ABC Again Touts Toilet Paper-shunning Environmentalist; Downplays Liberalism
On Thursday’s Good Morning America, for the third time in
two
years, Sam Champion interviewed an extreme environmentalist who shunned
toilet paper for a year as part of a project to be carbon neutral. Colin Beavan,
also known as "No Impact Man," appeared on the show to promote a new documentary
and book on his experience. This time, however, Champion downplayed the bizarre
elements of Beavan’s life.
The host made no mention of the fact that, in addition to not using amenities
such as elevators, cars and electricity, Beavan also stopped partaking in the
practice of using toilet paper. (This aspect was noted on
ABCNews.com.) Champion
did refer to the project as a "year-long experiment in living extreme
green."
But, the ABC weatherman skipped any discussion of the
left-wing nature of Beavan's life. The full title of the environmentalist’s
book
is "No Impact Man:
The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to
Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life
in the Process." [Emphasis added] (The book title did appear briefly as an
on-screen graphic.)
If Beavan isn’t trying to hid his liberalism, why is Champion? After the ABC
personality vaguely invited the environmental activist to give him "three tips,"
he didn’t say on what, Beavan suggested, "
And take a day of rest. Don't buy
anything. Don't turn anything on and rest." Is this socialism or
environmentalism? Or both?
Beavan also requested, "...For your own health, eat less beef. Beef happens
to cause- Beef production causes more global warming than anything else." During
the segment, he wore a shirt touting a
website that fights climate change.
On the May 10, 2007, co-host
Diane Sawyer attempted to delicately
explain Beavan's process of going to the bathroom without toilet paper:
DIANE SAWYER: Now, I know everybody wants to know what you do instead of toilet
paper. I'm not going to tell them. I’m going to let them go online and search
this out for themselves. Let me just say it’s the Bedouin solution. If you don’t
know what that is, you’re on your own out there.
On February 5, 2009, Champion profiled another
extreme
environmentalist, one who decided to live in his own filth for a year.
A transcript of the September 3 segment, which aired at 8:50am EDT, follows:
SAM CHAMPION: Take a moment to imagine raising your family, maybe it's a
toddler, in a very big city, without any electricity, without a car, without
television, which is impossible. And without buying anything new, but food, for
a year. Well, Colin Beavan did it. And he lived to write about it in a book
called No Impact Man. There's going to be a documentary coming out. There’s
going to be a film coming out. No Impact Man the documentary is out September
11th. He joins us now to talk about his year-long experiment in living
extreme green, we say. Colin, first of all, so nice to see you.
ABC GRAPHIC: No Impact Man: Life After a Year Off the Grid
COLIN BEAVAN: It’s nice to see you, sir.
CHAMPION: And thank you for, you know, showing us what you were going to do
before you did it. And now, it seems like it's been, you know, - I know it's
been a tough time for you. What was the idea behind the project?
BEAVAN: Well, in 2006, the news was coming out about global warming. And I
was becoming aware of it for the first time. And I didn't feel as though the
government was doing anything about it. I didn't feel as though big business was
doing anything about it. And I thought, maybe in some small way, we as
individuals are going to have to do something about it. And I thought, if I
personally try to do something, and I wrote a book and publicized it, maybe we
would attract more attention to this crucial issue.
CHAMPION: It was- I remember the first time we sat and talked about what your
plan was. And you had a family. I mean, your wife, Michelle, is involved in
this. Your little daughter, Isabella, who was then two, now four and a half. As,
as- For them, what was the toughest thing they had to adjust to?
BEAVAN: For Isabella, it wasn't tough at all. I mean, like, we were going up
and down the stairs because we weren’t using the elevator.
CHAMPION: Nine floors, by the way.
BEAVAN: Yeah, that’s right. And she'd be riding our shoulders. Or for
example, like, everybody thinks it's going to be tough. But, for example, in the
summer, on the hot days, instead of turning on the air conditioning on and
huddling in the apartment by ourselves, what we would do is we would go to the
local fountain and hang out with our neighbors and be social. And Isabella would
run in the fountain. The fact of the matter is, if we consume a lot less, if we
consume a lot less, we may discover there's another, happier life that’s
available to us.
CHAMPION: And we know the documentary is coming out. We’ve got the book right
here. The book the green printed, by the way. Tell me- I know, you, you probably
forced that issue. So, what did you have to do to get that done?
BEAVAN: Well, actually, Farrar, Straus and Giroux was very onboard from the
beginning. So, I didn't have to force them. But, they had to do different
research into- maybe you would use bamboo or something. All this different
research to find out what the best way was. And it turned out to use 100 percent
post-consumer recycled paper was the best way to produce this book. And the nice
thing is every time a publisher publishes a book this way, it's one step closer
to the whole industry publishing like that.
CHAMPION: Moving in that direction. Before we got to go and we’ve got just a
few seconds. Give us just three tips for everybody else. Because you've come now
into this at a cycle where America really wants to cut back and do things less
expensively. And this can work for that, as well. So, give me three
tips.
BEAVAN: Okay, so first of all, I should tell you we have lots of tips at
Noimpactproject.org.
CHAMPION: Right.
BEAVAN: But the three tips are, first of all, for your own health, eat less
beef. Beef happens to cause- Beef production causes more global warming than
anything else.
CHAMPION: Hang on. Give me two more quick and then we gotta go. Because we
are already-
BEAVAN: No bottled water.
CHAMPION: Right.
BEAVAN: And take a day of rest. Don't buy anything. Don't turn anything on
and rest.
CHAMPION: Away from purchasing.
—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.