No Impact Man by Colin Beavan Study Guide
By Heather Harris, English Department, Essex
Chapter One: How a Schlub Like Me Gets Mixed Up in a Stunt Like This
1. On page 6, Beavan asserts about climate change, “Actually, the scientists say
it’s a fact.” What have you learned about climate change? From where did you
learn it? Why are some people/groups inclined to discuss it as a fact and
others to discuss it as an unproven theory? Research Option: Investigate
what scientists actually say about research on climate change. Skip think
tanks, political organizations, journalists and other media outlets’ opinions
on the matter—go straight to the scientific journals and papers and attempt
to make sense of them.
2. On pages 7 & 8, Beavan states that our consuming way of life is wrecking the
planet, but just as importantly, it is contributing to our unhappiness. “We feel
isolated…prostituted…unfulfilled…. Those of us lucky enough to be well
compensated for these sacrifices get to distract ourselves with expensive
toys and adventures…working our years away to maintain a way of life that
we don’t really like…this same way of life is killing the planet.” Look at
yourself and the people around you. Who do you know who is happy?
Content? At peace? How do you know they are? What are their
priorities/values? What place do “things” or “material possessions” play in
their life?
3. On page 10, Beavan wonders whether an individual is helpless to affect
change. What can an individual do to make society better? What should an
individual do? When you give in to a negative societal trend (wasting,
incivility, self-centeredness), what do you tell yourself? Are you being lazy?
Frightened? Practical?
4. On page 11, Beavan writes, “In the voting booth, whether you pull the red
handle or the blue handle, you always pull a big-business handle.” What does
he mean by this? What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans
in terms of how much and what kind of political donations they accept from
large corporations? Research Option: How does the recent Supreme Court
Decision on Citizens United affect this situation?
5. On page 11, Beavan cites the “gigantic patch of floating plastic garbage, twice
the size of the continental United States, that swirls around itself in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean.” He also discusses this on pages 54-55. Research
Option: How did this patch occur? What is its effect on ocean life? What is its
effect on human life? Are there any options for fixing/reversing it?
6. On page 16, Beavan acknowledges that there are environmental costs to
producing books—his book in particular. On page 228, he states that his
solution was to print them on “100 percent postconsumer recycled paper,
processed without chlorine. Additionally the paper was manufactured using
energy generated from biogas.” Do these steps justify the production of
books on paper from cut trees? Research Option: How efficient is the
process of recycling paper? What is biogas? Does it emit greenhouse gases? If
so, what and how much?
7. This chapter is an explanation of how Beavan came to write the book and an
overview of what happened during his lifestyle experiment. Is this chapter
necessary? Should this information have been evident in the main narrative
of the book if he did his job as a writer? Or does writing about what one will
be writing about important/useful sometimes? (Consider technical/scientific
writing versus general audience writing.) Explain.
Chapter Two: Day One and the Whole Thing Is a Big Mistake
1. On pages 22 & 23, Beavan writes about the initial frustration of trying to “go
green.” He writes, “If I listened to the promulgated wisdom, it seemed that
everything was as bad as everything else.” He went on, “‘Stasis through
obfuscation,’ my wife, Michelle, called it…. ‘Greenwashing’ abounded.” He
concludes, “The trick to environmental living might not be in choosing
different products. Instead—at least for profligate citizens of the United
States and Western Europe—it might partly be about choosing fewer
products.” What are you willing to stop purchasing or purchase less? What
do you know is bad for the environment but you choose to continue to
purchase it, even regularly? Explain.
2. On page 24, Beavan quotes an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “The man
who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” Do you feel like
you have enough? Have you ever felt like you have enough? When do you? If
you don’t, why don’t you?
3. On page 26, Beavan states, “The people most satisfied with life, it turned out,
had strong social connections, found meaning in their work, got to exercise
what they considered to be their highest talents, and had a sense of some
higher purpose.” Do you agree? How many of those traits describe you?
4. What does Beavan mean on page 26 when he states that his goal is “living on
the planet’s dividends instead of its capital”?
5. On page 27, Beavan writes of the Menominee tribe, “they have figured out
what the forest can productively offer them instead of considering only what
they want.” Research Option: Who are the Menominee? Can their business
model be applied to other natural resources? Is anyone attempting that?
6. Beavan points out on page 28, “It is a remarkable fact that, here in New York,
the average citizen’s per capita carbon emissions is 29 percent of the average
American’s.” He also acknowledges that Manhattan’s residents “face the
highest risk in the country of developing cancer from chemicals in the air.”
Where should we live if we are trying to be environmentally responsible?
