Ed Dowding

Category: Sustainability

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 ...

21 hour work week

It just makes a lot of sense, k? via Permaculture Magazine

Sustainable shipping

Beautiful. \ Beautiful design, inspirational engineering, powerful performance, technically and commercially viable 100% renewable powered 3000dwt sailing cargo ships. Created from proven, off-the-shelf technology B9 Ships are ready-to-go. B9 Ships showcase the economic opportunities arising from the need to transition to a circular low carbon economy. Their construction creates manufacturing jobs and their operation reduces ...

Two more quotes from Forty days of Rain

It takes no great skill to decode the world system today. A tiny percentage of the population is immensely wealthy, some are well off, a lot are just getting by, a lot more are suffering. We call it capitalism, but within it lies buried residual patterns of feudalism and older hierarchies, basic injustices framing the ...

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. ...

How we feed ourselves

You may have seen a recent report saying that going meat free one day per week saves more greenhouse gas emissions than eating a fully local diet. It seems kind of dubious, doesn’t it? You’re telling me that shipping grains and fruit half way around the world has less environmental impact than raising it locally? ...

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 ...

Amen

The most rational way to feed ourselves is as locally as possible. This means fresh, nutritious, sustainably-produced food. Such a food system also creates jobs, livelihoods, and a strong local economy; more people know each other, education and health standards rise, crime falls, wildlife flourishes, and people are more fulfilled. Not A Supermarket

How to run a Responsible Society

Ricardo Semler on How to run a Responsible Society

Shades of green: should there be more organic licencing options?

Organic food shoots itself in the foot with its elitist principles, say a recent article in Farmers’ Weekly. Organic isn’t yet what one might call ‘mainstream’, so they may have a point. For too many of us, being organic comes at too high a cost: at the till, in labour costs, paperwork, effort, and time. ...

What motivates consumers to make ethically conscious decisions?

Only 47% of UK adults believe that individual efforts to limit their own impact on climate change are worthwhile, although this rises to 70% of readers and users of the Guardian and Observer, who tend to be more eco-conscious. The research further shows that 40% of UK adults think that pollution from other countries makes ...

UnLtd Futures

I’m lucky enough to have been accepted onto a social entrepreneurship mentor programme with the marvellous UnLtd. It’s called UnLtd Futures, which, though slightly hyperbolic, is deliciously optimistic. Our first session took place at NESTA a few weeks ago. It’s an odd course in as much as none of us – including the mentors – ...

Visualising an economy of plenty

New Dream Mini-Views: Visualizing a Plenitude Economy from Center for a New American Dream on Vimeo. via Visualizing a Plenitude Economy on Vimeo.

Let them yearn for tat.

We have a political system divided between ‘let them work for tat’ (the right) and ‘let them buy tat’ (the left). The result is a deep and valueless materialism that allows hundreds of young people across London to go on violent and thieving rampages simply because they can get away with it. We have a ...

3D printing using nothing but solar power and sand.

Watch the video. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow! Enough said.

100 years of unsustaintable fishing

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/03/fish-stocks-information-beautiful

Economic development not economic growth.

People who should know better are forever banging on about ‘economic growth’ as being something which we should make a priority. Really? How’s that going to work? We keep on doing more stuff, which begets more stuff, which begets more stuff… so… you really don’t need to be more than about four years old to ...