Myths and Utopia : Imagining a Different World
No Impact Man and Surviving Progress
By : Fiona , Kenneth, Cynthia and Joshua
Mankind's Hero
The environment is something that generally everyone has some sort of concern for, but in all truth, not many people do enough to try to actually help it. It is taken advantage of, as people use their automobiles as much as possible, litter too often, use excessive amounts of electricity, and so on. How can we live in a safe and environmentally friendly atmosphere if no one is willing to take care of it? If only people knew that just one effort can make a large difference. People might feel influenced, and would perhaps attempt to make eco-friendly changes in their lives as well. There definitely is hope, and no one should give up, considering what one person’s efforts can actually do. This environment that we all share and live upon, needs taking care of, and it is up to mankind to do so.
The film discussed in class this week was a documentary about a drastic attempt to save, and influence others to make an effort to preserve the environment. This 93 minute film, directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein and released September 11 2009 in the USA, is called “No Impact Man”. Colin Beavan, a middle aged man, took on an extremely difficult and unbelievable task of attempting to live entirely environmentally friendly. A lot of people make minor changes in their lives to try and help our planet, but Colin had decided to go way past that. He went to all extremes to prevent even the slightest bit of non-eco friendly behavior. This included restrictions on what food to buy, as it all had to come from within a 250 mile radius, taking a bicycle to work instead of an automobile or public transport, living 6 months without electricity, no new purchases, no toilet paper, removing the television, and much more. The Beavan family received a lot of criticism for their actions, as people thought they were taking this experiment too far, but that did not stop them. With will and determination, this family was never ready to back down.
The film discussed in class this week was a documentary about a drastic attempt to save, and influence others to make an effort to preserve the environment. This 93 minute film, directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein and released September 11 2009 in the USA, is called “No Impact Man”. Colin Beavan, a middle aged man, took on an extremely difficult and unbelievable task of attempting to live entirely environmentally friendly. A lot of people make minor changes in their lives to try and help our planet, but Colin had decided to go way past that. He went to all extremes to prevent even the slightest bit of non-eco friendly behavior. This included restrictions on what food to buy, as it all had to come from within a 250 mile radius, taking a bicycle to work instead of an automobile or public transport, living 6 months without electricity, no new purchases, no toilet paper, removing the television, and much more. The Beavan family received a lot of criticism for their actions, as people thought they were taking this experiment too far, but that did not stop them. With will and determination, this family was never ready to back down.
Living in New York City is not really the ideal place to attempt such a daring and difficult task, and the location itself really added a whole new level of difficulty. The city thrives on industry, shopping, and restaurants, and this was pretty much what the Beavan family had to avoid. This experiment introduced a whole new way to look at and experience life, and it had changed the way the Beavans will continue to live. A lot of people can look at such a family and realize that if they were able to accomplish such a thing, then maybe it would not be so hard to make some minor adjustments in their lives as well to help the environment. If more and more people think this way, the Beavans can conclude that their experiment is successful, as this is the main reason for what they had done.
What We Bring to the Table
In class we discussed Myths and Utopia, as well as imagining a different world. The concept of “One vs. The Collectivity” was emphasized, and this relates greatly to No Impact Man. This idea suggests, “The totality (the fullness) of man is not in the separate member, but in the body of society as a whole”. This is perhaps what Colin Beavan was trying to get through to everyone who watched his film. He was trying to say that every individual is important, and even one person can have an effect on our society. If one man makes an environmentally friendly change in his daily life, this can greatly affect the society as a whole, as others may look at him and want to do the same. Every single being on this planet is very important. This idea also related to the fact that “the individual is an organ of society, the society (humanity) is an organ of the cosmos”. We all play a very important part in society, and it cannot function without each and every one of us. When put together, we create what we are and what we live in today.
The film No Impact Man takes a look at how one can help the environment, not himself. This is the beauty of the screening, and this is why Colin is a hero in his own way. Another concept discussed in class, was how the creative hero is to guide and save society. Colin attempted to do so by reaching out to the individual, and he hoped that this would help and guide others make changes to their daily lives.
Progressing or Receding ?
