No Impact (on saving the planet) MAN!

Bringing you “Survivor for Yuppies in Manhattan!” or “Michelle Whines!”

Colin and his wife Michelle, the writer for Business Week, ditch a high consumption lifestyle to make as little impact on the Earth as possible. In the beginning of the movie Colin states that the average American produces 1,600 pounds of trash a year. He attempts to change his life to take that number down to zero.

In this attempt, his family cuts anything out of their lives that could leave a footprint on the planet. No take out food, no driving their SUV, no electricity and yes…they even stop using toilet paper.  They switch to buying all their food locally, since the average piece of food travels 1,500 miles. Instead of using paper towels, they use old clothes. They stop buying new clothes completely and make the rule for themselves that they can only buy used clothes.

However, Colin forgot to mention something in his movie.

Currently, our government is making…

NO IMPACT on saving the planet MAN!

The government currently sneezes a mere 8 billion at the environmental crisis. This is pocket change…no, pocket change would be too generous. This is pocket lint!

During the blood bath of the French Revolution, Marie Attoinette said, “Let them eat cake.” To the problems of the working class.  Not content with cake, the working class decided to take her head instead.

Not content with the pocket lint of the U.S. Government, the severity of the climate crisis will claim several billion heads. Scientists around the world are unanimous in agreeing that we can see a death toll in the billions at the end of this century, if we don’t do something about our addiction to consumption.

As the aging hippy character in the film said, the problem with this movie is that it is going to fool people into thinking that all they have to do is change a light bulb and recycle – and BLAMO climate change will be fixed!

The problem is much larger than that. It is living in a capitalistic society that is powered by waste. Society itself must be completely re-calibrated if we want to see change.

Too much film time in the movie is dedicated to showcasing Michelle whining about how she can’t drink her quad iced espressos or buy matching handbags. Wah wah waah. I’ll cry you a river Michelle. Or more like a tsunami, for all the people in third world countries who get to enjoy the effects of our consumption culture: severe drought, pollution, destruction of crops, hurricanes, tsunamis and more.

Climate experts believe that there are going to be wars over water in this century. Our agricultural methods are completely destroying the soil so that farming will be less feasible in the future. In the United States, we are contaminating our drinking water and air with chemicals that are banned in other countries.

But hey! Change is on the way!

Colin and Michelle are going to bike to work and eat organic food. The starving children in Africa can sleep safe tonight.