What are the pros and cons of living in the city, the suburbs, or the country?
(This question is also a good research option, as the true pros and cons are
often surprising.)
7. On page 32 and elsewhere in the book, Beavan switches from writing in the
past tense to writing in the present tense. Why does he do this? Is it effective
in establishing time in the book and drawing the reader in? College students
often have difficulty accidentally switching between past and present tenses
in their writing. What does Beavan’s writing illustrate about the importance
of tense in storytelling?
Chapter Three: What You Think When You Find Your Life in the Trash
1. On pages 35-36, Beavan mentions, “the throwing away of things used for less
than five minutes without so much as a thought before reaching for the exact
same product to use for another five minutes before throwing that away,
too.” On page 48, he notes, “80 percent of our products are made to be used
only once.” On page 60, he writes, “Our entire universe, apparently, is
individually wrapped.” How many things do you use for less than five
minutes in a day before throwing it away (coffee stirrer, napkin, tissue, food
container, floss, toilet paper, etc.)? Watch yourself for a day and take note.
What did you throw away so quickly that you hadn’t realized? What did you
use once and throw away? On page 47, he writes, “my convenience has
become the entire race’s inconvenience.” What does he mean by this? What
do we owe each other regarding waste?
2. On page 37, Beavan discusses his grandparents and the “waste not, want not”
generation that grew up during the Great Depression in the 1930s. He writes
this: “They held dear the simple idea that we ought not to take for granted
what we had been blessed with.” What does it mean to take something for
granted? Why do we take things for granted? Do you know anyone born in
the 1920s or earlier? Ask that person what s/he thinks it means to appreciate
the things with which we have been blessed.
3. Consider this question raised on page 39: We as Americans might have a high
standard of living, but do we have good quality of life? What does quality of
life entail?
4. On page 41, Beavan wonders what our conveniences cost us. He writes, “ In
my family’s life, the convenience doesn’t mean more time for hanging out
together. It means more time for work.” Later he describes his wife this way:
“She needed the raise to afford the $5,000 a year in lunches she had to buy so
she could get back to her desk so she could get a raise so she could afford her
lunches so she could get back to her desk….” In what ways does your ability
to work any time, anywhere, and be contacted any time, anywhere, benefit
you and benefit others? If you’re under 25 years old, ask someone older that
question.
5. On page 43, Beavan writes of the contents of your garbage can, “you see what
an archaeologist would see when he studies your life a thousand years from
now.” Collect your trash and garbage for a day or dump out your container at
home. What would someone analyzing your waste say about your values,
priorities and lifestyle?
6. On pages 44 & 45, Beavan takes the idea of waste into the arena of war. He
quotes Moses as commanding the Israelites not to destroy fruit-bearing
plants during war. He goes on to say, “‘This is the law not only for trees,’ they
wrote, ‘but anyone who breaks containers, tears clothes, destroys a building,
stops up a well, or wastes food violates the prohibition of “do not destroy.”’”
Explain what this law means to you. What would it mean for the U.S. to
commit to never destroying these things during a time of war?
7. On page 46, Beavan asks, “When did taking care of ourselves become
something so unimportant that it should be got out of the way rather than
savored and enjoyed?...What is more important that I’m supposed to do
instead?...It’s as if I’m just trying to get the whole thing over with….”” Do you
cook for yourself and your loved ones? Do you eat home cooked meals with
your friends and family at a table without distractions or the need to rush?
How does it feel when you do these things? Why don’t we do it more often?
8. On page 47, Beavan notes that psychologists have discovered that “happy
people spend a lot of time being grateful for what they have and savoring
their experience. They don’t rush through ‘now’ to get to later.” What do you
think about this characterization? Are there any downsides to being grateful
and savoring? Does this describe you? Why or why not?
9. The U.S. throws away 10 billion pounds of disposable paper goods each
year—10 billion pounds of chemically processed trees (page 48). What are
our alternatives if we think this is unacceptable? How hard would it be to
stop using disposable paper products?
10. Would you use a handkerchief? Why or why not? Consider trying it for a
week.
Chapter Four: If Only Pizza Didn’t Come on Paper Plates
1. On page 53, Beavan writes, “Around the globe, plastic bags, used for a matter
of minutes and then thrown away, leave stores and markets in quantities
hundreds of times greater than any other piece of merchandise.” He also
notes, “China, South Africa, Ireland, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Uganda, and
Tanzania had already taxed or restricted plastic bags into virtual extinction.”
Should we ban plastic bags? Why don’t we, particularly women who carry
handbags anyway, carry collapsible, reusable bags? Research Option: San
Francisco has led the U.S. in efforts to eliminate plastic bags. How successful
have they been? What has been their tactic? Is any other U.S. city attempting
this?