No Impact Man can be related to Surviving Progress, a Canadian documentary film made in 2011, its length is: 83 minutes and 36 seconds. The film was written and directed by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, and also produced by Daniel Louis, Denise Robert and Gerry Flahive. Surviving Progress focuses on our society’s reality of having a consumer culture, and the impacts of this on our world. The significance of this film is that our current way of living has no useful benefit to the real world, and in fact it is harming our only home. There are numerous people interviewed in this documentary, such as authors, a biologist, behavioural scientist, and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, economists, environmentalist such as David Suzuki, primatologist Jane Goodall and interestingly enough, Colin Beavan. There is an obvious connection one can make between the two films. Both of the films shed light on the direct line you can draw between our societies over consuming of products, the earth’s continual diminishing of natural resources for the consumers, and by extension the overall decrease in the level of wellbeing of the Earth.
Surviving Progress opens the path for change and improvement in our world. In this documentary it asks an important underlying question: “what is progress, and if it is what most of us believe it to be, then will this progress in the end bring us to our downfall?” This is an important question, as well as a very interesting one. In today’s society we would classify progress as, say a new form of technology or say a new type of lighter material used to build a certain type of structure. However, the reality is that while we may be increasing our amount of available consumer products, we are in fact decreasing our amount of natural resources available on our Earth. This is the very interesting fact that this film brings up; our believed “progression” is in a way also our receding back to the world we used to know, where in the future, we will not have anything left to exploit. Should we continue doing what we are currently doing now? Another aspect of progress which is displayed in this documentary is the difference between chimpanzee and human brains. The behavioural scientist stated that the fundamental different of our brains is that human has the ability to ask “why”. Human beings are on a quest for answer and while they try to find answer it is counter-productive to kill our own home. Humans are on a quest to also see beyond our race, social status, and religion : Who are we ? What is our reason for being on this particular earth? Today, man himself is a mystery : meaning that every human being is unpredictable, you never know what they might do next. Since the industrial revolution, 200 years ago, we are bound to the mass production of machinery, technology and other aspect that leads to increase the economy. We are stuck in a circle, which in this documentary is referred as progress trap. If we don’t break the record, than we will destroy the Earth. We as a civilized society need to take action and preserve our natural resources and our home.
This clip from Surviving Progress shows Robert Wright explaining that now people have a sort of “unified social brain” which keeps us thinking all the same way, and that we will need a different education on our current global situation. Wright explains that we must keep our moral perspective in mind should we want to better our environmental situation.
This link is the director Mathieu Roy, giving us an insight on the documentary Surviving Process as well as telling us thee theme that are displayed in the documentary.
This is the trailer of Surviving Progress.
Nature Is Not Mute; It Is Man Who Is Deaf
As one awakens to perceive the inner foundation of one’s own being, our psyches can thus unravel into a higher cognitive space and understand the fundamentals of Oneness, therefore commencing the process of a grand scale earthly change. We all hold the keys to the inner change of oneself; it is the choice of the individual to decide if they wish to open the doors to the grandness of All. Change is not painful; solely the resistance to change is painful, thus underlying the reason why our society today is living in such an inharmonious way. The format of a culture in which we currently inhabit is subject to monetary indoctrination and ongoing reiteration all deliberately set in place by tarnished governments and corrupted institutes to dumb down the population in order to obtain full control of power. Our minds are sorrowfully being transformed for the worst, absorbing misleading information and intoxicating our psyches with endless negativity to become accustomed to this reality we live in. The slow eradication of all forms of inner awareness and spiritual guidance towards Oneness is the unique goal of these malefactors. With the key to being able to manipulate the mentality of its society through the control of the monetary world, we remain puppets to these highly besmirched individuals, here uniquely to serve their needs at all extensive costs. Our wholesomeness, and the one of our marvelous mother earth is subdued and eliminated from their wealth and power frenzy psyches, thus endangering our very existence. Our ignorance has made us gullible, and perfect subjects to these experiments conducted by our so-called elite.
