants, or so I understand. Lots of carbon compounds there, not to mention the heavy metals in the inks. It's a quandery. Better to ensure one was never born. ;-) Raj, if you get a subscription you'll significantly increase their sales. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-23 20:53 |
| #15 RJ just convinced me to start buying the Boston Globe again... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-03-23 19:54 |
| #14 RJ, That is the best use I can think of for the NYT. |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-03-23 19:40 |
| #13 phil_b - you called it: using no carbon-fueled transportation leaves out walking as the body uses a lot of carbon-based molecules as fuel for the cells (carbon-based molecules get broken down into six-carbon sugars which get broken down still further in cellular respiration cycles). All this low carbon footprint BS leaves out of the equation the biological fact that we are carbon-based creatures and depend upon carbon-based molecules in order to survive at the most basic levels. We exhale carbon dioxide, for example, and that simply cannot be stopped except via death and even then the decomposition gives off greenhouse gasses and generates heat. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-23 17:53 |
| #12 Just to keep the argument alive, it's entirely possible to use NO toilet paper, You can either use cloth washrags, (Wash and dry each use) or do as I did growing up, my grandparents had an outhouse (No it didn't smell at all)and used the newspapers (You take and quarter each sheet, then you rub each quarter sheet between your hands a few seconds(Softens the paper) wipe, then put the soiled paper in an airtight can (They had a 5 gallon wastebucket with a close fitting metal top, later all such paper was burned, and the ashes scattered)very little actual waste. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-03-23 17:50 |
| #11 These bugwits want to cut their carbon footprint to the bone? Check into the Hotel California and quit breathing. Someone put their carcasses out for the scavengers, or the body decay will produce CO2. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK 2007-03-23 17:10 |
| #10 using no carbon-fueled transportation So, they are not walking anywhere. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-03-23 16:52 |
| #9 Both the Hudson and East Rivers are tidal, and too salty to drink (even without the pollution). |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-03-23 16:08 |
| #8 IF they truly want to reduce their carbon footprint, they should: turn off the electricity to their apartment, meaning they would have no heat or air conditioning. Turn off the water, and walk to Hudson or East River to draw water. Walk everywhere - no fossil fueled transportation at all. Grow ALL their own food in their apartment, in dirt that they hauled in on foot. Or they could move to North Korea. I understand that the ordinary people there live a pretty low carbon life style. (Nasty, brutish and short, but at least it's low carbon.) |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-03-23 14:40 |
| #7 Its rules are evolving, as Mr. Beavan will tell you, but to date include eating only food (organically) grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan; Let's ignore the fact that that method could barely support 1% of Manhattan's population at best. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-03-23 14:08 |
| #6 Guess edible underwear and oral sex are out then. Poor Mr. Beavan-kinda hoisted his own petard there. |
| Posted by: Jules 2007-03-23 12:56 |
| #5 Ms. Conlin, acknowledging that she sees her husband as No Impact Man and herself as simply inside his experiment, said she saw “An Inconvenient Truth” in an air-conditioned movie theater last summer. “It was like, ‘J’accuse!’ ” she said. “I just felt like everything I did in my life was contributing to a system that was really problematic.” Borrowing a phrase from her husband, she continued, “If I was a student, I would march against myself.” Eureka! I think I've found the problem! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-23 12:34 |
| #4 BS. B Bet they still live in a heated and cooled building. Walk around on concrete sidewalks. Protected by cops riding around in cars. Have their doors opened by people who wipe their ass with TP. Deacon called it.. Bugwits. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2007-03-23 12:26 |
| #3 what's bad is that the US taxpayers are probably paying for it |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-03-23 12:15 |
| #2 what's bad is that the US taxpayers are probably paying for it |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-03-23 12:15 |
| #1 So, they use nothing manufactured, they don't cook their food (burning wood creates greenhouse gasses and particulates), and they don't wear clothes (synthetic fibers are mostly carbon and natural fibers take energy to produce, thus releasing CO2). Bugwits. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-03-23 12:07 |