2. On page 56, Beavan chronicles his attempt to buy a reusable fishnet-style
bag. He spends all the time he had for food shopping unsuccessfully looking
for this particular kind of reusable bag. Why did he do this? Why didn’t he
use any other reusable bag and then buy and cook dinner?
3. On page 57, Beavan lauds loose, unpackaged, bulk food. Do you buy
unpackaged food when you shop? Why or why not? The next time you
grocery shop, considering buying as much as you can without packaging.
How difficult or simple is it?
4. On page 58, Beavan again discusses the Menominee, who have a philosophy
similar to the one printed on “Seventh Generation” cleaning and paper
products. Research Option: How environmentally responsible is the
“Seventh Generation” company? How do they ensure that their business
model keeps in mind the well-being of their great grandchildren’s great
grandchildren?
5. Evaluate the fairness of Beavan’s comment on page 59: “I’d even proved my
environmental bona fides by having an argument with Michelle about
whether she would make the switch from throwaway tampons to those
reusable menstrual cups made from medical-grade silicon. I lost (but I’d wear
her down eventually).”
6. On page 61, Beavan admits to feeling envious as he watches people around
him continue to use and waste. If you have attempted to consume and waste
less this semester, can you relate to Beavan’s feeling? When did reducing and
reusing make you feel good? When did it make you feel frustrated?
7. On page 63, Beavan realizes that Michelle’s family buys and flaunts their
purchasing power and freedom as a “sign of their overcoming difficulty.” Is
this a common behavior in people? Americans? What do you think about the
tension between showing people with your purchases that you’ve “made it”
and living in a way that will allow the earth to be here for your
grandchildren?
8. On page 64, someone says to Beavan, “‘The problem with people like you is
that you don’t accept that people are basically selfish and they’re never going
to change.’” Is this true?
9. On page 65, Beavan references the Keep America Beautiful public service
campaign in the 1970s to encourage Americans not to litter. “They recruited
fellow industrial polluters, from paper-cup manufacturers to oil companies,
to help fund KAB and then use it to promote the idea that individuals rather
than companies are responsible for litter and pollution.” Corporations
produce an incredible amount of waste in the U.S., and they fight laws that
demand they be responsible for cleaning and reducing their pollution. Is it
missing the point for us to focus on individuals’ behaviors instead of
corporate behavior? Research Option: How does corporate waste and
pollution compare to individual carbon footprints in the U.S.? (Hint: page 68:
“for all the material that ends up in our products, the manufacturing process
has already trashed seventy times that much material.”) What kind of power
does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have to keep our
environment safe and corporations responsible for their messes?
10. On page 66-67, Beavan notes that Germany has a “system called ‘extended
producer responsibility,’ a policy that requires producers to be physically or
financially responsible for their products, including the packaging, after their
useful life. This take-back obligation gives producers an incentive to think of
ways to make their products more reusable or recyclable so that fewer
resources end up making a beeline for the landfill or incinerator.” Why don’t
we have a policy like this in the U.S.?
11. On page 67, there is a quote from the Bhagavad Gita: “ To action alone hast
thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy
motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction.” What does
this quote mean?
12. The rest of this chapter discusses human desire, the fact that we want stuff.
Beavan writes about Michelle wanting to be both richer and poorer as a kid,
in order to fit in. He writes about the 2,000-5,000 advertisements we see
every day, many of which are on television, all of which tell us that we need
to buy something or we’re “losers.” On page 132, Beavan notes that the
average American watches 4.5 hours of television a day. Why do you own a
television (assuming you do)? If you don’t, why not? What do the television
shows you watch tell you about how you should live your life? What do you
feel tempted to buy on a regular basis? Would you be willing to unplug your
television (or your computer, if that’s how you watch shows) for a week? Get
rid of it? Why or why not?
Chapter Five: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint and Anger Your Mom at the
Same Time
1. On pages 71 & 72, Beavan discusses air travel. Most of the world doesn’t have
the resources to fly, but for those who do, “a single long-haul round-trip
billows three tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as much as an
entire average year of driving.” Does it matter that planes contribute a
relatively small percentage of CO2 because only a few can afford it? Does this
statistic make you rethink whether you will travel by plane? Does it make
you rethink celebrities who “drive a Prius but still fly in private jets”?
2. Have you noticed the pull quotes in the book? (The lines from the book that
are bolded, enlarged, and set off.) They are often intended to draw an
uncertain reader into a story, and while they are regularly used in magazines,
they are rarely used in books. Why do you think the editor decided to
sprinkle them throughout this book? Do you find them helpful or distracting?