By relighting our spiritual connections, our minds can therefore be the source of outstanding creations and brilliant innovations. Our acts as an aware being have much more profound and rewarding repercussions to all and to ourselves. This occurrence is what is being demonstrated to us, through the enlightenment of this family. Colin Beavan becomes engrossed with a profound curiosity that strikes the most overwhelming senses within his being, and he consequently decides to raise the awareness to all about our societies wrongdoings regarding our destructive consuming habits. With the aid of his wife and child, he engages in a yearlong experimental project that entices them to become conscious through the reduction of earthly harmful emissions, the destructive impact an individual can have upon our earth. Many become aware of his actions, some become perplexed and disturbed and others take a stance of admiration and begin to participate in their own way in taking positive measures for the environment. His actions are the beginning of a new mind-awareness revolution; one that ignites a further understanding of what one can truly do if change is what we, as a society and as an individual, desire.
The earth is our mother, and as we allow our ignorance to take over, we give permission to our devastating corporate leaders to demolish our mother. She’s One that we must care for grandly, and grasp a deeper aware conscious of, for if we do not stand for ourselves and the respect of our earth, we will fade away with time, simply labeled as an experiment that was unsuccessful. Progress is through the spiritual awakening of a being, not the monetary advancement of a perishing system. This is vividly expressed in the eye opening documentary of "surviving progress", underlining what our society should be aware of in our everyday actions.
I AM
We have geographically mapped the depths of the ocean and analyzed the heart of the atom, we have been to the moon and travel across the world, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions stream together. The universe is always speaking to us, sending us little messages, causing flukes and coincidences, reminding us to breathe, to stop, to look around and inside of our beings, to believe in something else, something more.
Great blog entry! I liked how you said "The film No Impact Man takes a look at how one can help the environment, not himself. " I think this is a really important idea throughout Colin's so called 'project' and proves that he really was in this to try and make a difference in his community, not only in his family. I, personally, was really inspired by his project and feel that if he could go to such lengths, in New York City, of all cities, to protect the environment, we can do a little bit better in how we treat our planet Earth.
ReplyDeleteLaura Cloutier
I am extremely impressed with this blog post. To all members of this team: keep up the good work! The summary of No Impact Man was very thorough, touching on some of the radical actions the Beaven family took. The one thing I did notice, however, was that much of the summary information was presented twice. It was not necessarily a bad thing, as the repetition could be seen as clarifications to the initial summary. In any case, both summaries were clear and interesting. I also particularly liked the discussion of “One vs. The Collectivity” because the links made between the theory and the film were very strong. Colin Beaven’s selflessness is evidently shown through his project because he is taking into account society as a whole. With this in mind, Colin rightfully merits the title you have given him: a hero. Living in a consumer world, society has created a need for us to always want more. But how essential are these things really? This documentary put things into a shocking perspective and ultimately conveyed that people can live without much of the stuff they are convinced they cannot go without.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen and studied Surviving Progress myself, I know that many of the points you make are valid ones. For example, you mention that the behavioral scientists found that the fundamental difference between the human brain and that of the chimpanzee is our capability to incessantly ask “why?” It is in our nature to search for answers, and as a result, our world has exponentially progressed since the primate era. Despite this, the documentary shows that our brains have always really been the same. It displays the consequences of running modern software on the ancient hardware of a primate brain that has not changed much in 50,000 years. It might have also been interesting to mention the experiment done with the child. When given a flat surface block, he is able to stand it upright; however, when this same block has a slanted surface, he maneuvers it until he finds a flat face to keep it from falling over. It is the clearest example that from a young age, we seek answers to a problem, and that we will stop at nothing until that desire for answers has been satisfied.
Overall, this was a very insightful post. My absolute favorite line was “change is not painful; the resistance to change is painful”. There is so much truth to this. Nobody is willing to change their ways because they become accustomed to needing/wanting things. I do feel that the concept of a “progress trap” could have been elaborated further because it played a huge role in the supplementary screening. When we progress too much, too quickly, advantages are not always reaped. Sometimes, we even find ourselves in a situation that is extremely difficult to reverse. Having David Suzuki and Jane Goodall interviewed attaches an strong influence to the film because they, with all their knowledge, are notorious experts of the environment. There is most definitely a lesson to learn from both them, and if we all cared for our environment the way they do, we would likely have an easier time surviving our own progress.
