While I am not up to date with the way a person living in the 19th Century in New York City would experience day-to-day existence, I am extremely with the way a person living in a ldquo;large town rdquo; in the Wild West in the latter part of said century would live. Trust me, it is far different from the outrageous reality manufactured and being lived by environmentalist Colin Beavan, who claims to be a writer of historical non-fiction. Beavan and his significant other, Michelle Conlin, are living their own version of Walden Pond according to a recent profile of the couple.

Surprise, there s a book involved, the premise of which is to live a 19th Century no-impact life for one year.

Part of their theory of 19th Century life is to consume only products produced within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan, just like the folks in Manhattan supposedly did over a century ago. The problem is there is no actual historical reality to the way the couple is living.

Beavan, author of a book about D-Day and one on forensics, is a fish-out-of-water when it comes to the 19th century lifestyle, unless he is trying to live like someone in 19th century B.C.

First the couple, with their obvious income, would not be living where they are, but in a row house.

Secondly, their two-year-old child would probably already be potty-trained and not wearing environmentally correct diapers; she would be in cloth diapers. Unless her parents were tenement dwellers, they would have gas-lights, a gas stove, running water, and perhaps even electric lights. Their baby would be properly dressed and not reeking of dirty diaper odor.

They would have a nanny for her. Because her daddy was a writer, her mommy would not be working outside the house and would have a rather prominent social position. Finally, because N.

Y.C. was such a metropolitan area, they would have had access to international products.

ldquo;Since November, Mr. Beavan and Isabella have been hewing closely, most particularly in a dietary way, to a 19th-century life. rdquo; What did people in the 19th century Manhattan eat?

Considering the fact that New York City was cosmopolitan with a seaport, the average person who wasn rsquo;t living an impoverished and rather depraved life, as exemplified by Mr. Beavan, would probably eat much better than those of us living in Lincoln County, New Mexico today.

The couple has given up coffee.

had access to coffee, no matter who or where. Even the most impoverished homesteader living an existence that Beavan seems to be embracing would have coffee, basic spices like cinnamon, paprika, nutmeg, chili, dill, oregano, basil, pepper, salt, and perhaps even a few more exotic spices from India since they were all the rage. Because Indian spices were all the rage, and mentioned in all the leading magazines of the era, everyone would try using them.

How do I know? I have a copy of my grandmother rsquo;s home economics textbook that was written in 1880. (FYI ndash; she lived in Minneapolis).

There were any number of recipes calling for curry, cumin, cardamom and the like. Read the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books if you want to know how settlers and homesteaders lived. Their lives are nothing like the radical deprivation suggested by Beavan and other environmental activists.

Colin Beavan is a primary example of what is completely wrong with today rsquo;s environmental movement. He has a complete and total lack of historic perspective. His vision of a 19th century, no-impact New York City lifestyle has nothing to do with New York City or anywhere else in the United States in the 19th century unless he is considering life in a slum.

His version of life in the 19th century is like some Dickensian nightmare that exemplified life in the White Chapel area of London where Jack the Ripper ran around unchecked and the only way people could clean the plumbing was by throwing a bucket of slop into the street, much to the peril of those who might be up under it.
It would much behoove today rsquo;s would-be environmental saviors if they would sit down for a moment, take a breath, and have a latte. Then they need to read some unvarnished, unrevised history, not only of the United States, but also of the world.

They might discover, much to their dismay, that the during the height of the Roman Empire was several degrees warmer than it is today, and the temperature of the ldquo;Dark Ages rdquo; was much lower than it is today. They would learn that history is cyclical, as is global temperature.

Defining their existence as getting back to basics, the Beavan lifestyle includes giving up on modern transportation and the luxuries modern transportation brings with it.

They completely ignore the fact that trains have been a part of NYC rsquo;s existence since at least 1830. Today rsquo;s trains are much cleaner than the polluting, wood burning steam engines of that era, but travel by train has an environmental impact, so it has no part in the Beavan lifestyle. There are cars.

Beavan could use a bicycle, but they weren rsquo;t in vogue until the 1880 rsquo;s. By that time there were early automobiles, electric lights, telephones, early washing machines, and any number of household items we take for granted today, including toilet paper and deodorant.

Beavan rsquo;s significant other, Michelle Conlin is now using baking soda for toothpaste.

One wonders about deodorant, soap, and the basics of day-to-day hygiene. This is something every educated person in the United States was very serious about in the 19th Century, especially the post Civil War era, when cleanliness became next to Godliness. She is soon going to be forced to give up cosmetics, even though they were available to women in New York in the 19th Century.

There is no household replacement for toilet paper. Every outhouse in America had some form of toilet paper be it a sponge, corncob (ouch), or Montgomery-Ward catalogue.

What brought all of this no-impact environmental frenzy to the attention of the household?

Al Gore rsquo;s Academy Award winning piece of environmental propaganda, An Inconvenient Truth. Perhaps, before allowing well-meaning people to see it, they should be given some sort of psychological testing. They then need to be forced to read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books that showcase what life in the 19th Century was actually like before they go off and follow some addled, inconvenient lifestyle.

Perhaps they should just chuck it all and go live the Survivor lifestyle for a year. This is what they are asking of themselves and others. It is an impossible demand on modern society.

The worst part of this whole inconvenient propaganda is the fact that people are being sold a very false bill of goods. The only antidote to it is accurate historical perspective and facts. Unfortunately, I don rsquo;t see this occurring any time soon.

Beavan has a book coming out in April. As a writer myself, I am curious as to how he is going to go about signing said books. Is he going to manufacture his own ink and pluck quills from some unsuspecting bird at the Bronx Zoo, or just sharpen a lead pencil with his straight razor?

The whole inconvenient truth of irrational environmental efforts are that those who are doing the preaching do not live by the words they say and write. While devoted disciples like Beavan attempt to accomplish the impossible by living absolutely hygienically, sociologically, and physically deprived lifestyles just to prove the religion preached by their environmental betters is workable, they ignore the obvious.
Rabid environmentalist power brokers like Al Gore live in mansions, are ferried about in chauffer driven SUV gas-hogs, and fly private jets.

Michelle Conlin is riding a self-propelled motor scooter around Manhattan and hiking up nine floors to her apartment. If this lifestyle is not good enough for Al and Tipper, why should Colin and Michelle be forced to live an existence ldquo;civilized humanity rdquo; cast aside several thousand years ago. That is the real inconvenient truth of this whole tale.