Ed Dowding

Category: Collaboration

The Bottled Water Challenge – your opinions sought!

Public opinion needed here, please help! There’s a charity water company which raises £10k/yr from bottled water sales. This funds 3 clean water projects in India. The person running this activity costs £10k/yr in salary. Externalised costs include extraction, bottling, labelling, transport, and refrigeration. Costs: £10k + externalities Yield: £10k + cascading benefits So by ...

14 big trends to watch in 2013

http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/12/14-trends-for-2013.html

The world is on track for disaster. Who wants to buy a farm?

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030. However, the study ...

The social tipping point is 8%

Someone told me recently that the tipping point for lasting social change is 8%. I don’t know where they got that number from but it seems believable. Especially if there’s no reason to resist the change. (A quick google turned up affirmation, so let’s go with it.) So if it’s true, this report from Germany ...

Manifestos for life

Posters in the Hub Westminster with typographical design by Robert Reed. Source: This is Reed

Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps

Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps

Humanity has never faced such a bigger series of challenges….Just start

On Global Entrepreneurship Week: A bit about Ed and Sustaination He likes to solve problems and finds the 21st century a very exciting time to be alive since there are lots of big problems to solve. Food is the biggest which joins all the others together, and that’s why he started Sustaination. Before this he co-created the ...

The value in being together

I’ve got issues. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. Why? The gist of it is that I’m rather disappointed by humanity’s reluctance to improve upon our collective situation. But recently I’ve had a few realisations which are helping me make peace with this which I’d like to share. They’re important, so I’m going ...

“Somebody thought of it, and someone believed it” – a generation steps forward at London Sustainability Jam

The room is dark. About fifty people sit with silent and energetic expectation. The screen shows a sky full of bright stars. A couple walk arm in arm, and as their faces are lit by the projected starlight, a voice comes through the darkness: “Imagine it’s 2015, and you’re taking an evening stroll down a ...

PoW: Philosophy on Second Life

http://pocket.co/sdtCN

And this is only talking about cars

Watch from the 30 minute marker for about 10 minutes. The average American car uses 100 times its weight in ancient plants (converted to oil). 7/8th of the energy never gets to the weheel is lost in engine, idling, driveline, etc 1/2 of the remaining 1/8th heats tyres, road, air Only 1/20th of the mass ...

The safety of an abusive relationship

“To break a law which conscience tells you is unjust is, in reality, to express the highest respect for the law. Speaking out against injustice is a profoundly political act. The best people in history put themselves on the line.”

Declaration of the 99%

Stupid hippies out there protesting don’t know what they want and I’m not sure how sleeping in a tent does anything anyway I mean that’s basically camping isn’t it? No, you’ve just got to go with the flow and look after number one, that’s what I say. I mean just look at this summary list ...

Networked intelligence

A contract with our children.

99% of what follows is from Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a great book, much like all his others. I have only edited it in places to make it easier to read out of context. I think it makes a magnificent start.   If the scientific community were to propose a ...

Permaculture principles

It seems this list can bring wisdom and insight to pretty much everything we do. Apart from the more specific ones (like ‘keep water high on the land’, but maybe just try to metaphor these as taoist haikus to trigger bewildering insights.) Relative Location Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation. ...

Real democracy is rising on the horizon

The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.What is needed is a democratic alternative to the political-state system. This alternative must be built by people’s assemblies across the country, to facilitate a new constitution guaranteeing: full social and political participation a new and ...

A 10% strike by the 99%?

This is a work in progress. I first wrote it after Copenhagen failed to agree anything, and am in the process of updating and amending for the Occupy movement. Please get in touch if interested. Problem Sigh. Where to begin? Broadly speaking, however.. Most of our critical anatomy was never designed for the world we ...

I love the Soil Association, I really do – you will rarely meet a finer bunch of sensible, noble, inspired, and passionate people than at a Soil Association conference. But boy-oh-boy has the organisation been holding them back! The Soil Association’s position and principles have been well intentioned, but the way they’ve gone about their ...

WeFirst Manifesto – Ten Core Beliefs

An inter-dependent, global community requires an expanded definition of self-interest. The future of profit is purpose. Technology is teaching us to be human again. Consumers want a better world, not just better widgets. Brands must become architects of community. Brands must become day traders in social emotion. The evolution of revolution is contribution. We cannot ...