Lords vs commoners: week of action for land rights, April 14-22
Land ownership in Britain is one of the most unequal in the world. This is a call out to groups and individuals all over the country who think the time has come for us to have more control of our land. Read more
Interview with Matthew Slater: what’s mutual credit, how can it boost the Solidarity Economy, and what can we do to help? (plus webinar)
See yesterday’s blog post for an introduction to this article. This is an interview with Matthew Slater, who co-authored the Money & Society MOOC, a free masters level multidisciplinary online course. He co-drafted the Credit Commons white paper, a proposal for a global solidarity economy money system Read more
The next great transition will be to the Solidarity Economy with a mutual credit exchange system
I’ve been working in the environmental field for over 20 years, and I believe, like the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, that we’re headed for ‘biological annihilation’, and like the good folk at the Dark Mountain Project, that a crash is coming that we may or may not recover from Read more
Why much criticism of the Fair Trade movement is invalid – designed to disguise corporate exploitation of small farmers
The Fair Trade movement was set up to secure better prices for struggling small farmers and craft producers in poor countries, and to provide funds for various improvements in their communities. It has, however, come in for some criticism for various reasons. Read more
The potential power of sharing: from Share Shops to Streetbank
In this post Sophie Paterson of Lowimpact.org explores the power of sharing in a growing movement including The Library of Things, Streetbank, Share Shops and more. Read more
£30, credit-card-sized, non-corporate, low-energy computers set up to run Linux; any boxes not ticked there?
These are cheap (£30) mini computers that run Linux and will make a good second computer for children (for example), a media player in another room, or a data server. It might save people buying another laptop and it means you can reuse the peripherals of older PCs (screen, mouse etc). Read more
Resilient networks: building a low-tech internet
A solution to the absence of high-speed wireless networks across some developing countries and increasingly appearing in the form of WiFi based community networks in numerous countries in Europe, building a low-tech internet could have benefits for all. With excerpts from an original Low-tech Magazine article by Kris De Decker, we explore how a less resource-intensive and more energy-efficient… Continue reading Resilient networks: building a low-tech internet Read more
Farm Hack : growing innovative open-source agriculture
In response to the pervasive reach of the global agro-industrial complex, growing numbers of farmers across the world are coming together as co-operative organisations to promote and protect small-scale organic food production and environmental stewardship. We take a look below at some of the groups promoting open source agriculture with farmer driven technologies, spearheaded by the… Continue reading Farm Hack : growing innovative open-source agriculture Read more
Why an economy that’s not dominated by the corporate sector would be much better for individuals, communities and nature
Lowimpact.org is an organisation that was founded by two people in 2001 because of concerns about ecological damage and what that might mean for the future of humanity. The focus has always been on individual lifestyle change Read more
Let’s build a sustainable, non-corporate world; but what exactly does ‘non-corporate’ mean?
This is the first of two articles examining the non-corporate sector, and its advantages for ecology, democracy, communities and individuals. Here’s a checklist of the benefits of reducing the reach of the corporate sector, but first, let’s work out what kind of organisations comprise the non-corporate sector. Read more
Low-impact & the city 11: buying a laptop without Windows – with Linux or with no operating system at all
This is the last in a series of articles to help you to jettison Windows and corporate software generally. Read more
Low-impact & the city 10: how to install Linux on your hard drive (alongside Windows)
This is the latest in a series of articles intended to help you become Windows- and corporate-software-free. Read more
Low-impact & the city 9: learning to use Linux
Remember the previous two blog articles about switching to open source / free software? The first was about switching to free / open source programmes whilst still using Windows, and the second was about downloading the Linux operating system onto a datastick so that you can play with it and familiarise yourself with it, but… Continue reading Low-impact & the city 9: learning to use Linux Read more
Is modern life a mistake?
I was back recently in my old stomping ground of Bicester in Oxfordshire – it was not a happy visit. Read more
Low-impact & the city 8: how to test drive Linux from a datastick, but keep Windows for the time being
A while ago I blogged about the various open source programmes I’m using. I’m absolutely non-techie when it comes to IT. I have no interest in the technical underpinning of what I want to do with my computer, and this makes it difficult for technical people to explain things to me. Read more
The absurd nature of land ownership in the UK, and the ‘Land for What?’ conference, Nov 12-13
There’s a weekend conference coming up that you might be interested in. It’s called ‘Land for What?’ and it’s taking place over the weekend of November 12 and 13. Read more
Low-impact & the city 5: if a non-techie like me can switch to open source, so can you
I’ve found that learning about how to change to open source software can be difficult for non-techies. Yes, you can easily find the websites that contain the information you need, but it’s almost never written in a style that non-techies can understand. Read more
Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities
Here’s a living example of a ‘lean’ economy (outlined by David Fleming in our last blog post), and how you can help to preserve it. The ‘unlean’ economy is encroaching onto the territory of the Kichwa and Sapara communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon, in the form of large oil corporations, and will destroy their communities, as… Continue reading Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities Read more
David Fleming’s ‘Lean Logic’ and ‘Surviving the Future’, and why they’re important
I attended the launch of two books at Daunt Bookshop in Chelsea on Wednesday evening. David Fleming died in 2010, and now his friend Shaun Chamberlin has edited his magnum opus, Lean Logic, and Chelsea Green have published it. Read more
Volunteer at a crofting / educational centre in the Highlands and learn about the ‘shieling’
This is a farm-based education organisation. Our story is the ‘shieling’ – a tradition where folk went up to the hills with the livestock. The shieling is a traditional practice of moving up to the high ground or moorland with livestock, to live there for the summer. Read more