OK, so you may think you love mother Earth more than the average person, but do you really?  Enter No Impact Man, a blog about a man’s mission to make as little of an environmental impact on the water planet as possible.  That means not buying anything new, composting and recycling the shit out of everything (including shit itself), and mourning over the loss of pigeons.  Quoth the philosophy behind this idea:

Lions neither starve themselves nor gorge to the point of wiping out the gazelle population. Instead, they promote the health of the gazelle herd by culling its weaker members and preventing herd overgrowth which in turn prevents overgrazing of the savannah. Animal waste does not poison the ground but fertilizes the soil so that it can produce more vegetation for the animals to eat. Bees feed on the pollen of flowers but far from damaging them they provide the crucial service of pollinating them.

After reading this blog, I cannot even comprehend the amount of waste we humans produces in our daily lives just going about our business.

While staying here in Japan, I see that cleanliness is embedded into everything–even the streets are so narrow I would be discouraged to even think about buying a car here.  And public transportation is within reach nearly everywhere you go.  Fellow students who are staying with families instead of dorms complain about how their host families have air conditioners, but don’t use them.  Or if they use them, they have to be put on a timer.

This may seem ludicrous to some, but remember that this is a country of limited resources and thus forced to deal with imminent environmental dangers.  That is why our showers in this dorm are constructed so that we have to essentially take a military-style shower: you push a button, the water comes on for about ten or fifteen seconds, and then stops.  You soap up, shave, etc., then push the button again until you get clean.  Makes showering faster and saves a ton of water at the same time.  I haven’t seen any paper towels or napkins since I got here–everyone is expected to carry around their own hand towels to wipe with.  I think these differences are a great example of using what you need, not using things in excess.

Other resources/inspirations:
- Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ways to Simplify Your Life (Zen Habits)
- Life Changes, With a Latte to Go (NY Times)
- Have You Fallen For These 7 Negative Attitudes? (Turn Off Your TV)

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment