Less Impact Men.

It's been a big week for the environment, with Earth Hour last weekend, the International Panel on Climate Change releasing its latest report and policy summary, and the International Court of Justice ruling in Australia's favour and ordering that the Japanese Government cease its scientific whaling scheme because it breached the International Convention for the Regulation on Whaling by not being carried out for a scientific purpose (summary here). I've been recently writing ICJ case summaries for the online resource A38, and in particular environmental cases like the Case concerning pulp mills on River Uruguay and the Case concerning the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project. To me, the ICJ has always been reluctant to make major findings against countries, so this is the first time in the environmental context that it has so emphatically declared and ordered injunctions against a country. It's so invigorating to see such outcomes!*

Given this, I thought I'd begin doing my own bit for the environment, starting with publishing this post on No Impact Man, the documentary I watched recently at the Social Change Film Festival. This documentary follows one year in the life Colin Beavan and his young family as they try to lead a carbon neutral life in New York City. Each month they alter something out of their lives to reduce their carbon pollution - transportation, food, electricity, cleaning products.

Like Money & Life, the other documentary I watched at the festival, it was pretty inspiring seeing Colin (and especially his hesitant wife, Michelle) challenge themselves and adapt to a better way of living. They persevered in the spirit of 'let's just give it a go', and if certain things did not work out (like replacing their fridge with a naturally cooling, sand-lined pot), then they could go back. Unsurprisingly, despite some resistance from his wife at first, she enjoyed so many of the changes over the year that what started as an experiment became a lasting way of life.

It's in this way that the documentary was better than Money & Life - it took us on an emotional journey with the Beavans as they experienced change, showing us how we ourselves can push our boundaries for the better. And, thanks to Michelle, the film's secret weapon, this film was hilariously entertaining and deceptively moving. While I laughed at her initial troubles giving up coffee, television and electricity, I was moved by her commitment to her family, her willingness to get healthier and learn to cook, and her struggles with pregnancy.
She was the magical character that made the Thai audience in the cinema laugh uproariously at all her wry observations, like 'I want to be a vegetarian, but I want to have a hot dog now and then. I would be a vegehogian ... or a vegedogian.' Don't we all? While Colin might have provided the intellectual drive for the project, Michelle provided the heart and soul for the audience. Like Money & Life before it, there is something so special about seeing something at the cinema with a receptive audience - it's such a communal, affirming experience.

But the documentary asks for than just the audience enjoying their time at the cinema. It wants everyone to try to do something, to bust out and discover something new, something closer to their roots as carbon beings on this planet. Colin Beavan suggests volunteering at an environmental organisation, because collective action is what is needed. But even if you can't do that or change their whole lives, I think just starting to do something counts. Who knows where it will end up?

So in this vein, I'm trying too. It's pretty hard to have a no impact lifestyle in Bangkok, where the environmental options are nowhere near as diverse as New York City. My partner and I, as 'less impact men', have already refrained from buying new, lighter clothes to fit the steamy Bangkok weather. Neither of us drive, but we do catch taxis, so we'll try to reduce that. And I'm only taking 3 minutes showers, and reusing milk and wine bottles for various purposes. But I need to do more, so my first priority is to learn more about being carbon neutral in Bangkok. Watch this space!

* Part of my excitement is that AGS was involved in the case, and I personally knew some of the lawyers who worked so hard on this. Congrats to them. Then there is also the string of positive news from our own High Court - taking on a case challenging offshore processing in Manus Island and recognising that a person's sex can be non-specific. Sometimes, the law can make a difference!