Leigh Gantman
A very well written and motivational entry. Though, I do believe a few topics we discussed in class could have been included to make it more dynamic.
ReplyDeleteFor example, why do people feel insignificant to change? Why are people afraid of it?
In my opinion, one of the reasons why I believe people shun the idea of change is that people see that lifestyle as a return to an archaic mentality that we previously possessed. They see it as a complete disregard to our technological advances up until this point and a reversion to our primitive ways. I don’t particularly believe this to be true, because I still feel we can consume (a LOT) less, and we are abusing our resources more than the bare minimum of what is needed.
Also, I may be getting into philosophy a bit here, but I believe we have grown to think we’re not connected to the planet anymore, when in fact we still are, just in a different way that isn’t as “natural” or basic. If you think about it, everything we use today has still come from this planet, we just manipulated them in different ways. We are almost like a disease, and this is the way it ought to be, the way evolution works. After all, destruction is a part of this world, and maybe some day it will all begin again.
Awesome work you guys! I really like the fact that you pointed out that “the individual is an organ of society”. Sometimes I feel like there’s no point of acting upon something if no one else will follow suit. Nonetheless, we are all “organs” and if we work together and pitch in, our society can be greatly improved.
ReplyDeleteThis film actually affected me in several ways. At first I was shocked by the intensity and the struggle the Beaven family had to endure. However, after a while of understanding their situation and Colin’s wild ideas, I had what’s known as Staple’s critic response. I felt like I had to take control of my impact on the environment. I would find myself pointing out ways that could help the environment without even noticing, as if it was natural. I personally believe that our society should reach a point where we have a minimal impact on the world and it will one day be seen as something normal and attainable.
This documentary actually reminded me of Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock which followed the life of a man who ate McDonalds daily- breakfast, lunch and super. These two films are similar due to the fact that both men experienced something so drastic to perhaps question the actions of society. In Super Size Me, we see the horrible affects that lead to, spread and deteriorate the lives of the obese population.
Overall, if one person can change the life of another one, hopefully a domino affect will take place and we can change the world for the better.
Zach Pilling
An excellent entry! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I can see that much time and effort was put into the presentability of the blog post. Despite being called crazy by many, it's incredible that this family managed to continue on with this extraordinary challenge and completed the full year.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Aileen that people shun the idea of change because they see it as a return to an archaic mentality. Although I don't agree with this mindset and way of thinking, I can understand why those who do, do. I also strongly agree that we are consuming a lot too much and in turn, abusing our ressources.
Personally, I try to pull my weight. I put extra attention to focusing on never leaving litter in nature, always recycling when I can, and other small gestures. I also inform friends to clean up their garbage if we're hanging out outside and they litter. Some day, I would LOVE to do an experiment similar to that shown in the film and attempt to live as this family did.
Hugo Cornellier
Great blog entry, I really enjoyed the small clips attached, specifically Mathieu Roy’s video, explaining his documentary. It’s convinced me to watch Surviving Progress. The summaries of No Impact Man and Surviving Progress were very thorough yet at times repetitive. Either way, they were clear and insightful. The quotes included were very profound, but my favourite by far was: “The totality (the fullness) of man is not in the separate member, but in the body of society as a whole.” This completely encompasses the message Colin and his wife are trying to get across to the world. It’s important that people think globally about the choices they make because it effects more than then themselves. This documentary really inspired me to make a change. It moved me to change my eating habits and to recycle everything! I think these types of documentaries are important for everyone to watch because even if you’re not going to change drastically, you will still finish the documentary wanting to make at least one positive change.
ReplyDeleteErin Brown
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was very well set up and it contained many great visuals. This is a very interesting topic on its own but as a team your blog was able to pull in my attention even more. "The earth is our mother, and as we allow our ignorance to take over, we give permission to our devastating corporate leaders to demolish our mother. " I believe this is a great point in your blog and it is very true that we often shut of our minds to what is really happening. No Impact Man shows us an extreme case of how we can help and evidently we are not forced to go to the same level but it shows us that as an individual we have the ability to make a difference. This was my favorite documentary and I believe you guys did a good job of interpreting it.
