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No Impact Man

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No Impact Man is a blog by Colin Beavan, a self-described guilty liberal who "finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, composts his poop and, while living in New York City, generally turns into a tree-hugging lunatic." He first gained fame in early 2007 as the guy who swore off using toilet paper for a year and is now writing a book about the experience. Beavan, who has morphed his family — he has a wife and baby daughter — into a band of green-caped crusaders, is serious about his exploration of the green lifestyle, and the trends that will move nations to follow his lead. Always thoughtful and never dogmatic, No Impact Man has become a prominent commentator the old-fashioned way — through creative action. He's earned public and media attention, and book and movie deals pushing his motto — no net impact — which means that with all that toilet paper he saved, he can publish a book on felled trees, guilt-free.

Sample No Impact Man post: Limiting air travel was the hardest choice of the No Impact experiment for me, but probably the most important, at least when it comes to carbon emissions. One round-trip, long-haul flight causes as much contribution to climate change as — get this — an entire year of driving.

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