3. On page 81 are some statistics at the heart of the climate change political
debate: “We must reduce carbon dioxide concentration to [350 parts per
million], Hansen believes, if, in his words, ‘humanity wishes to preserve a
planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on
Earth is adapted.’” And “The United States, with just 5 percent of the world’s
population, is the largest producer of greenhouse gases, accounting for
nearly 25 percent of these emissions. Meanwhile, about one-third of our
carbon footprint comes from transportation. And, overall, our driving
produces nearly a full half of the entire planet’s automotive greenhouse
gases.” If this information makes you angry, why? If you believe this
information, what can you, should you, will you do to address the
contribution American driving habits are making to climate change?
4. Why, on page 81, does Beavan say it would be cruel to cancel all visits to his
family, but he asks Michelle to cancel her one visit to hers? Evaluate this
decision.
5. On page 82, Beavan’s mother says, “‘The train will run whether you’re on it
or not. What extra emission would it cause if you just climb on?” This is the
same argument as “The meat is already dead—what good would it do to be a
vegetarian now?” or “So many people do [fill in the blank], what difference
does it make if I do it or not?” Do you buy this argument? Is it valid, or does it
have a flaw? Do you use this argument to do the things you want to do?
6. On pages 88 & 89, Beavan talks about the rhythms of weather and the
seasons. He likes that he is noticing the seasons change and he laments that
we have cut ourselves off from natural rhythms of life: “Those periods that
interrupted the everyday rush, like a red light periodically bringing the quiet
of stopped traffic, have been excised. Now peak moment follows peak
moment, and they have all been accordioned together. Is that good for us?
Does it make us happy?” Have you noticed fall’s arrival? Winter is coming,
when many of us hope for snow days, which provide the “red light” Beavan
speaks of. Is it good for people to have nature slow them down regularly? Is it
bad for us that we’ve figured out ways to rush through nature’s rhythms, or
is it a sign of progress and efficiency?
7. From page 92, statistics on American’s cars and driving habits: “American
adults average seventy-two minutes a day behind the wheel of a car…. That’s
more than twice as much time as the average American father spends with
his kids…. 17 percent of the average American’s income goes toward the
costs of owning and running a car…. We spend eight weeks of every year
working to pay for our cars…. Americans spend the equivalent of nearly five
work-months a year either driving our cars or working to pay for them….We
annually spend the equivalent of 105 million weeks of vacation time sitting in
traffic jams.” What else could we spend that time and money on? Why do we
willing spend it on and in our cars?
8. On page 93, Beavan writes, “ People who ride bikes or walk to work are 24
percent more likely to be happy with their commute than those who drive
their cars.” What does this say about the American “love affair” with the car?
Dissect this statistic: Is it talking about a cause or a correlation? What’s the
difference? Are there ways to explain this statistic that have nothing to do
with cars? Research Option: Could you bike to work or school? Investigate
local bike advocacy groups and what the city and county are doing to
encourage biking as a form of transportation, just not recreation.
9. Why is the Baltimore city and county public transportation system not used
by more people? Why do people stop using it when they don’t have to
anymore? Why is funding good, comfortable, reliable, convenient public
transportation, like the kind found in most developed countries, not a
priority in the U.S. (outside of New York City)? Research Option: What
happened to the trolley system that moved Baltimore City 100 years ago,
until the 1950s?
10. On page 101, and several other places, Beavan mentions the attention he’s
getting in the media for his project. The New York Times writes about him,
and National Public Radio interviews him. He writes a blog about the project
that gets a fair amount of attention, and he tracks his popularity daily. Does
this attention affect how you think about Beavan’s motives for doing the
project? Do you think he would have done this lifestyle experiment if he
didn’t have a way to make money off of it? Does that matter?
11. When Beavan gets hit on his bike on pages 103-105, he writes, “My heart
broke for the world. Feeling so vulnerable, I understood how we all wanted
to protect ourselves by being inside these big, tanklike SUVs.” He goes on,
“Nothing can really protect you from life’s uncertainties, after all….There was
no escaping it. You never know when you’re going to be hit. There is no point
wrecking the world, trying to protect myself with an SUV.” Why do people
drive energy-inefficient SUVs? Should the U.S. impose miles-per-gallon
minimums on automobiles to keep the size and weight of personal vehicles in
check? Explain.
Chapter Six: The Cabbage Diet Saves the World
1. On page 110, Beavan writes, “Instead of just thinking, How do I live without
harming the environment? I find myself asking: How shall I live?” What is the
connection, if any, between a responsible life and a moral/ethical life? What
is the correct way to live, and how does it relate to anything we’re discussing
in this book?
