The thing people love most about economic growth is that it creates jobs, and prevents existing jobs from being cut. Similarly, the worst thing about recession is that people lose their jobs. This is totally reasonable, seeing as in this world we need a paying job to get by, not to mention the fact that … Continue reading
Samso is a small Danish island with about 4,300 residents. What’s remarkable about this place? It’s 100% powered by renewable energy. That’s one hundred percent! What a fantastic achievement! With a combination of off-shore and on-shore wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal pumps and locally grown biofuels, they’ve managed to secure full energy sufficiency from sustainable … Continue reading
I’ve just finished reading Supply Shock by Brian Czech and I’m going to give you a summary of what I’ve learned. Basically after reading Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill (see this post) I was desperate to get my hands on another book that would flesh out the steady state concept even more. … Continue reading
Lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way our society will be able to become both sustainable and equitable, providing a good quality of life for ourselves while allowing other species to flourish, is if we abandon economic growth and consciously transition to a postgrowth society. I realise that’s a tall order, but … Continue reading
I’ve just made a fantastic discovery! I basically watched this film about urban food growing and distributing systems and became so inspired that I really wanted to be involved in one of the awesome local food projects exemplified in the film. I sent the link to my friend who’s also into this kind of stuff, … Continue reading
Enough Is Enough (2013) is an astounding book by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill, subtitled “Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources”. I read it in three days, tossing my novel away with my exam revision. It’s possibly the best book I’ve ever read in my life; it’s only real competition is … Continue reading
I have good news today! Yesterday I read about Solar Impulse, the American-owned solar aeroplane that can fly all the way through day and night powered purely by the sun’s rays. It flew from one side of the USA to the other yesterday, and the next big challenge is to fly all around the world … Continue reading
On this cloudy Sunday me and a friend of mine went along to Vegfest – an annual veggie bonanza of deliciousness that takes place in Brighton, Bristol and London. It was absolutely packed, like to the extent that it was hard to navigate around the place. There were 125 stalls and lots of talks and cookery demos – it was … Continue reading
Hello everybody! This evening as I was browsing Facebook after a huge portion of pasta, I came across some astounding news. Sustainable Man posted this article which says that Bhutan is set to go 100% organic! I must confess I didn’t even know what Bhutan was until now, but a quick research session informs me … Continue reading
This is such fantastic news that I can barely believe it! To be honest I feel a bit out of the loop because I was really involved in animal rights and anti-vivisection when I was younger but haven’t really looked into it for a while. I didn’t know the EU was even close to doing … Continue reading
It’s easy to get bogged down with the enormity of the problems that taunt humanity in the 21st century. Climate change, environmental degradation, resource scarcity, species loss, pollution, environmental injustice, animal suffering, poverty, hunger, human rights violations, inequality, discrimination corrupt governments, economic recession… The list goes on. But over the last couple of days I’ve come across a … Continue reading
Another amazing, inspiring bite-sized video from Sustainable Man. These guys are awesome! Continue reading
The Great Green Wall is a long term project in Africa that involves planting a huge ‘wall’ or trees along the Southern edge of the Sahara desert. The picture below is a bit blurry in terms of the key, but you can clearly see the sandy colour representing the desert region and the emerald green line symbolizing the proposed … Continue reading
I’ve just run back from the bank, beaming like a Cheshire Cat after donating £101 to Save the Arctic. Okay that’s not quite true, I didn’t run. I hate running. But the donation part is totally true! I know what you’re thinking: “Wow you’re generous! Also isn’t that a bit of a weird amount to give?” Well let me … Continue reading
First of all I want to express that I’m incredibly grateful and lucky to live in a country which has a democracy, and also to live in a time period where women have the vote. But wouldn’t it be super awesome and, you know, right, if we had even more than that? If we had an actual democracy? … Continue reading
Earth Baby 