Extreme Extremists going to Extreme Extremes

There were more than a few people* that emailed me about No Impact Man, after reading an article in the New York Times on the 22nd about him. The Times article was called "The Year without Toilet Paper", and though an interesting article, I found it really trivialized what Colin Beavan (no impact man) was trying to do. I am sure the title of the article drew more readers than others might have, but for the NYTimes to essentially focus on potty talk to sell an article was a little annoying to me.

It amazes me how angry or disgusted people got about this man's year long experiment to try to erase his impact on the earth. I notice that people love to call any environmental decision extreme. The best way to exploit this, in this particular article, was to play on the teepee issue. I do use toilet paper (seventh generation when I shop) and I'm not yet ready to give it up, but for the sake of argument, I will say that it seems a little extreme to cut down a tree to wipe your ass with. I have to believe at some point, that we are all so detached from the realities of our every day consumption, that we have no idea how extreme our lifestyles actually are.

I am not where Colin Beavan is, but I have to applaud him for trying to figure some things out for himself. People think he is so extreme because they don't look at, and don't want to really look at the extreme impact of their own daily habits. We should applaud someone like this, who is in essence doing the research for all of us, living the life, figuring out what fits, what works and what doesn't. Am I adopting the same lifestyle? No, but sometimes I think it is worth going to more extreme measures to come back to a place that was better than where you started.

*said people, please don't stop sending me articles!