2. On page 111, Beavan agrees to Michelle going off birth control. He calls it a
“quid pro quo for her participation in the project.” He wonders whether it is
right to negotiate like this with his wife. Is it? What do you think about this?
3. On page 115, Beavan quotes a Zen master: “‘Everybody says I want this and I
want that but nobody really understands this “I.”’ What is this ‘I’ that wants
everything? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Why does it live?
Why does it die?” Who are you? What is it about who you are that makes you
want what you want? What is it about who you are that makes you able or
unable to control your desires?
4. On page 117, Beavan finally starts talking about diet, which is the name of the
chapter that started ten pages earlier. Were the first ten pages off topic?
Would your writing instructor take points off if you’d written this for losing
focus and ignoring your thesis? Why or why not?
5. On page 119, Beavan writes, “In North America, she told me, the average
distance food travels from farm to plate is roughly 2,000 miles…. Agriculture,
it turns out, uses a full 17 percent of the oil in the United States, which
correlates to 17 percent of our oil-related greenhouse-gas emissions.” Do you
ever make a point of buying local food? Do you shop at Maryland farmer’s
markets and food co-ops? Why or why not? If you do, what is the difference
between local food and shipped food? Research Option: Why is our food
grown so far away, when Maryland has a long history of agriculture? If
shipping food with trucks is so energy intensive, is there an alternative?
6. On page 121, Beavan mentions, CSAs or “community supported agriculture
groups.” Look these up. Are there Maryland CSAs? How do they work? Would
you consider participating? Why or why not?
7. On page 122, Beavan quotes Bill McKibben’s book, Deep Economy: “small,
local farms produce more food per acre than industrial farms and use land,
water and fossil fuels more efficiently. As it stands, agriculture is the United
States’s leading source of water pollution, its biggest water consumer, and
the main cause of soil erosion and the loss of grasslands and wetlands.” Why
might smaller farms and farmers be more efficient than larger versions? Why
are large farms using and polluting resources at such an alarming rate?
8. On pages 122-123, Beavan writes about fertilizer run off from farms creating
“a massive bloom of oxygen-hogging algae.” We have this problem in
Baltimore. Have you noticed that many years the fish die in the harbor in the
spring after the first warm spell? Research Option: What are the alternatives
to fertilizers that cause this problem? Are there ways to manage algae
blooms so the fish don’t die? Are local farmers doing anything to help solve
this problem? (Consider smaller farms, like local organic farms, and larger
farms, like the chicken farms on the Eastern Shore, especially Perdue chicken
farms.) How do the fertilizers suburbanites put on their lawns contribute to
this problem? Is there any effort on the government’s (Baltimore City or
County, Maryland State, and/or the Federal Government) part to curb the use
of these fertilizers?
9. On page 123, Beavan states, “centralization of our agriculture on huge factory
farms exposes us to tremendous food-security risks. In the last year, thanks
to our undiversified food system, we have seen a salmonella outbreak that
sickened some 160 Americans and sparked a nationwide tomato recall; the
recall of E. coli-tainted spinach that sickened nearly 200 and killed 3; and a
recall by a California company of 143 million pounds of beef, the largest in
history.” What is centralized agriculture? What is an undiversified food
system? Why is centralization inherently unstable? Can you think of other
centralized models that are less effective? Research Option: Why did
agriculture become centralize and undiversified in the first place? What did
American farming look like 30, 60, 100 years ago? How did the Soviet Union
handle their agriculture in the 1960s-1980s?
10. On pages 124-125, Beavan discusses organic farms and large single-crop
farms that use nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides. What does the label
“organic” mean to you? Are you willing to pay more for organic food? Why or
why not? Research Option: What does the U.S. Government mean when it
labels something organic? How were these standards developed? How, if at
all, do they differ from the general public’s understanding of the word
“organic”? Do you think these standards should be stricter? Less strict?
Explain.
11. On pages 126-127, Beavan writes about the environmental havoc wreaked
by cattle farming and over-fishing. Do you think about whether the meat and
fish you eat is responsibly and sustainably produced? Why or why not? How
old will you be in 2048, when some experts think we will have destroyed the
ocean’s fisheries? How old will your children be? How would you be willing
to change how you eat to make it sustainable, if at all?
12. On page 129, Beavan notes that Michelle hangs out with him in the kitchen
while he cooks. Did/Do you ever spend time with someone while s/he
cooked? Did/Do you cook and someone kept/keeps you company? What
happens during this time in the kitchen?
