David Korten

David Korten, a psychologist, presents a different view on economics, specifically in relation to ‘Peak Oil’ (ie the fact that oil production has or is about to peak, and from this point onwards oil will become increasingly more expensive).

I watched a short film clip of Korten, taken from a new movie called Blind Spot (all about Peak Oil) and found his view interesting to say the least. Here’s a transcript of the excerpt:

There’s no way we’re going to fix this mess by adjustments at the margin.

This is about a fundamental rethinking of what it means to be human. A fundamental rethinking of our relationships with one another, our institutions, our culture.

And it means exposing and penetrating the stories of empire that keep us locked in to this system, that create a kind of cultural trance that say this is just, this is right, it’s the only way it can be.

So all our economic stories about economic growth, about you need wealthy investors to grow the economy, that you shouldn’t have welfare programs because they just coddle lazy people, all our stories about money - money is wealth, people who are making money are creating wealth so therefore they own it. This is all clouding the reality that economic growth is all about rich people expropriating the property of poor people and turning it into garbage to make money for rich people.

If you’re interested in the effect that consumption of goods has on the environment and other people, do check out Annie Leonard’s ‘Story of Stuff‘.

More information:

www.blindspotdoc.com
www.davidkorten.org
www.storyofstuff.com

If you’re anything like me, do you walk through the lanes, pathways and woods and see the lush green growth that nature has provided, and wonder what plants you can eat or might be useful in some other way? The answer comes in the form of this handy and inexpensive downloadable guide that you can print yourself - The Handy Foraging Companion and Hedgerow Herbal from ‘Judy of the Woods‘.

Just £3.95  

This latest version of The Handy Foraging Companion And Hedgerow Herbal comes in a portable post card size. The downloadable and easy to print feature-laden guide contains a list of over 350 edible plants in a handy format, as well as detailed illustrated profiles on over 50 common edible plants of Britain and Northern Europe.

I purchased the previous version of this guide about 9 months ago and can confirm that it is totally packed full of useful information. The only gripe I had was that printing it double-sided took a little bit of working out, but the current version is designed as postcard-sized and single-sided - so much easier. -Martin

Whether you forage on a leisurely weekend walk, want to know if that weed in the garden has some use, or want to prepare for a potential survival situation, this guide is one of the handiest reference books on foraging. It is designed for quick access to all the essential information you want at your fingertips. No more wading through long text to find the facts you are looking for.

 Click on the above image for a larger version

This unique, compact guide packs a lot of information into a small space:

• list of over 350 plants with basic information on edible parts (colour coded for quick reference), how to consume, and caution notes
• an illustrated directory of over 50 plants with guide to identification, culinary, medicinal and other uses
• month by month chart to check availability of those plants featured in the directory
• stay safe with caution notes including warning features to look out for
• glossary of medicinal terms with brief list of wild plants, which may be used for home treatment or first aid in the wild
• general information on plant parts, collecting and preparation, including a way to extract protein from grass and other leaves (indispensable for extreme survival situations)
• key to colour coding and other information for quick reference
• find plants by botanical or English name

For more information and to download a test sheet click here or you can click the button below to purchase directly.

Just £3.95

Sunday August 3rd is the official start of Climate Camp 2008 at Kingsnorth in Kent. I wish I was able to go but work and other commitments means I can’t, which is a shame ;-(

On Wednesday afternoon, a hundred climate campers secretly converged and occupied the site for this year’s Camp for Climate Action, a kilometer away Kingnorth power station.

Dozens of marquees were slowly put up, neighbourhoods arrived from all over the country, solar panels popped up, a central kitchen dished out three delicious meals a day and compost toilets were being built. A vision of a sustainable self- managed world is being put together piece by piece in a field in Kent, less than 45 minutes from London. All are welcome to come down as soon as they can to join in with the creation of Climate Camp 2008, in preparation for the opening on Sunday, 3rd August, when hundreds more will come and begin the week of workshops and action preparations.