ReplyDeleteNathalie Pearsall
Great job to the whole team, both films were very well summarized and you guys fit in the class discussions very nicely. It’s true that what the Beavan family did was very hard and we saw them struggle through their year of “clean living”. However, in the end they showed us that many of the things we use or buy in our lives could be very easily replaced for something more earth friendly.
ReplyDeleteI watched Surviving Progress last year and I had a hard time believing that a normal family, in our day in age, would be able to make such a drastic change in their lives, in order to change the environment, and still be able to progress with the rest of the world. Well after having seen No Impact Man, I realized that it was possible. Their year challenge was a proof to me and I’m sure to many others that we can live eco-friendly and still progress in the world.
In the end of the film, the Beavans discuss the things they would keep and the things they would take away from their experience. I think it would be a good idea to try what they did. That way, when it’s over, every house hold could make up their own list of things to keep and things to reject. Consequently, everyone will start living more ecologically, but still progress at their own pace.
Nicholas Salama-Siroishka
First off, I have to say that No Impact Man really surprised me. I honestly didn’t think it was possible to go to such extent in today’s world. I think it is admirable what Colin did, but I’m even more impressed by his wife; for Colin, it is easier since he believes so strongly on what he’s doing. Michelle did it, not driven by a desire to become better (although she thought it was a good idea, it wasn’t hers) but mostly by love for Colin. She had a hard time doing it, she cheated a couple times, but I think she had a lot of courage to keep it up anyways. A personal criticism is the title of the project: No Impact Man. I think it is selfish of Colin to just include himself there; not only did he live it, but also his wife and their daughter. It should have been ‘No Impact Family’ or something like that, just show recognition of the collective effort of the whole family. Something that could be added to the blog entry would be the difficulties that the family faced, not just what they achieved, but also how they did it, for example the refrigerator. This family showed us how some things we think we need in life are not necessary. We create by ourselves an artificial need and it’s just by depriving ourselves that we see how unnecessary it was. Overall, good blog entry.
ReplyDeleteStéfanie Pharand
Awesome blog! The Beavan family has done an incredible accomplishment. An entire year without causing any harm whatsoever to the environment. Moreover, they have enhanced their own life style by eating healthier and doing more exercise, hence biking rather than using their car. Furthermore, this project was done in one of the cities most polluting and environmentally harmful in entire the world. Perhaps one family does have a large impact, however if everyone would do the same, we would have both a healthy planet and long living humans. I enjoy watching your videos which are experts demonstrating why we must take care of the Earth.
ReplyDelete- Jason Carrier
This is probably my favorite movie out of all the ones we've seen thus far. It was funny and entertaining and really had me paying attention the whole way through. Honestly, I can't imagine myself leaving all of the fast food, the television and the toilet paper behind. And on top of that, facing the heavy criticism of others trying to put you down. I understand this is more of an experiment than anything else and I can see that their intention was also to spread awareness of the small changes we can all make in our lives to leave smaller footprints on the world. I probably wouldn't try this because of the family I live with, but I can really see more people making many changes very similar to how Colin did with his family. Good blog.
ReplyDelete-Amol Bhardwaj
This entry was very well written, you guys did an amazing job! This documentary is one of my favorites, also. The mix of genres in it made it more interesting to me. I found myself sympathizing with Collin and especially Michelle; watching them drastically change their lives and sticking to it no matter what made me cringe because i don't think i would be strong enough to do the same. I think what made this film so good and actually made people want to start changing their lives too is that, after seeing them go this far, it makes us realize that we can help make a change with small actions that wont kill us. Kudos to the Beavan family! I also liked the links you guys put of for the second film, i found them very interesting!
ReplyDeleteDaphne Goudreau
Good job guys. No impact man was definitely one of my favorites too just because I love people who really care about their environment and try to make changes to make it better. From my opinion, Collin and Michelle made a huge impact about how life should be lived in this world but the reason why no one follows is because the society that we live in is to lazy to make dramatic changes. Everyone revolves around technology and some people wouldn't be able to change just because it has a such a huge effect on their lives and it has evolved so much. I see kids at 10 years old with Iphones. If this is the norm these days, what will it be in the next ten years?
