As “No Impact Man,” writer Colin Beavan conducted a one-year experiment to determine whether he and his family could reduce their environmental impact to zero while living and working in Manhattan. This article examines the No Impact Man (NIM) experiment both as “alternative hedonism,” a reconceptualization of the “good life” that avoids unduly damaging the natural world, and also as a kind of “eco-stunt,” an attempt to garner significant media coverage about positive environmental behaviors. We use DeLuca's theorization of the “image event” to analyze the No Impact Man franchise—blog, book, and documentary film—though we modify that theory in order to explore how No Impact Man functions as multi-media and new-media spectacle. In particular, we explore the risky double-bind Beavan finds himself in when, through his choice to publicize the NIM eco-stunt, he is critiqued for opportunism, foolishness, and insincerity. We suggest that efforts to publicize eco-stunts, however well conceived, invariably invite ...

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Sleeping Naked Is Green

The Impact of “No Impact Man”: Alternative Hedonism as Environmental Appeal

Environmental books, while informative, can sometimes make for dry reading. What initially attracted me to this book by Vanessa Farquharson was the title. The premise of the book is Farquharson—a young Arts and Life reporter for the right-wing, climate change-denying National Post—decides to spend a year greening her life. She commits to making one change a day. The entire year was captured on her Blog “ Green as a Thistle ” and the book strings together her events from a post-experiment perspective, although it is written more like a journal reflection of her blog. Some of her eco-conscious changes are small— like the switch to recycled paper towel—but some of the changes she implemented are not for the pseudo-environmentalist. Some of the most memorable changes are Vanessa using only vegan-friendly dental floss...

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Sleeping Naked Is Green

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The Impact of “No Impact Man”: Alternative Hedonism as Environmental Appeal

Sleeping Naked is Green