The video below gives a taste of the 2007 Climate Camp;

Attending the Camp For Climate Action 2008 from Alined Gif on Vimeo.

The organisation is amazing - considering that police refuse to let people bring vehicles in - almost everything is moved by bike and by wheelbarrow and a complete community is there with food and waste handling - at the end of the camp, the field will be returned to the same if not better condition than when it was occupied. One of the people interviewed on the video said the planning and organisation was so good, those people should be running the country - I wish!

The section below is copied from the Cimate Camp website (http://www.climatecamp.org.uk) - please visit and explore the site and ideally, get along to Climate Camp 2008 and join in!

Why Kingsnorth?

Given how much CO2 you get when you burn coal, building a coal fired power station in the middle of a climate crisis would be really stupid. Really, really, stupid. But incredibly, down at Kingsnorth that’s exactly what power company E.ON and the Government plan to do.

Here’s our top 10 reasons for not building Kingsnorth, or burning coal or digging it up or well, doing pretty much anything with it other than leaving it in the ground. You don’t have to read them all. Any one will give you reason enough to join us this summer. A new power station at Kingsnorth really is that daft.

1. Let’s build a coal-fired power station!

If built, Kingsnorth will emit between 6 and 8 million tons of CO2 every year. That’s a hell of a lot of CO2, more even than the proposed third runway at Heathrow would produce. Scientists are usually a fairly reserved bunch but even they are starting to sound frantic about what’s happening with the climate. That’s not surprising given that, if we carry on treating the planet like a cheap boil in the bag dinner, we risk causing catastrophic climate change. That’s probably a bad idea. To avoid it we need to rapidly reduce emissions. So, in a world where we respect the ecology of the planet and the lives of those whose home it is, no Kingsnorth.

2. Kingsnorth is just the beginning. Six other similar power stations are planned.

How do you multiply stupid? We’re not sure, but that’s what the power utilities want to do. Unless there’s a big fight over Kingsnorth these companies, with the backing of Government, want to build six more atmosphere-crunching coal fired power stations in the next few years. Collectively these power stations would emit around 50 million tons of CO2 a year. It’s hard to understand such a callous disregard for your fellow humans but if you want to, start by following the money. Power stations make lots of it and, given the amount of coal around, they’re a ‘safe’ long term investment. It’s an age-old story but the ending isn’t written yet.

What happens at Kingsnorth is vitally important. When people get together determined to make the world a better place there is history-making potential. Look at the Suffragettes, the struggle for workers rights, the anti-roads movement. Kingsnorth can and will be stopped if enough of us get together to make it happen.

3. Because coal is the most polluting fossil fuel.

Coal was a really cool idea for the convenient long term storage of a load rotting prehistoric forests but burning it to make electricity is a monumentally bad one. It might have made sense at the beginning of the industrial revolution but then so did child labour, slavery and woollen swimming trunks. Now we know burning coal is wrecking the climate. Of CO2 in the atmosphere from human activity around 50% has come from the burning of coal. Mainly this is from Western nations who industrialized first.

Today burning coal is responsible for around one quarter of our global CO2 emissions. One of the great challenges for this generation is to find ways of living on this planet whilst leaving fossil fuels (especially coal) in the ground. We are quite literally the Power Generation. We have to change the ways we generate power and we need to find the power to make these changes happen.

4. Because coal is about as clean as an anthrax sandwich.

Proudly brandishing the phrase ‘clean coal’, the coal industry is confidently striding forth into our warming world. It’s a brilliant piece of PR greenwash. However, like ‘friendly’ fire or the ‘great’ war, it sounds kind of good but actually, when you get down to it, it really isn’t. Modern coal fired power stations are slightly more ‘efficient’ than old ones but the bottom line is: coal burning is responsible for one quarter of global emissions and those emissions are causing serious problems.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an important part of the ‘clean’ coal myth. It’s basically a method of capturing and compressing the waste CO2 from a power station and then pumping it into salt aquifiers and old oil wells for long term storage. There’s a few problems with CCS. The biggest one is that it doesn’t exist, it’s science fiction. Sure there’s the odd experimental trial but at the scale of large coal fired power stations even the industry themselves say it’s 10 years away at best.

