Roger Scruton is probably the nation’s most famous right-wing philosopher. So you might find it surprising that as a director of an environmental organisation, I found a lot to agree with in this book. Read more

Norman Phipps has developed a weekend course on which you can build your own small solar electric panel from the scrap from the photovoltaics industry, with a USB port for a phone charger or an LED light. Read more

A few summers ago I visited Monkey World, a picturesque Dorset home to mistreated apes and monkeys from across the globe. To my amazement I saw Capuchin monkeys picking blackberries and an Orang-Utan Read more

Are the US and the UK free countries? Can there be true freedom if too much wealth (including land) is allowed to accumulate in too few hands? Imagine 100 households living on 500 acres. Read more

Recently some friends and I were served a sumptuous seven-course meal with a twist: every single ingredient came from the bin of a top-end retailer. Well, everything apart from the road-kill rabbit spotted on the way home. Read more

When we complain that green/spiritual/progressive ideas are not represented in the mainstream, let me tell you about the Jonathan Ross show on Saturday night (and you can’t get any more mainstream than that – it’s the epicentre of mainstream). Read more

Sam Ryan worked for Lowimpact.org in the UK for a year, and is now on his way overland, with his partner Dani, back home to Australia to set up Low-impact Australia over there. He’s sending us a few blog articles en route. Read more

New Year Revolutions! Revolution = A turning, change (dictionary definition). It’s the start of a new year again, many of us will have made resolutions, usually to give something up – like smoking. Read more

What I want to argue is that these are superb movements, promoting as they do, ways of living that are oriented towards nature, co-operation, and face-to-face contact in local communites. Read more

The Twirligro crowd fund (http://www.bloomvc.com/project/The-Whirligro-vertical-food-planter) aims to raise £4000 by January 19th to help fund an initial run of a new product aimed at the burgeoning interest in vertical gardening. Read more

Well, the world didn’t end yesterday, so let’s make it better in 2013. A crucial element of a just and sustainable world is land reform. Why should so few people own so much land? Here’s a great blog from Shaun about why access to land is so important. Read more

With thanks to Paul Mobbs. On Dec 13th, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey gave the green light to fracking in the UK to extract shale gas. Read more

Norman is our tutor for our build your own solar pv panel course, running in March, May and September next year. He’s developed a way of building small solar electric panels from the scrap from the photovoltaics industry Read more

Soil management is a big subject. It seems to require the balancing of; drainage, crop rotation, enriching with compost and turning mechanically. It can be approached as a science or an art because it consists of both. Read more

Do you know what glyphosate is? It’s a herbicide developed by Monsanto, sold under the trade name Roundup – the most widely-used pesticide in the world. Genetically-engineered (Roundup ready) soy has been developed to tolerate glyphosate. Read more

First some background, then below is Zoe’s appeal for letters of support. Wouldn’t it be good if people were allowed to put up their own natural home on their own land, to produce food for themselves and for the rest of us. Read more

Sam Ryan worked for Lowimpact.org in the UK for a year, and is now on his way overland, with his partner Dani, back home to Australia to set up Low-impact Australia over there. He’s going to send us a few blog articles en route. This third one is about the trans-Siberian railway. Read more

This is my response to a marketing lady I met at the Royal Festival Hall last week, who will remain anonymous (unless you want to reveal yourself). You are very intelligent, and you care – our target audience, in other words. Read more

A thermal store is used to solve the following problem: you have a wood stove, but in the mornings, by the time you’ve lit it, and the place gets a bit warmer, you’ve left the house. Read more

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a person whose private life is smothered by my work. I work in the renewable energy industry – more specifically, I’m a solar energy specialist. Read more