Info, news & debate
Downshifting
Predicting financial collapse (and what to do about it)
How likely is financial collapse? Matthew Slater, blogger and co-author of the Credit Commons white paper, looks into it:
Building back differently: peasant economics and heritage craft
If a fair share of the planet is a couple of ‘useful’ global hectares per individual, the planet could sustain about 10 billion people living primitively.
How not to build a movement, as demonstrated by Chris Saltmarsh
We thought you might like this extraordinary defence of Deep Adaptation by Matthew Slater. Last year, he and Extinction Rebellion co-founder Skeena Rathor, authored a chapter in Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos; last month it was reviewed by newcomer Chris Saltmarsh, the champion of Jeremy Corbyn’s Green New Deal proposals and author of ‘Burnt’.
Is money the root of all evil? Shaun Chamberlin Part 2
This is Part 2 of a conversation with Shaun Chamberlin (Part 1 is here). Shaun left the board of the Ecological Land Co-op as I joined. He’s been involved with the Transition Network – he wrote the Transition Timeline. His website is Dark Optimism. He took on the work of David Fleming after his death, …
How to buy second-hand solar panels
In early October 2021 I was teaching a series of workshops for The Brighton Permaculture Trust. One of these was a solar battery half-day workshop which I believe went very well, giving people an introduction to further solar courses. The other workshop was about woodland management; there will be more in 2022. Those people who …
Career change? Making a living from weaving
Career change? Making a living from weaving. At Lowimpact.org we’re interested in helping to bring production back to communities, and so we’re talking with craftspeople, smallholders, natural builders, renewables installers and small business owners in our range of topics. I’ll be asking them about their jobs, and for advice for people who might be interested …
Career change? Making a living from making pottery
At Lowimpact.org we’re interested in helping to bring production back to communities, and so we’re going to be talking with craftspeople, smallholders, natural builders, renewables installers and small business owners in our range of topics. I’ll be asking them about their jobs, and for advice for other people who are interested in doing similar things.
Building your own sustainable future
Hi. I’m Andy Reynolds – author, instructor, forester, promoter of self-reliance, and for the last few years I have been reflecting on our project’s progression, as it seems to have reached the stage of early maturity. The project – rebuilding a home, and changing the surrounding fields from dead agricultural land into an oasis of …
What kind of work do we want to do? Is working with our hands passé?
There’s an approach to life that sees craft jobs, or smallholding and food production, including baking, brewing and beekeeping, as well as any kind of job that involves manual work and dexterity as somehow retrograde and passé, and that ‘work’ now means mainly putting on a suit and travelling to an office to do something-or-other …
John Thackara: What does the future hold for humanity?
This is part 1 of a conversation with John Thackara – senior fellow of the Royal College of Art, visiting professor at Tongji University, Shanghai, founder and director of the Doors of Perception sustainable design conferences, and author of many books, including How to Thrive in the Next Economy.
Do energy-saving measures actually increase overall energy use?
Having worked in the environmental field for 30 years, I’ve watched the situation get worse every year, to the point that it might already be irreversible, and we don’t know what damage it’s going to do to us, exactly. That’s pretty insane, and so
What post-Covid communities could look like, if enough of us want it
Here’s a little story for anyone who’s noticed that things aren’t going too well in our communities. Small businesses are going under, unemployment is on the rise and money’s becoming scarce.
Coming together to build a new economy: Matthew Slater, barefoot economist and Credit Commons co-designer, Part 2
In part 1 I described why a resilient economy needs be to separate from the failing capitalist juggernaut and that we need to start by finding new economic partners from without the Market.
“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room”
With the end of 2019 drawing near, nomadic handweaver Eloïse Sentito reflects on a year of significant change, living on the edge while spinning, dyeing and weaving her way from Brittany to Devon.
Top tips for tiny home living in a small timber building
Are you keen to downsize and downshift? Chris from Loosehanger Oak shares his top tips for tiny home living in a small timber building.
The future of land ownership: interview with Oli Rodker of the Ecological Land Co-op and the Landworkers’ Alliance
This week we’re talking with Oli Rodker, founder director of the Ecological Land Co-operative and the Landworkers’ Alliance, about his work, and how we might change the nature of land ownership in the UK, where 0.06% of the population own 50% of rural land in England and Wales, according to the Country Land & Business …
Heartwood Community are seeking new members – could it be you?
Heartwood Community is seeking energetic, reliable and committed people to join their intentional community in South West Wales. It’s over to Staci from here to tell us more.
Life in an intentional community – a healthier and more sustainable way to live
If I hadn’t fired up my vision to form and live in an intentional community some 45 years ago I wouldn’t have learnt cheese making, selected and planted an orchard of rare species of fruit trees, co-organized arts festivals, learnt and practiced conflict resolution and given my three sons an opportunity to broaden their horizons.
How we escaped suburbia by embracing exchange and life on the road
Visual artist Emma Moody-Smith shares the story of how she and her partner Shawn have spent the past 9 years downshifting, swapping suburban England for life in a motorhome and, crucially, embracing exchange. Here she offers insight and advice to others looking to do the same.
Opportunity to live very close to nature, rent-free, in an Irish intentional community and education centre
There are two rent-free bedrooms available (one immediately, one soon) in the farmhouse at An Teach Saor. But this is not a place for people who want to save money. It’s a place for people who want to radically reduce their dependency on it all together.