E.ON are saying that the power station they plan to build will be CCS ready. But ready for what exactly. We might be ready for the second coming but that isn’t going to help solve climate change that’s happening in reality in the here and now. Given that the next few years are crucial and that other ready-to-go alternatives exist, CCS is just a distraction. E.ON want to talk about CCS because they don’t want to talk about CO2 emissions. They want to obscure the truth: Kingsnorth power station will emit at least 6 million tons of CO2 every year and damn the lot of you.

5. Oh dear we’re running out of oil. Wahey there’s loads of coal!

No need to worry about the coming oil crunch, there’s loads of tar sands and coal - we’ll burn that instead. If you’ve got big investments in fossil fuels or you’ve just bought a villa in Greenland then maybe this ‘solution’ to the oil crunch makes sense. To the rest of us it makes about as much sense as a petrol-filled fire extinguisher.

Most of the geological evidence suggests that there is a lot of coal left, up to 200 years at current rates of consumption. But burning it really isn’t an option if we want a planet to live on (forget Greenland, those villas have sold out and the neighbours would be horrible).

6. But if we don’t burn coal the Chinese will.

Blimey. Where do you start? Yes the Chinese are building coal fired power stations but…

1. Climate change is a global problem and nearly every country is going to have to reduce emissions - the British, the Chinese, the Americans - we all have to get our shit together and change the way our societies make and use energy. If we’re going to do it fairly (which in our view is essential), that means countries like the UK will have to cut a lot more than the Chinese. If you’re burning coal you’re making the problem worse. We’re burning it here in the UK so that’s where we’ve got to stop it.

2. Not only are average emissions for each person significantly lower in China than in Britain, a large percentage of Chinese coal is burnt so that Chinese factories can make the throwaway consumer items that fill the shopping centres and refuse dumps of the west.

3. We’ve got to start somewhere. The very ecological systems we rely on for life are in jeopardy. If someone doesn’t wake up and try to turn off the gas we’ll probably fry sleeping. Arguing about who should set the alarm is as pathetic as it is suicidal.

7. Without these power stations there will be an energy gap.

The old ones are the best ones. Problem: a load of companies want to make big bucks but can only achieve it by doing the rest of us over. Answer: come up with something scary so people are distracted and don’t notice what you’re up to. O’oo the energy gap. A frightener isn’t it. It’s meant to be what happens if we don’t build new coal and nuclear power stations to replace the ones that are being decommissioned. We run out of energy, the Christmas lights go out , rubbish blows in the streets and we’re all transported back into the 70s and forced to listen to crackly Val Doonican records on pedal powered stereos.

But the energy gap is a nonsense.

Check out the Government’s own projections:

• The amount electricity generating capacity reduction by 2027 from closing old coal and nuclear power stations: 35%
• The amount of energy Gordon Brown has said we will generate from renewable sources by 2020: 40%

On these figures there is no energy gap. In fact we’re up five percent seven years early. There are other gaps. A commitment cap, a vision gap, a take the bull by the horns and do something useful for a change gap. But no energy gap.

8. Because there is a growing movement against coal.

It’s not just about Kingsnorth. In Wales and Derbyshire people are trying to stop new open cast mines. And from Bangladesh and the Appalachians to Columbia and Ecuador people are fighting against coal and fossil fuel extraction. This summer there are five other climate camps in other countries all focused on the issue of coal.

This is an essential way of facing the energy and climate change crisis. It’s a call to get together and work for something better in solidarity with people across the globe. It might sound like an old fashioned idea but then these days so does a stable climate and hell, if flares can make a come back anything has to be possible.

