Fair Trade Man Becomes Low Carbon Man - Moves Into a Car Park
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA 
on 02.11.08
Fair Trade Man, aka Ben Clowney, hit the headlines last year by eating nothing but fair trade products for two weeks. Such efforts should not be confused with Mr Clowney’s fellow Brit Ethical Man and his explorations of composting his own corpse, nor New York-based No Impact Man and his efforts to live without toilet paper. However, such confusion may be inevitable as we have just heard that Clowney is taking on a new persona, namely that of Low Carbon Man. It seems that such super-hero alter egos are part of Mr Clowney’s job as campaigns manager for Tearfund, a Christian aid organization that is this year calling on people to hold a carbon fast for lent. While such a campaign is certainly admirable, given the looming threat of climate change, some commenters on The Guardian’s website have questioned Low Carbon Man’s methodology in drawing attention to the struggle.
The problem is that in an effort to reduce his carbon footprint by 95% for the fast, Clowney will be living in a tent in the car park of his offices and canoeing to the shops. He will also be relying on wind up electronics for much of his communication needs. Apparently the biggest challenge will be persuading his girlfriend that “eating cabbage in the freezing cold outside a tent is a nice way to spend Valentine's evening.” It seems that some people feel that such low tech, primitive efforts are counterproductive, playing into the hands of those who see environmentalists as wanting to abandon the comforts of modern civilization. As one commenter, calling themselves Mmmmmf, put it:
“I have to say that this kind of dumb posturing narcissistic nonsense gets right on my wick. If you can live in a regular house for a week, going off and doing a regular job and still use zero carbon, then you could genuinely say that something valuable could be demonstrated. All this will say to Joe Public is that if you want to address your carbon footprint you have to live in a tent, which is about as counter-productive message as you could wish to put across.
We tend to take a more charitable view. Just as Clowney’s previous efforts did not suggest that everyone should live off chocolate and bananas for the rest of their lives, his current escapades are not intended as a blueprint for us all to follow. They are simply a way to draw attention to the campaign, and to illustrate just how carbon intensive many aspects of modern life we rely on really are. The very fact that we are blogging about this now and that people are debating it in The Guardian and elsewhere suggests that he has already succeeded. ::Tearfund::via The Guardian::
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Eat a Vegetarian Diet, Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by a Ton
- Take it from a Beatle: Cut Your Carbon Footprint by Making Mondays Meat-Free
- 6 Sinful Summer Street Foods, 6 Deliciously Green Alternatives
- Why Do Some States Have Significantly Lower Carbon Emissions Than Others?
- Trust Stella McCartney: Meat-Free Mondays are Hip, not Hippie!
- Found Flowers: The Perfect Eco-Alternative to Cut-Flowers
Excuse me - "cabbage"? It's maybe the dumbest idea for both reducing one's carbon footprint AND a VDay candlelight romancey dinner with your sweetie.
One word: flatulence.
I agree that this is mostly silly. I could go on a backpacking trip for a month and create essentially zero carbon emissions. But I don't think I could even do my job without creating a fairly decent amount of carbon emissions. If I can't do my job I can't eat and live. Two I feel are important to me :)
Well good for him, but I agree that this is counterproductive to an extent. Mr. Clowney may make green-leaning people think about some things, but I am very much inclined to think that if the average Joe sees this, they'll just think he's a kook and will think less of people who care about the environment. Regular people are not ready to give up such normal activities like living in homes and commuting to work and would sooner tune out than consider Mr. Clowney's true motives.
Mr. Clowney, if you have a girlfriend who will eat cabbage with you on Valentine's Day and still talk to you a few days later, marry her fast!
While this is extreme, it is great he is highlighting a cause. Wonderful role model
so what did this guy do with his house/apartment while he camped in a parking lot? Camping in a parking lot and eating organic does not deserve this kind of publicity
What a joke. People like this make Colin Beaven (No Impact Man) seem less important. Colin lived a year in the spotlight with a daily blog to help show the problem, and hundreds of pieces of the solutions through easy steps that can be taken now, as well as philosophy to make us truely think about consumption. Let's not just create a persona to get in the news.
if calling attention to yourself without much thought behind it makes a quote-unquote: 'wonderful role model," i guess Brittany isn't as pathetic as the media makes her out to be, right? c'mon, stop calling attention to the problem, and start working on daily, practical solutions to the problem. live your live, zero-carbon-cabbage man, stop grandstanding.