Info, news & debate
Year: 2016
Artists against TTIP, and how the new ICS differs from ISDS (spoiler – not much)
‘Corporate interests have got to stop coming first’ – well said, Juliet Stevenson. A group of artists including actors Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott and Juliet Stevenson and designer Vivienne Westwood are fronting a campaign (artistsagainstttip.org) to raise public awareness of the trade deal TTIP
Is it a good idea to recruit (in N America and Europe) for sustainable living apprenticeships in Peru?
We’ve just been approached by someone running ‘sustainable living apprenticeships’ in Peru, asking if there’s anywhere to promote them on our site. This sort of thing happens all the time, by the way – yoga retreats in India, conferences in Malaysia, meditation on Greek islands etc.
It’s time to repair greenhouses and cold frames: glass cutting advice
It’s that time of year when thoughts have already turned to the vegetable patch and raising seedlings. This is where the glasshouse and cold frame make a huge difference to getting those plants going.
Can you adopt a natural builder for 3 nights in exchange for a free VIP ticket to Ecobuild?
Ecobuild is a three-day natural building exhibition at the Excel Centre in London from the 8th to the 10th of March. Ecobuild is the leading UK exhibition and conference for the construction and energy market
Fly away: reflections on Westerners abroad
Fly away, plug in to your chosen third world metropolis with the arrogant urgency that accompanies our civilisation, departure lounge to lounge, no sense of progression or gradual change necessary within this flying tube.
Mutualism: a philosophy for changing society with a difference – it’s implementable
There are lots of ideas for changing the world – from voting to demonstrations, petitions, lifestyle change, incremental change, revolutionary change, or more of the same, only harder. The problem with many of them is that they are either ineffective or not implementable.
‘Trade Secrets’ legislation: another little piece of the corporate takeover that most people won’t know about
EU Trade Secrets legislation will criminalise whistleblowers and journalists who expose corporations and their products or services. It’s another in a long list of steps aiming to put corporations above the law, but the rest of us very much under it.
Strange but true: energy efficiency actually increases overall energy use
In the 1960 film School for Scoundrels, which is based on the Stephen Potter “Gamesmanship” books, there is a scene where Ian Carmichael (formerly one of life’s failures) is playing tennis with Terry Thomas. Carmichael has just finished a course in lifemanship
What’s the relative value of the world’s gold, Bitcoins, banknotes, derivatives, stocks & shares, property etc. See this incredible visualisation
Do you have any idea of the value of all the Bitcoins in the world, compared to, say, the value of all the silver in the world, or compared to the wealth of Warren Buffet, or compared to the amount of global debt etc.?
Read this German MP’s account of the TTIP reading room and decide what you think about TTIP ‘transparency’
So, you all know about TTIP? Here’s a link if you don’t, plus see the posts to the right. It’s a proposed ‘trade deal’ that is designed to give more of our economy to the corporate sector. It’s supposed to be ‘transparent’, but of course it’s completely secret.
Why cement should never be used with natural buildings
I am often asked to help with other people’s designs, but one of my principles is never to design with cement. Not everyone knows this about me, and I was recently asked what my general experience was with stem walls made of concrete
Custard creams and the ‘network of global corporate control’
I bought a packet of custard creams the other day, and saw that they were made by a company called Crawfords. I wondered who Crawfords were and who ultimately owns custard creams. I have a general feeling that a small cartel of giant corporations owns more-or-less everything branded
Viable self-sufficiency
Back 40 years ago in 1976, John Seymour’s most famous work –The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency – was published. It was billed as for dreamers and realists which was pretty accurate.
Where does money come from? A bit of history
Here’s a story. Only a minority understand this story (although I think that minority is growing), which is surprising because it has enormous importance for the way the world works.
Win a copy of our partner Sally Morgan’s great new book, ‘Living on One Acre or Less’
This is a new book by our partner Sally Morgan of Empire Farm. It’s a comprehensive guide to starting and running your own micro-smallholding.
NHS Chief Executive was a founder member of an organisation lobbying for health to be included in TTIP
Just allow a few seconds for that to sink in. Simon Stevens was Vice President of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the US. He was in charge of global expansion of their business. Now he’s Chief Executive of the NHS.
The discipline of economics presupposes corporate capitalism and perpetual growth, which renders it invalid
Economics is not an unbiased academic discipline, it’s an ideology. Furthermore, economics is based on the false premise that perpetual growth is achievable. It is not, and the reason most people can’t see this is
One planet people – one-month internships available at Lammas Ecovillage
As a new generation of aspiring land stewards, we wish to minimise dependence on fossil fuels whilst learning to meet our basic needs of food, shelter, energy and livelihood, from the land. This has been entirely possible for millennia. However, in a 21st century
Nationalising assets does not mean that ‘we’ then own them. Let’s hold things ‘in common’ instead
Nationalising something doesn’t then mean that it’s owned by ‘the people’ – i.e. by us. That would only be true if states weren’t controlled by the corporate sector.
New, cheap tap fitting that does seem to save water without causing flow problems
I was sent a ‘Waterblade’ by Nigel – it fitted onto our bathroom tap easily, and the reason it causes no problems is that it spreads the water out into a thin sheet that actually makes it easier to wash your hands, for example, rather than more difficult.