9. Because we need to talk about work.

Here’s a crazy idea. Instead of employing people to burn coal how about we build install and run an energy system based on renewables. They’ve started doing it in Germany and the industry already employs 250,000 people which is a lot more than work in our entire power sector. Here’s another one. We know that we need to make a transition from one energy system to another so what about building that transition around the workers in those industries, what about making it a just transition. And one final one. How about instead of working more and being exploited more so we can compete more just to produce more and more stuff, we work less to produce what we need and want, compete less and share more so we have more time and live better. Phew.

10. They don’t have to build Kingsnorth.

There are a load of brilliant alternatives that would solve the energy issue without messing with the planet. If we’re serious about these other options then it’s crucial we stop the building of Kingsnorth and the other five power stations.

We’ve probably already said it so sorry to go on, but if enough of us get together and say no, then Kingsnorth will never get built. Last year a new runway at Heathrow was seen as a done deal. The Climate Camp helped galvanise almost universal opposition to that stupid plan. With enough of us, we can do the same with building new coal-fired power stations. See you at Kingsnorth on August 9th.

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

Back in 2006, Ryan bought a big car. He says it’s a “beautiful but totally excessive Range Rover Sport”. A big part of the motivation then was the huge tax write off for heavy SUVs (in the USA), combined with a short commute and weekly trips to go hiking with friends.

Since he moved back to San Francisco, Ryan doesn’t need a car, so he wants to take this SUV off the road for good. He says:

If I sold it, it’d just keep polluting with someone else behind the wheel. So I’m leaving what to do with it to everyone to help me decide.

THE PLAN:
Send me your ideas.

Check out the great ideas that have already been suggested. Should we blow it up? Drive it off a cliff? Convert it to a biodiesel or plug-in hybrid and give it to an organization that can use it to do something great? I’d expect that the best ideas will both be environmentally conscious and attention getting. Send me yours at ryan at onefewer.com.
You vote on the best one.

Here’s Ryan’s video where he explains the whole story:

Check out the OneFewer.com website and see what’s going on.

Of course, Ryan should not really have bought such a outrageous gas-guzzler in the first place, and he must have a few pennies tucked away if he is even contemplating blowing up a £50,000 vehicle, but it does show how some people are getting that ‘light bulb’ moment where they realise the situation that the earth is in how they are contributing to it.

The message they are actually getting across is that The European Commission has delayed a vital vote on protecting forests from illegal logging till September.

Greenpeace say;

We want to make sure the commissioners don’t forget about it during their summer holiday. We need you to help us make an extra impression before the September vote.

We all love the forests, and we would like to showcase all that love to the EU (and we know for a fact that the EU doesn’t have anything against some loving). The forests already have made an effort themselves!

Here is your mission:

Take pictures and/or videos of yourself and your friends spreading the love in a forest.
Submit your pictures in the flickr group or post your video as an answer to ours.
Sign the petition

Greenpeace will use the pictures sent in to make a collaborative video that they’ll show the European Commission in September. There is also an email template on the Greenpeace website for you to send to the President of the European Commission.

Visit the Greenpeace website today and spread the word!

Forests are really, really important.
 

Mercedes (which includes the Smart Car) plan is just that, a plan and in reality they may not achieve their goals, but the key fact is that a major automotive manufacturer has set such a significant goal.

To reach their goal, Mercedes are looking at battery electric cars, fuel cells, and more efficient combustion engines that can run on biofuels.

According to Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, Mercedes will have an electric car by 2010, as well as a an electric Smart (there’s already 100 Smart EVs being tested in the UK). But Zetsche also thinks that this is not the end of the line for the combustion engine, and that new developments in that field will overlap with electric drive technologies.

