Book: No Impact Man

I am reading "No Impact Man," by Colin Beavan, a New York man who, for one year, tried not to have any environmental impact. He took his family along for the wild ride and, through a blog and a New York Times profile, they became famous.

It's very funny and insightful. He did it in phases, starting by reducing his trash production to zero by blowing his nose in handkerchiefs, instead of "dead trees," and not buying anything that came in disposable packaging.

He very skillfully puts into words how disturbing it is that so much of what we manufacture is designed to used for less than 5 minutes, like the paper plate under your pizza slice, or the plastic bag at the supermarket. All this stuff is supposedly designed to make our lives more convenient, to save time to get to the good stuff. Like eating a slice of pizza on the run to get back to work faster is "the good stuff?" That really makes no sense. Nobody can possibly say that plastic supermarket bags are making our lives better, or making us happier.

So, why are we doing it?