Colin Beavan's Blog, page 8

One thing I can always do

People ask me all the time what they can do to help. I have a list of things that you can find here. But there are times when it seems like nothing I can possibly do on that list or any thing else help the world. I don't mean to sound pious, as if I spend all my days trying to figure out how to help--I don't.

But there are times when I become aware of so many things that seem to be going wrong and I feel powerless in the face of it all. At that moment, there seems like there is only one thing ...

A nice quote and a talk by, well, me

Hi folks, I'm sorry I've been so absent from the blog lately but I'm on my way back. I wanted to share a great quote with you and also to let you know about a BookTV talk I gave that you can watch online.

"Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." 

-- Howard Thurman

Is he right? What do you think?

Meanwhile, If you have a spare hour and you want to spend it listening to my BookTV talk about my No...

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you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality
of life. It's not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity
for you to test whether the modern "conveniences" you take for granted
are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and
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May each go his own way

The other day I published a post called about finding your own path to helping the world by trusting yourself.

What I didn't say was that the post was inspired by something I read in the recently released book of secret writings by Carl Jung collected in The Red Book. The book is, in a way, Jung's journal of his voyage of self discover.

I thought I'd share the quote that inspired me:

Believe me: It is no teaching and no instruction that I give you. On what basis should I presume to teach you...

Trust the spark within and find your own path

Since the release of the No Impact Man book and film I have been privileged to be in conversation with many groups. And always, someone asks me with great earnestness, "What can I do?" Many times, in other words, people ask me for how-to-save-the-planet directions.

"Just start," I say.

And then I pause while they wait expectantly for more guidance.

"If you were to just start, without waiting for someone like me to come along, what would you do?" I ask finally.

Because, while I want to help and ...

Global warming or no, a renewable energy economy would bring a better world

Things are not going well there as you'll see by the video below. That's too bad for the American economy, for our prospects as world leader, and for our national security (even the US Army now believes that the geopolitical instability brought about by climate change will be one of the biggest threats to our security).

I make these points because some who read this blog don't believe in global warming. I do. But that's beside the point.

A worldwide transition to a renewable energy economy...

Finally doing what I can about the Copenhagen climate talks

I Skyped with a good friend who is in Copenhagen participating in the climate negotiations today. She told me she woke up crying.

Yesterday, a large group of some 70 developing countries walked out of the climate talks because they felt that an unfair responsibility for carbon reductions was falling on poor countries. Luckily, they came back. But rich countries like ours are simply not doing enough.

There are so many obstacles to a meaningful treaty resulting from these talks. That's why my...

In search of a unifying theory of all our problems

When you look at the climate problem and the difficulties we have dealing with it and you combine that with a consumer culture that doesn't seem to be making people happy, you'd think we'd be able to find a solution. You'd think we'd be able to do better by ourselves.

But things are moving so slowly. What I want to know is why? What is the fundamental human flaw? What is the single underlying assumption about how we live or what we do that is causing us to damage ourselves and the habitat we d...

No Impact Project needs interns

From the No Impact Project:

Project

The No Impact Project (NIP) was conceived by Colin Beavan,aka No Impact Man, following the success of his blog, book, and film, whichchronicle his family's year-long experiment living a zero-waste lifestyle inNew York City. Central to his thesis is the notion that deep-seated individualbehavior change leads to both cultural change and political engagement. Livinglow-impact provides a clear entry point into the environmental movement. Thisthesis is the...

No Impact Man screening and Christmas consumption discussion

From the No Impact Project:

Every year, growing numbers of us are unhappy with the shopping
frenzy that surrounds the holidays but most of us don't know how to get
off the treadmill. What if we worked together to find another way to
celebrate?  This holiday season join us in finding more of what matters.

During the two-weeks of the historic UN Climate Change Conferencein Copenhagen (December 7th-18th), we're bringing people together totalk about the impact of holiday spending on their lives...