Colin Beavan – the man forgoing electricity, carbon-emitting transportation and toilet paper – was flatteringly featured on ABC’s “Nightline” on May 10. But not once did the program mention his “radical experiment” is done in the name of capitalism.
Beavan is the [1]“No Impact Man.” He, his wife and daughter are striving to have no negative impact on the planet for an entire year by not doing many everyday things like eating out, buying anything in packaging, and using toilet paper.
According to “Nightline’s” Cynthia McFadden, he’s doing it all “to avoid harming the earth.”
Wrong. While Beavan may be concerned with the planet, he’s doing it to write a book, which will ostensibly be printed, bound and shipped around the world. Even if the book is only released electronically it would require power to be used to read it – something Beavan’s family has given up for the year.
“He needed a new book project and the No Impact year was the only one of four possibilities his agent though would sell,” reported The New York Times on March 22.
But not once in the more than nine-minute segment did Sam Champion or McFadden state this important detail.
Similar to the hypocrisy of carbon offsetting, Beavan is not making a lifestyle change. He is supposedly taking a year off from “harming the planet” so his book can be published, which will, by his own definition, harm the planet.
Champion did not ask Beavan if he had a problem with the fact that the “Nightline” segment would be broadcast and consumed around the world thanks to the same electricity he’s going without.
Newsbusters exposed “Good Morning America’s” [2]adoration for Beavan on May 10. Likewise, The New York Times’ [1]glowing profile in March was reported by the Business & Media Institute.