ReplyDeleteI know that I'm talking a lot about technology but it's because it has evolved so much that it has changed people's mentality. Society doesn't want to make changes because some people don't understand how it has such a hug impact on other people's lives in the future. Think of it this way; when we had little technology, people would work very hard to survive. These days, technology is almost limiting a lot of those things for humans. What would happen in our world in the next century when technology takes over? Would we need to do anything or will technology take care of it? In conclusion, this documentary makes people realize how much we have evolved and need to go back to the basics to help our environment.
Weslé Aucoin
In, No Impact Man, Collin Beavan's family is trying to show us that it is possible as individuals to change and be more environmental friendly. Yes Collin might exaggerated by cutting down electricity, which in our days is consider essential. However Collin just want to make a statement, show us that we as individuals have power to change ourselves the world we live in. And maybe if we just start to reduce our consumerism life, and start helping to make a world a better place, then you might influence other people, and it would do a chain reaction, and as a collective mind set, we can make a difference.
ReplyDelete-Cynthia de Villers-Riel
A very good entry! Both films were summarized nicely and you analysis/conclusion was absolutely fantastic! I found that this and past weeks themes, those of environmentalism and what people do to help, very interesting. When I was young, I would go up to my cottage every weekend and all summer long and my brother and I would run around in the woods all the time. Now, living in the city, I really miss that feeling of being close to nature, and I find that this feeling of disconnection from the earth was emphasized in your analysis. I find it unfortunate that this has happened and that the Beavan family are role models and heroes for all of us. However, I doubt that everyone would be willing to take such drastic action, but at least some could be inspired and take steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
ReplyDeleteSebastien Belliveau
Nicely written entry! It’s a real loss that society is disconnected from nature. We’re becoming increasingly accustomed and dependent to our comfortable city homes with hours of leisure time every day that it seems to be difficult to let go. During the day, city life is extremely fast paced. But afterwards, the evenings are usually slow and lazy. We don’t bother to put any extra effort to hand wash clothes, or clean and re-use containers. Instead, we dispose of everything we’re done using and we dump our clothes into a washing machine, throw in some detergent and forget about the rest. Then we sit in front of a computer or TV where we’ll be exposed to ads inciting us to go out and buy new things again.
ReplyDeleteIt was written that change is not painful, but the resistance of change is. Colin Beavan and his family demonstrate this excellently. Sure they faced some difficulties, but they were short lived. Once they got past it, they found life without disposability and without TV to be enjoyable. They had time to spend with each other and they spent it outside. There were also health benefits because of the increase in physical activity and the healthier diet. It’s time we take responsibility for what we buy, how we use it and how we get rid of it.
-Chris Wegrzyn
Im really impressed by the way this blog is structured, it is clear, organized and easy to read. No Impact Man was fun and interesting to watch, the family was devoted to the project which was the idea of the father even if it was difficult for the family to give up some things in their lives, we see they became closer as a family. i know it would be hard for me to give up electricity, transportation etc...i try to stay close to nature, i try to recycle and i grow flowers and vegetables! Though i dont think many people are able to take big steps like what the family took but we should take into account some things they did like: the warm bucket, eating local food, planting more vegetables etc.. or trying to find other ways around then taking transportion that uses gas.
ReplyDelete-Coralie Dowd
First off, good job on making such a detailed and thorough blog on such great films. No Impact Man was such a fascinating story, especially because they lived in New York City. To be able to slowly cut yourself off of so many things in the big apple at the very beginning seemed impossible. The Beaven’s are courageous to embark on such a grand project, but it is even greater that they were successful and made so much progress physically, emotionally, financially and consumption wise. Although their project was based on reducing waste and pollution, I really enjoyed watching the family slowly unite and become closer with the earth and their friends. A utopia, in my opinion, revolves around our social environment, because of this project they have time for friends and family without the disturbance of technology or electricity. Being able to have fun with just people and our creative minds we can do so much, which is a utopia I would want to live in. Your conclusion was really well written, and it’s all true. Humanity has done some wonderful things, but we are incapable of seeing what is right in front of our faces.
