No Impact

Landon suggested that I write a post today about the movie we rented yesterday, "No Impact Man"

This movie is about Colin Beavan, a regular Joe who decided to conduct an experiment. They ask the question: can you truly live your life making zero negative impact on the environment and still live a happy, good quality life? This is a documentary that is very interesting and funny and wonderful (read: not boring and definitely worth 90 minutes of your time) and it follows Colin and his family for an entire year as they conduct this experiment in their lives. That means: only eating locally grown food (IN NEW YORK CITY!!), no toilet paper, no electricity, producing ZERO trash, not using harsh chemicals (like cleaning supplies), no carbon producing transportation, etc...

I found this video on the Free Range Studios' website (they brought you the story of stuff and the meatrix) and instantly added it to my Netflix queue.

So I am not putting this on my blog to encourage you to ban toilet paper and electricity in your home and "go vegan"! I do admire this family for what they did: they were so extreme in their experiment that it caused people to notice and reevaluate their own lifestyles. Landon and I even sat down afterward and asked each other a few questions about how we could do better to live a lower impact lifestyle. I encourage you to just watch the film - it's inspiring and it's awesome!

And in that same spirit, check out Simple Mom's blog post today: 9 Ways to Encourage Your Kids to Live Simply. Anna, my wonderful sister-in-law is an amazing example of this kind of parent. Be inspired!