Summary Of No Impact Man By Colin Beavan

The concern for the planet and its future is one shared by select individuals today, but not many will try to do what they can to help the planet. In the book No Impact Man, Colin Beavan and his family take their concern for the planet and try to do as little as they can to affect it. For an entire year Colin comes up with different ways to reduce his effect on the planet which he calls the “No Impact Project”. These include things like buying his food locally and storing it in jars, turning off the power in his house, and resorting to only using a bike to get around. Throughout the project he discovers different things about our way of life, such as the idea of having to work hard for things that are supposed to provide a convenience and the idea of commercialism. Colin’s journey during the project provides a great deal to think about with some of the ideas sounding appealing while some of it may seem flawed in its reasoning. While reading No Impact Man, there were a handful of things that the author said about the different rituals or cycles that people do in everyday life that just seems odd when a closer look is taken. These things mostly deal with a constant loop that people put themselves in that can result in them being unhappy. One of these …show more content…
Advertising is yet another thing that Colin touches on and his opinions of it are something that are easy to get behind. It only encourages more needless spending and increases the amount of resources that are used up. As Colin explains, the cycle works like this, someone gets home from a long day of work only to see an ad that tells them their life could be better if they went out and bought X product (Beavan 213). Instead of being stuck in this loop of never being able to satisfy one’s self, people should look to alternatives and question what really does make them