Info, news & debate
Economy
Stunning film of blades lifted onto a giant wind turbine that you can become a co-owner of
Double BAFTA-Cymru winner, Mike Harrison, has made a stunning short film, capturing the moments that the blades are lifted onto one of our turbines at dawn.
Rent first to see if a self-build home in a cohousing project at an eco-chateau in France is for you
An cohousing eco-hamlet around a chateau in the Dordogne region of France is being formed. You can rent a plot to see if the project is for you, before deciding whether to become a co-owner.
The US presidential election is a circus, and the sooner we realise that power lies elsewhere the better
As Adam Curtis recently explained, governments are no longer for deciding how we live, or for building a better society – they have slowly morphed into institutions for managing the affairs of the finance sector.
Review of Adam Curtis’s new movie ‘Hypernormalisation’
Adam Curtis has a new movie out – Hypernormalisation, about how, due to ‘perception management’, what we see as ‘normal’ is anything but – and you can see it for free on BBC iPlayer.
Ditch the bleach: switch to natural cleaning to avoid toxins and carcinogens
Every year there is a better understanding of the risks of toxic chemicals and more and more people are benefitting from a switch to natural cleaning.
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.
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.
How to quit the rat race to go WWOOFing for 3 years (even with young children) as a gateway to a new life
This is an interview with Mariann and Gabor, a Hungarian couple with 2 young children, who left their jobs to go WWOOFing. We wanted to show that WWOOFing is a route out of the ‘rat race’
How CETA will allow TTIP (RIP) in through the back door, and how you can help the Austrian Chancellor block it
Here are two sources of information about CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) – and both of them are completely biased. They are biased against the interests of the corporate sector and in favour of the interests of ordinary people and communities. That’s the kind of bias we like.
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 …
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.
Progress? Is modern food production efficient (using poultry as an example)?
We often hear it said that modern farming is efficient and results in low cost food on our table but how true is that? I would contend that there is an awful lot wrong with our food production and distribution systems in the west and the much vaunted efficiency is far from being the true …
Jumble Trail: stroll around your neighbourhood, meet local people, grab a bargain, grab some food and sell unwanted stuff
I’d like to bring to people’s attention a community event I’m championing in my neck of the woods called a Jumble Trail. I’m in Wandsworth, London, but Jumble Trails are happening all over the country, and you can join in.
Revisiting my old university economics textbook – how did I ever fall for this nonsense?
I haven’t opened my old university economics textbook (Economics, by David Begg, Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch) since the 1980s, so I was curious to see how I would respond to what I was taught 30 years ago.
Brexit or no Brexit – so-called ‘trade’ deals still threaten our NHS
If UK campaigners don’t set the terms of our trading relationships, insisting they protect public services and standards, it will be left to Theresa May’s expensive army of corporate lawyers.
Ecological Land Co-op are looking for an operations manager – might it be you or someone you know?
I am privileged to be a director of the wonderful Ecological Land Co-op, and we are currently advertising for an operations manager.
What we’d like to see happen with UK trade deals after the Brexit vote
Here is a list, agreed by anti-TTIP activists, of what we want / don’t want in any UK trade deals, whether EU or new UK deals.
Career change? There are not enough charcoal-makers to satisfy the demand for home-produced charcoal
We interview Pete Grugeon of the Bulworthy Project, who explains that there’s a gap in the market – with not enough charcoal burners to satisfy the demand for locally-produced charcoal.
Free straw-bale building internships starting in September
Starting on September 7th, I am pleased to offer you the chance to take part in a whole straw bale house build. From foundations to finish plasters and everything in between.
Want to volunteer on a low-impact, off-grid settlement?
Hello – we are James and Sukamala, tenants at Wild Geese Acres, Greenham Reach, which is an off-grid, low-impact farming project established in north Devon by the Ecological Land Coop (ELC) – see website. http://ecologicalland.coop.