The American Spectator

Colin Beavan, the author of “No Impact Man,” which chronicled his yearlong experiment of taking his family off the electricity grid (and from what I hear, toilet paper), has made the rounds this summer at colleges and business forums promoting his book. He recently visited the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, as my former John Locke Foundation colleague Jenna Ashley Robinson explains:

UNCW isn’t the only school using Beavan’s work. The No Impact Project (inspired by the book) offers an environmental education curriculum for middle and high school teachers. Other colleges, including Ohio State, also chose No Impact Man for this summer’s freshman reading. In addition to UNCW, Beavan will be speaking at other universities around the country: Illinois Wesleyan, UT-Austin, Texas State University, Ohio State University, Cleveland State University, OSU-Mansfield, Florida State Jacksonville, and Johnson & Wales in Providence, Rhode Island.

In an interview available on the No Impact blog, Beavan explains his philosophy: “We’re out of balance and out of touch. This has led to a system that is destroying our planet. Perhaps the sadder part is that it is destroying our souls, too.” Beavan’s philosophy differs from that of some environmentalists; he believes that humans come first, but that in order to save ourselves, we must save the planet.

He must be peddling his bike awful hard to reach all the places he’s been lately.