The New York Times reported on some startling examples of silly food miles. All made possible because of (relatively) cheap oil/transportations costs and lower wages in some parts of the world. Unfortunately whilst this may keep some people in work in china or wherever, it does mean that the local people who used to do the job are out of work, and all in the name of cheap food…

Here are some of the silly examples:

• Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale
• Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground
• Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya
• Britain imports -and exports- 15,000 tons of waffles every yea

Fuel used for international transport is tax-free, thanks to a treaty signed in 1944 to help the airline industry - so who is paying for the pollution and carbon dumped into the atmosphere? It’s about time that the governments of the world got together and put forward a unified ‘polluter pays’ policy that would help see an end to this ridiculous practice.

Hat tip to TreeHugger for reporting on the above article.

An analysis of the environmental toll of food production concludes that transportation is a mere drop in the carbon bucket. Foods such as beef and dairy make a far deeper impression on a consumer’s carbon footprint.

Visit the NewScientist website for the full article.

Modbury is a small market town in Devon, UK. Although there is seasonal (holiday) trade, many of the local shops serve and rely on the local community. In May 2007, Modbury became the first town in the UK to stop issuing plastic bags when goods are purchased.

Every single trader in Modbury has signed up for it (which is pretty amazing in itself) and they encourage their customers to use their own shopping bags, or where this is not possible, the shops offer reusable and environmentally friendly carrier bags.

Some plastic bag facts:

• A person uses a plastic carrier bag on average for only 12 minutes
• A plastic bag can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down in the environment.
• In the UK at least 200 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks ever year.
• When a plastic bag enters the ocean it becomes a harmful piece of litter. Many marine animals mistake plastic bags for food and swallow them, with painful and often fatal consequences.

One of the many interesting aspects to the campaign within Modbury has been the spin-off benefits and the depth and breadth at which people have looked into. Rather than just replacing the plastic carrier bags with a bio-degradable bag, or a paper bag, they asked the question “what is the cost (to the earth) of producing that paper bag in the first place” in other words, they looked in detail at the current alternatives to plastic to see whether they were in fact better or worse. They also looked at where and how the alternatives where made ie where jute bags made in sweatshops, was the glue used environmentally benign and so on.

A year on, Modbury has thrived on being plastic bag free and the whole experience has made people take a wider look at their impact on the environment, both locally and farther afield.

The Modbury Plastic Bag Free website is packed with great information on the reasons why, their community, the transition, facts on bags, the alternatives, suppliers and so on. Well worth a visit.

Modbury Plastic Bag Free website

Video from Danny’s Contentment (link at bottom of post)

They certainly work well in cities where their small size, zero-emissions, and in London, preferential treatment within the congestion charging zone all go in their favour. The most popular vehicle is G-Wiz, sold by GoinGreen and made in India by Reva. Although there has been a couple of recent upgrades (AC-Drive and different battery technology, improved brakes & safety etc) which have improved both the range and performance, in my own opinion, they do look rather quirkly - not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but they invoke memories of those little blue invalid carriages that were around in the 70’s.

One car that didn’t look so bad was the Norwegian developed Think City. Originally the company that developed it was bought by Ford, but shortly before the final development of the ‘Mark II’ version, Ford pulled the plug on the company - see earlier post for more. However, new investors were found and the Think City 2 is now in production.

Looking more like a ‘proper’ car (which helps it gain acceptance amongst the population at large), it has some innovative features.

• Built-in Telemetrics - you can text/sms your car to check battery status, pre-heat the interior and pre-start the engine
• Lithium Polymer batteries give 120 mile range and 50 mph top speed. The batteries will be permanently leased from the supplier which means they will be automatically changed when performance drops below a certain point.
• Fully homogenised - essentially means that it is classed as a proper car rather than a ‘quadracycle’. As such it has undergone crash testing etc like regular mainstream cars
• High quality production - it ‘feels’ like a mainstream car rather than a kit car

The new Think City is due in UK in RHD (right-hand drive) towards end of 2008

More Information:

Think City website

Danny’s Contentment has some video footage of driving the Think City (plus lots of other great stuff on the life and times of an Electric Vehicle owner in London)