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Vicky

  'Web Research Report'

February 20, 2008

Lonnie's Comments: Nice comprehensive review of the blog, with good examples illustrating your comments. The 100 mile diet folks in Vancouver did continue after a year, but the one-year thing is definitely a phenomena now. You have a few typos still.

The letter to Governor Culver is well written and concise - please send it. Tell him you are a college student, and that you don't want to make your home after graduation in a state that builds coal plants.

So the blogger I found calls himself "No Impact Man" which I find cheesy. But his idea is pretty good. As New Yorker with "Prada-Wearing Wife" and 2-year old daughter decides to make zero impact for one year (2007). He does this by minimzing consumption and refusing public transportation. He doesn't get much support at first but insists that urbanites must be proactive:

"The fact is that if city dwellers can’t learn to live without reducing their ecological footprint then we’re in deep trouble because most of the world’s population now lives in cities. Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins. It’s an urban problem."

He aims for zero net negatvie impact by minimzing his negative and creating a positive impact by picking up trash on the beaches and other cutesy things.

He briefly mentioned in his year-long plan that he and his wife talked about going off the grid- but it seems by my reading that they never really did. In an entry called "off the grid: a balanced approach to climate change policy" he stresses that switching to renewables isn't enough and that people need to focus more on minimzing waste.

I was dissatisfied because he didn't address energy usage to a greater degree. His answer was not using a tv which is fine. But obviously he continued to use his computer and that required energy. I'm wondering if he found a way to use renewables or if he counted it as part of an impact he couldn't change.

Apparently there will be a book and a movie and I really like his approach, he addressed arguments that nothing is really better than anything else and that our efforts are futile. I think it's an interesting experiment. (As a side note: I can't help but notice how doing things for a year and reporting about it is so trendy now. Like the lawyer who had family dinners every night for a year and the people who ate within a hundred miles for a year. These are great goals and I'm sure they provide fantastic experiences and insight but I wonder why these bloggers and active people can't commit for more than a year.)

If you're interested to see it yourself http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

Letter'

Dear Govenor,

I regret not writing to you sooner. First let me say I was very pleased to hear you had signed an agreement in November to cut our state's carbon emissions by 60-80%. It a smart and necessary move to ensure the health of our state's residents and local industries.

When I think of carbon emissions clean energy immediately comes to mind. Along that thought I'd like to let you know that letting Alliant or any other company put in a new and larger coal plant in Marshalltown is a very bad idea. It doesn't line up with your November resolution and it would cause health problems for residents in and beyond Marshalltown. Coal is dirty and old-fashioned. It contributes to global warming and increases the rate of asthma. Our state's residents deserve a clean, healthy, and affordable future and coal would not help the striving in any of those matters. Instead we should be looking to a renewable energy economy- one that will empower residents and not only the big energy companies.If we put state funding toward making our homes and businesses more energy efficient, it'd be much easier for us to switch to a renewable energy systems. The money people would save and the fact that the power groups could be locally owned would do wonders for our economy.

Sincerely Victoria Mercer

Group Project

I'm working with Hart and Ami for the local food coop. See the group project page.