ReplyDelete-Madalena Valiante
Very interesting blog entry! You guys did a great job a summarizing both films and presenting the main ideas and then relating them to the class topics. You really went into detail about how man as a whole has achieved some unbelievable tasks. Although I have to disagree about the statement you made in the 5th paragraph where you said that Colin made the film to benefit the environment rather than himself. I say this because he did benefit from this film in many ways such as increased interest in his book that he published after the film. Although what he did is still honourable and because it makes us more aware of how easily we can change ourselves just like he did. I for one was already interested in changing certain things in my family's daily lives to be more eco-friendly and I saw this film as a "how to" type of video. As for the analysis of the second film you went into great detail and asked a lot of interesting question that got me thinking a lot about our society and how we treat the world we live in and those around us.
ReplyDelete-Daniel Furlong
I really like how they mentioned their task was especially difficult since they live in New York, because I didn’t realize and forgot that this is a city that “thrives on industry, shopping, and restaurants.” I also really enjoyed the explanation of “The totality (the fullness) of man is not in the separate member, but in the body of society as a whole” because I think it was a straightforward and great interpretation of the quote. Another thing I liked about this blog was that they included a lot of videos, and as I mentioned on a previous blog, videos personally grab my attention more than reading paragraphs so I really enjoyed watching the posted videos since it makes it easier and more fun to understand the blog. Overall, this was a very insightful post and I am impressed. To all members of this team: keep up the good work! My favorite part was the interpretation of “The totality (the fullness) of man is not in the separate member, but in the body of society as a whole” since they explained it beautifully and I also personally like the whole idea of that saying. The summary of No Impact Man was also very detailed and thorough.
ReplyDeleteBrent Rosenstein
In no impact man, following the life of Colin Beaven, we clearly see the struggle of a man trying to change the world. After watching this documentary it reminded me of a film I once viewed called revolution. This film was about a man who was trying to discover the negative affects upon the sharks in the ocean. The director tried to find a reason for the problematic situation for the sharks. He would travel the world and visit numerous schools about the present climate change of the world and tried to get his point across these films closely relate to each other for the fact that one man is trying to change the world on his own in a drastic way.
ReplyDeleteAlexandra Campbell
At first glance I must say I really liked the way you guys formated your blog entry, its very easy on the eyes. I enjoyed your blog on the films you covered. However one thing that I I would have liked for your team to include was why the Beavan family received so much criticisms, I do membered some of that being discussed in class and was surprised it was not included in the blog entry. Other than that I must say I was satisfied with your entry.
ReplyDelete-Eric B.
At first glance I must say I really liked the way you guys formated your blog entry, its very easy on the eyes. I enjoyed your blog on the films you covered. However one thing that I I would have liked for your team to include was why the Beavan family received so much criticisms, I do membered some of that being discussed in class and was surprised it was not included in the blog entry. Other than that I must say I was satisfied with your entry.
ReplyDelete-Eric B.
Great blog entry! The analysis of the Man’s reasoning about nature was beyond well written. It is true that we often knowingly tend to forget about our simplest actions by concentrating on extraordinary achievements, which won’t result in any further advancement of our sustainable development. Indeed, we further our well being through technology, at nature’s expense. Taking action in a way that would result in further progress, as the modern Man now defines it, of our society, must begin with insuring that we can sustain such improvement. We are on a path of destruction and without correcting our aim; we will lose all we have worked for.
ReplyDeleteGabriel Jalbert-Murray
Very nicely phrased blog entry, I thought that the links and videos provided really added to the reading experience of your blog and helped shed some light on the topic at hand. I also found the titles very effective in getting across the impact of your blog entry! I also have seen many environmental movies about taking action and how every action eventually will make a difference, after watching these movies i would leave feeling inspired and end up forgetting about it shortly after, however I think this blog entry really embodies the whole essence of trasforming ones way of living to be "eco-friendly"
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog
Steven Caine