Blog Assignment #3: Star Stuff Pondering Eco Stunts?

Now that I have completely finished reading the No Impact Man book and read a little of Colin Beavan's blog as well as reading parts of the Green as a Thistle Blog I feel that I have a pretty good perspective of being environmentally friendly and I now have the tools to if I so choose reduce my carbon foot print significantly. After reading the article "Green Like Me" by Elizabeth Kolbert and after reading about her bashing The No Impact Man project and others like it I have found some things I agree with her about and some things I do not.

I believe Kolbert is far too critical of these events. I understand that she claims that these are just "eco-stunts", but so what? So what if these events are meant to draw public interest and the authors' ideas weren't thought of just to save the environment but to sell books? That is their jobs, to sell books. I don't see a problem with them trying to make a living while still doing something that can change peoples lives as well as the world we live in. These authors do not claim that there project will save the world, and in all honesty it will barely make a dent in the world wide environmental issues. But at least they are doing something that can educate people and influence them to make better decisions about how they live. Perhaps they will not follow their example to the tee, but the more people these books/blogs can reach the better. Full participation is not required, in this case it really is the thought that counts. Colin Beavan and the others obviously aren't perfect and there are several instances in the No Impact Man in particular where Colin and/or his family has a moment of weakness and do something that is not environmentally friendly, but they choose to write about it anyways to show that they are human too and everyone makes mistakes. I do not think that Kolbert has any right to criticize these authors for their attempts to make the world a better place. I also believe the personal attacks at Vanessa Farquharson are appalling and completely unnecessary

There are however some things I did find interesting in Kolbert's article. I did understand her general stance that these books were just "eco-stunts", and I do see how their motives might have been affected by reasons other than to just to "save the world". I understand that, and as I stated in the last paragraph I still commend them for choosing to help out the environment even if they are trying to make money off of it and they do not always make the most "green" decisions. Examples of this that Kolbert used include Vanessa Farquharson flying all the time, and Smith and MacKinnon making the trip to the ocean to get salt instead of just buying some from around the corner. Who can blame these authors for living in today's world where being environmentally green is near impossible, and who can blame them for trying to publicize their books and make money off of it? With that set aside I found that even with all the effort that Colin Beavan put into his project his environmental output was still greater than two billion people on the Earth. I am not sure how accurate this number is, but that came as a reality check for me. People in undeveloped parts of the world still live without electricity and all the things we just take for granted. They do not even have the opportunity to be bad for the environment.