13. Is it right that the Beavans have given themselves a “social exception”
whereby they can eat in restaurants if they are socializing? Why did they do
this? Is it cheating or acknowledging an important lesson of the project?
(page 130)
14. On page 133, Beavan confesses, “It’s a luxury to be able to make all these
adaptations. I’m lucky to have the time.” Is living sustainably a luxury of the
rich, or can people with lower incomes do it, too?
15. What do you think about the other exceptions Beavan makes for himself:
ducking into a warm café on a cold day, traveling by train and car to meet the
dairy farmer?
16. Why are Americans so protective of our pets but so willing to let our food
that comes from animals be treated in shockingly cruel ways? (page 135)
17. On page 137, the Beavans are shown cooking and hanging out with friends at
their home, without the entertainment of television or the assistance of outof-season food. They paint a lovely picture. Why do you think he included
scenes like this? (In other words, how do they relate to the themes of his
book?) Why do you think their friends were drawn to this quiet lifestyle?
What kinds of activities do you do with your friends? Describe the times
you’ve spent with friends and family that made you feel closer to those
people. Describe the times that left you feeling not as close.
18. On page 140, Beavan writes that without television, he and Michelle have sex
more often. Why is television more tempting than sex, more tempting than
cooking or reading or talking with people we like or almost anything,
especially when we’re tired, even though all of those other things make us
feel better than watching TV?
Chapter Seven: Conspicuous Nonconsumption
1. On page 141, Beavan examines the American economy. He notes that we
were told to go shopping in response to September 11, 2001 (research it if
you’re too young to remember) and that the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP,
the number that indicates how well our economy is doing, grows when more
people get cancer (healthcare bills), divorced (lawyer fees), and when people
are subject to natural disasters (all sorts of bills and contracts). He also notes
on page 142, “40 percent of that growth goes straight to the pockets of the
richest 1 percent of the population.” What does it mean to have a healthy
economy? What do you want from your economy? How do you think you can
get it?
2. Beavan writes the thesis of the book on page 143: “The danger, for me, is that
I get attached to goals like these, find out that I’ve used up my limited time in
this life on something—a Technorati rating, for heaven’s sake—that is
essentially meaningless, and, meanwhile, in my tunnel vision, manage to hurt
myself, the planet, and other creatures by not attending to what is really
important. And then I see everyone around me doing the same thing and,
quite frankly, I get scared.” Does this describe you? Does it describe your
friends and family? Does it scare you? What are your alternatives?
3. How did the Zen master’s statement on page 144 affect you: “‘Soon,’ he said,
‘we will all be dead.’”?
4. On page 147, Beavan writes this of developing and undeveloped countries:
“The 1 billion of us from the rich countries can go zero-impact, but if the
other 8 billion still can’t afford our shiny new solar panels and windmills and
they have to burn coal for a better life, we’re done for.” What do we “owe”
China and India and other developing countries, simply because we are one
human community with one planet of shared resources?
5. On page 149, Beavan writes, “The material is divine, [Juliet Schor] says, and
we should treat it so. Our problem is that we see the material—and the
associated planetary resources—as base and trash it, treating it as though it
has no divine value.” What kind of mindset is required for us to waste? How
are you feeling when you waste? Research Option: What does the Biblical
concept of “stewardship” say about the Judeo-Christian God’s attitude toward
waste?
6. On page 150, Beavan observes that companies intend for their products to go
out of style and/or break so that we buy new ones. This explains how often
you buy a new cell phone, a new handbag, new shoes and clothes, new
furniture, and a new car. How do you feel knowing companies are trying to
sell you things you’ll need to replace quickly? What kinds of things would you
like to keep longer if you could?
7. On page 151, Beavan suggests that we could purchase services instead of
products to keep the economy going and people in jobs without destroying
the environment. This would make these jobs impossible to outsource
overseas. It would sustain demand, even if the economy slowed. It would also
create jobs like those in the 1950s-1970s, when the middle class was
growing. Would you be willing to keep your things longer in order to have
this model?
8. How do you think about second-hand shopping and consignment stores?
(page 152). If you don’t participate in the second-hand economy, why? If you
do, is there a reason besides cost-savings for you? Research Option: What
are the second-hand economies in Baltimore? Freecycle? Craig’s List?
Fashion Consignment stores? Investigate ways that people use and reuse
things locally.
9. On page 161, Beavan goes back to this idea of how we should live. He writes
about us not knowing for sure why we’re here and what we’re supposed to
do with our time here. He uses a Buddhist nun’s term: Groundlessness. He
writes, “And since we don’t know what’s happening next, it’s hard to know
what we should be doing now. So we don’t really know what our lives are for.
