40 pages • 1 hour read
Colin BeavanNo Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaThemes
Wastefulness Means a Wasted Life
The author connects wasting goods to living a wasted life. He believes that people are stuck on what Positive Psychologists called a “hedonistic treadmill”(26) and that they work all the time just to afford goods, which cause waste. In wasting resources, they are also wasting their lives by working all the time so that they can avoid what matters in life. He connects living an environmentally friendly life with living a life of purpose and a life in which he can enjoy things. He recalls his frugal grandparents from Westport, Massachusetts, who did not waste anything and who seemed to savor their lives, including long meals and the natural world.
The author’s quest, therefore, is not just a physical one but also a spiritual one. He is constantly citing religious sources, including Zen koans and wisdom from his rabbi friend, in an effort to find out how to get to the marrow of life. He believes that by jettisoning the excess in his life and reducing his family’s waste, they will be able to live more purposeful, fulfilling, and meaningful lives. The author writes about Americans’ love affair with the car but wonders if it is instead a “forced marriage” (95).
The Balance Between Sustainable Living and Happiness
Beavan writes that he is not an ascetic and that he does not believe in living the life of a monk. He wants to make choices that are good for his life and that of his family as well as for the life of the planet, and he believes that it is possible for him to do so. Many of the choices he makes, he finds, are conducive to not only creating less of a footprint on the world but also to personal happiness. For example, by giving away his TV, he finds more time to spend with his family. By dedicating himself to cooking, his family is healthier and enjoys their evenings together. However, in some situations, such as his lack of a washing machine when his daughter vomits in her bed repeatedly, he finds that modern conveniences are more conducive to happiness.
In these choices, he is inspired by the example of his late grandparents, who lived a frugal life in a small coastal town. They lived by the idea of “waste not, want not,” and they had time to dedicate to meaningful living and leisurely dinners. The author thinks that sustainability and happiness can go hand in hand.
Collective Versus Individual Action
The author’s project is predicated on the power of the individual to create change, but he bumps up against the limits of what an individual can do. For example, when he is trying to find a renewable energy source for his Manhattan apartment, he finds he cannot. Corporate interests are too committed to fossil fuels to make other sources of energy available, and the government does not tax these interests or subsidize renewable energy industries.
Beavan acknowledges the limits of individual action, but he does not believe that individuals should stop taking action. He believes that we as individuals can push the needle of change and that we can continue to push for action. However, he also realizes that change is not possible if it is only carried out by individuals and that we must change as a culture if we are to get on a more sustainable path.
