Imagine living your life such that you had no environmental impact.
That means no trash and no buying new things, eating food grown locally and in season and using no electricity.
It sounds extreme, and it is. It also was an experiment that a New York City man and his family attempted for one year.
A documentary of their journey is slated for release early next year, but the film, No Impact Man, was shown earlier this month to two Lynchburg audiences.
As a way of bringing more meaning to the holidays by consuming less and marking the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which ended Friday, the No Impact Project, an environmental group associated with the film, organized pre-screenings throughout the country for two weeks this month.
The showings in Lynchburg, where nearly 40 people saw the film and participated in discussions afterward, were the only ones in Virginia, said Rina Shere, religious education director for the First Unitarian Church of Lynchburg, which co-sponsored the event. Many attendees were church members, but Shere said others came from the community.
Filmgoers saw how Colin Beavan, his wife Michelle and their young daughter drastically changed their lives, including using no electricity, no transportation other than walking or biking, eating food that was only grown local to New York City and in season, producing no garbage and buying nothing new.
Shere, who organized the Lynchburg screenings, was so inspired by Beavan that she, her husband and two sons spent a week in November trying to mimic the experiment through guidelines the No Impact Project set. Each day focused on a specific impact, including trash, transportation, eating locally and water use. “It was very difficult,” she said. “It would be much easier to do without children.”
One goal of the screening was to help inspire people to reduce consumption during the holidays, Shere said. It’s something she and her family have worked toward for several years. Santa still comes to the Shere house and brings new gifts, but mom and dad have some gifts for the children that are homemade, such as a coupon book that allows free passes for chores, special time with mom or dad and even skipping dinnertime vegetables.
“They last all year. The free vegetables and the stay-up 30-minutes late go the quickest,” Shere said. “The playtime with mom is always left at the
end.”
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