We don’t know why we were created, or who created us, or anything…. We
tell ourselves [religious] stories because we don’t trust that we’ll do the right
thing if we simply accept the groundlessness of not knowing.” Even if you
have a deep faith, it is still faith. Do human beings have the ability to act in a
loving, responsible, selfless manner without a holy text, or a faith system, or a
myth that requires good behavior? How should we live, regardless of our
faith system? And how do we know that is how we should live?
Chapter Eight: Click and the Lights Go Out
1. On page 165, Beavan observes, “that even a rabbi should spend 10 percent of
his time gardening and washing dishes and cooking and tending to the basics
of daily life.” Why is this so? Do you agree?
2. One of the side effects of turning off his electricity is that Beavan anticipates
experiencing “second sleep,” a middle of the night waking that happens when
people go to sleep and wake with the sun. On page 166 he quotes, “Often,
people might simply have lain in bed ruminating on the meaning of a fresh
dream, thereby permitting the conscious mind a window onto the human
psyche that remains shuttered for those in the modern day too quick to
awake and arise.” Describe your sleep patterns. How well do you rest your
body and mind? Why don’t you get enough sleep to wake slowly? What are
you doing instead of sleeping?
3. On page 168, Beavan writes, “It was interesting to begin bumping up against
the limits of individual action, to see that collective action was also
completely necessary.” Some have described government as what we, the
people, created to accomplish the things we can’t do alone (roads, schools,
public safety, national defense, etc.). What kinds of responsible actions are
well suited to individual action, and what kinds of actions are best handled
by public agreement that we act together? What kinds of things are we
unable to do all by ourselves or only with our families?
4. On pages 172 & 173, Beavan discusses the concept of “externalities” and how
they make fossil fuels artificially cheap via a process he calls “market failure.”
What are externalities? Why does Beavan argue they lead to market failure?
5. On pages 173 & 174, Beavan describes a choice we have today: Stop using
coal now by using 1 percent of the worlds’ GDP on efficiency and research
and development of sustainable energy, or clean up from the effects of
climate change (floods, hurricanes, droughts, food shortages, epidemics)
later using 20 percent. 1 percent versus 20 percent. It’s the old adage “A
stitch in time saves nine.” Why right now are we choosing the more
expensive option that will also cost human lives?
6. In a comment that reminds us of the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign,
Beavan’s friend says, “‘Of course the corporate media love you. You’re out
there telling us all that individually we should use less electricity and
distracting everyone from the fact that industry is killing us. You’re out there
worrying us about littering while they get away with killing the world” (page
181). In the documentary, that same friend says that Michelle’s job writing
for a business magazine, promoting corporate power, is working against
everything the No Impact project stands for. Is Beavan accomplishing
anything good with this project? Or is he just a cog in the corporate machine,
making sure that the real polluters and destroyers of our physical and
emotional well-being are able to keep up business as usual?
7. Why does Beavan feel “weird and ashamed” (page 183) at his electricity
cutting party? Why does the party end fifteen minutes after he cuts the
power, leaving him feeling “awful” (page 184)? This seems particularly
strange since he writes about how his other measures brought his friends
and family closer.
8. On page 184, Beavan writes that the hardest part of this project was
changing his habits. “A month,” he writes. “That’s how long they say it takes
to change a habit.” Are you willing to struggle for a month against your desire
to “fall back into the rut” in order to make any part of your life more
sustainable? Which part? If not, explain.
9. In the documentary, we see the Beavans borrowing ice from their neighbor
in order to keep their food cool after the pot-in-pot method fails. Why didn’t
he include this in the book, especially since he admitted to other failures?
10. On page 187, Beavan suggests that we “turn the great minds that brought us
the Nintendo Wii to, say, getting fresh water to the 1 billion people on our
planet who don’t have it.” That sounds like a reasonable suggestion. What
other aspects of sustainability could new technology address? Describe why
you think something like that will or will not happen.
Chapter Nine: Trying to Do Enough Good to Outweigh the Harm
1. Clean drinking water is a growing problem, both domestically and
internationally (pages 193-194). Do you let the tap run at home? Do your
faucets drip? Why do we not feel the coming shortage? Research Option:
What are some ways that Americans can reduce the seventy gallons of water
we use daily? What are gray water options? How do people in Western
Europe and Japan use so much less water than we do?
2. Storm-water runoff overflows American city sewer systems regularly (page
195) dumping sewage into waterways. In Baltimore, storms cause raw
sewage to dump into the Harbor. Research Option: Why does this happen?
What are the solutions? How old is Baltimore City’s water infrastructure?
