Ed Dowding

Category: Money

Finance, trade, economics, and what we think of as money.

Link round-up

£3m Community energy fund divesting funds British Gas is committed to distributing £3m via the energyshare fund to community renewable projects over the next 3 years. energyshare really wants to hear from all types of communities across Britain. A registered community group can apply for up to £100,000, and all they ask is that projects: ...

With great power doesn’t come great responsibility.

I believe that this is an act of premeditated genetic pollution of the gene pool of alfalfa and related plants by Monsanto. They know exactly what they’re doing. What they understand is that if you pollute enough alfalfa across the country to where it becomes impossible to grow organic alfalfa that isn’t contaminated, perhaps then ...

How to make your savings work harder

We’re all looking for ways to “do our bit” with less effort, hence the popularity of such simple actions like taking your own bags, buying organic, eating less meat, cycling more and so on. If you have any financial savings, here’s a few simple things you can do which only take 20 minutes to do ...

Fish, Forests, and the 21st Century commons

An extract from a letter I’ve just written to my MP, George Freeman, the PPS to Gregory Barker as Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change. In the meantime I wonder if I might press home one or two contemporary issues? Firstly you are no doubt aware of the “Hugh’s Fish Fight” campaign. ...

Superstruct future forecasting game

I can’t believe I’ve only just heard of this. Superstruct is a forecasting game designed to anticipate new ways of being / doing this human being thing on planet Earth. It was massively multiplayer and played by more than 7000 people from September – November, 2008. The Institute for the Future published the results. Some ...

Gaming for a better world.

It’s all just a game, really, this whole life business. We’re in it for a good time, to be fulfilled, amused, creative, challenged, active, careful, and much more. In games we often perform better if the pressure is off. So too in life. Relaxing into it and knowing that one way or another it’s pretty ...

First petrol, then energy – now food prices skyrocket

Growing populations, rising affluence in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and crop failures caused by extreme weather have pushed up the prices of wheat, sugar, cotton and many other household staples. So far, bread, breakfast cereals and clothing have become more expensive – but the full effects of the cost of raw materials have not ...

Neo-Classical elements: Time, money, energy, politics

The world used to be (perceived to be) made up of four elements: Earth, air, fire, and water. A few years back Ollie and I figured all the problems in the world would go away if only we could sort out the energy thing. Not least because if we really nailed it we could just ...

Vision 2050. From here to there.

Zoom.it – Image foTF.

Eric Cantona joins in calling for economic change

The clever chap has pointed out that taking to the streets is a less effective means of protest than just triggering a run on the banks, which will highlight the systemic flaws in the financial model. Now there’s the argument to be made that this is a bit irresponsible, but when facing down a far ...

Nature's gift: How much is the ecosystem worth?

A great series of articles from the BBC. 1. The full impact of the degradation of the natural world on the global economy – both on business and consumers. 2. The direct costs to businesses, both large and small. 3. The economic benefits of preserving the natural world.

The Future of Money

Key quote? Allow different types of money to compete in the same way that markets compete, to open up new ways of doing business. The Future of Money on Vimeo

How to make a fast buck in the green economy

If you’re involved in one of the below, you’re going to make money in the next 20 years. Anyone care to go on an INSULATE BRITAIN! road trip around the UK? Renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, marine including wave, biogas, and fuel cell) Green buildings (green retrofits for energy and water efficiency, residential and commercial ...

Top Ten Constituents of New Commons Economy

I’ve just come across a fantastic list at the Steady State Revolution blog. I’ve reproduced it in its entirety here since I know lots of people get this feed in RSS readers and email and don’t click links, and because it’s useful for my reference. This would break most copyright laws, were it not very ...

Turn over a New Leaf

Invest in green energy

Key facts: 1) You’re doing something brilliant, 2) It’s 7.5% return, 3) You’re locked in for 4 years. EcoBonds from Ecotricity.

Economic reality check

I’ve written quite a lot about money, and plan to write a lot more. In the meantime Tim Jackson’s economic reality check video at TED summarises a great deal of it rather nicely.

Money says 'no'. Money is broken. Keeps saying 'no' to everything sensible, and 'yes' to lots of stupid things.

There are 2,470,000 people unemployed in the UK. There is an energy supply crisis. We know how to insulate houses, make solar panels, wind farms, community heating systems, and so on. So on the one hand we have a major problem, and on the other we have a major solution. And yet we have an ...

Boomerang trade

The UK currently exports 131,000 tonnes of chewing gum to Spain, only to import 125,000 tonnes back again. We send 3,300 tonnes of cuddly toys to New Zealand, only to bring another 2,400 tonnes back again. One person in the US will, by 4am in the morning of 2nd January, have been responsible for the ...

20 get rich quick schemes

Whilst I love seeing headlines like this Leaders at the G20 summit in Canada agree the richest members will halve their budget deficits within three years.  (BBC News) They beg the questions Where is all that money coming from (or not going to)? Are they going to be creating wealth and making savings (“G20 stop ...