Does the city have plans to improve the infrastructure so that it fails less
often? If not, why not?
3. The chemicals we use, ingest, and spray are interfering with our hormones
and the hormone balances in animals (page 195). Many of them mimic
estrogen and cause female traits in males and reproductive problems in
females. Research Option: What kinds of regulations are pending to protect
the reproductive health of animals and people? Why have we allowed this
level of chemical contamination to happen to our water supplies?
4. On page 196, Beavan writes, “Bottled water, by the way, keeps no one safe,
since the U.S. government does not require that bottled water be tested for
these types of chemicals.” Do you pay for bottled water instead of using tap
or drinking fountain water? If so, why? What has the bottled water industry
led you to believe about bottled water versus tap water? Research Option:
Where does bottled water come from, particularly Dasani (Coca-Cola
product) and Aquafina (Pepsi product), which have a huge market share? Do
the bottled water companies pay for the water they are charging you for? If
so, how much? What kind of quality control do they do to make sure the
water is safe? How does that compare to the quality control that American
cities do to make sure their tap water is safe?
5. What does it mean to “privatize drinking water” (page 197)? Consider the
possible differences between a private company owning water supplies and
local governments being in charge of municipal water supplies. Research
Option: Have water supplies been privatized anywhere in the world (Hint:
look at Bolivia)? What was the effect?
6. What does Beavan mean when he writes on page 203, “Environmentalism is
not about the environment. It is about people. It is about vision for a better
life—for people”?
7. What does Beavan mean when he writes on page 206, “paradoxically, when
we imagine we don’t make a difference, that is when we do the most harm”?
8. Sharon (pages 207-208) has asthma in part because she lives in an area of
New York City near the garbage processing plants, and the trucks spew toxic
fumes. Where do you expect that we put these plants in most American
cities? Why? Research Option: Where does garbage go in Baltimore city and
county? What is around those plants?
9. On page 210, Beavan writes, “This is the root of my religious belief: we are
not separate.” What are the implications of believing that all life is one life,
that we are all a part of one connected living thing? Do you believe this?
Explain.
10. Strunk and White in their famous book on writing, The Elements of Style, tell
writers that the “proper place for what is most prominent is the end,” (33).
In other words, your last word or idea should be the most important,
whether in a sentence, paragraph, or entire composition. The last words of
Beavan’s book are, “I turn the lights back on” (page 210). Why do you think
he ended the main portion of the book this way? What other options might
he have had? How would you have ended this book if you had written it?
Epilogue: Life After the Year Without Toilet Paper
1. Why does Beavan title the epilogue as he does since the issue of toilet paper
annoys him so much?
2. On page 214, Beavan asks, “If the pleasures we seek are not permanent, then
how important are they?” What is a permanent pleasure? Why would a
permanent pleasure be superior to a temporary pleasure? If they are
superior, why do any of us seek temporary pleasures?
3. On page 216, Beavan writes about the importance of peace: personal, family,
community, domestic, and international peace. How does peace relate to the
issues of the environment? How is the fact that most of us are at war on each
of these levels, at least to some degree, affect our ability to care for our
environment?
4. On page 218, Beavan writes, “In an economy based on delivering the most
stuff to the most people, education and healthcare are still secondary
priorities.” We are a rich and clever people. If we wanted to deliver
affordable, effective, competitive healthcare and education to every
5.
6.
7.
8.
American, for the sake of the strength and well-being of every American and
our country as a whole, we could. Why don’t we? What needs to change for
education and health to be a priority in the U.S.?
Throughout the book, Beavan uses rhetorical questions to make his points.
Your instructor probably discourages you from posing questions you do not
immediately answer in your writing. Why does Beavan do this? Is it effective?
Go back and locate some of these questions and use specific examples in your
answer.
Beavan also uses anecdotes throughout this book, stories from his life and his
family’s that are meant to illustrate principles of the book, particularly things
that were difficult during the project. Why does he do this? Do these stories
add up to a narrative arc, a story with a beginning, building action, a climax,
and a resolution? Did Beavan create believable characters in himself and
Michelle? How well did Beavan use stories to emphasize the human
experience of environmentalism?
Who was Beavan’s intended audience for this book? Who was not? How do
you know? How well did he address his audience? How could he have
broadened his audience? What would he have lost and gained by doing that?
Let’s look at the last line again. On page 224, Beavan writes as the last line of
the entire book, “So, what are you going to do?” He made a point in the
beginning of the book about not preaching, about focusing on himself and
changing his habits. Did he keep that focus throughout the book? Why or why
not? And if that was his goal, speculate about why he ended the book the way
he did. Was it effective or ineffective? Explain.