Events Archives - Page 14 of 27 - Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself

Haiti rebuild starts

Off-grid technologies, such as lights and cookers has been a major feature of the Haitian relief effort. And as the international aid effort is finally getting through to the people, thoughts are turning to the next stage: the reconstruction.

Now an off-grid approach is the best hope for the long-term reconstruction of the stricken country say politicians and development experts.

The effects of the earthquake that struck on Jan 13 were so debilitating, at least in part because power, water, government, fuel, transport and distribution were all centered on the capital Port Au Prince. Once that was destroyed it was difficult to provide even basic amenities to the population of 7m.

Speaking this week Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said; “We have to decentralize. It’s the only way to be efficient. It’s also the only way to avoid the same problems happening in Haiti again.”…

January 29, 2010 6 Comments

Lori Ryker speaks

Lori Ryker, architecture professor and author of two books about Off The Grid living, will speak at Louisiana state University college of art & design, Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 103 of the Art & Design Building.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Lori is researching the relationship between communities and the larger environment relative to design and building practices.…

January 24, 2010 1 Comment

Off-Grid art show in Dehli

The Anant gallery in Dehli had a group show last month called Living off the Grid. It was about ways to escape the many grids that circumscribe our lives.

Here are curator Meera Menezes notes on the show:

Like it or not, our lives are enmeshed in the intersecting lines of a Grid in the worlds both real and virtual. …

January 24, 2010 No Comments

Haiti may rescue Venezuela

At the same time as the Venezuela government introduces measures to ration electricity, President Hugo Chavez accuses the US government of deliberately engineering the Haitian earthquake. But the sight of U.S. Marines on Venezuelan TV, risking their lives to save the poorest Haitians, reminds Venezuelans that those Marines could help save them.

It might set Venezuelans to questioning just why Chavez remains their president. If it does, the irony would be of U.S. Marines taking Chavez down — without even firing a shot.

Chavez told Spanish newspaper ABC that the earthquake was the product of a “tectonic weapon” launched by the U.S. Navy in a test-run for the U.S.’ ultimate target: Iran. …

January 19, 2010 15 Comments

Greed is US

For years we have been taught to measure the quality of our lives according to how much we can consume – bigger house, grander cars, more food, till we are so fat we can barely walk – drugs, till we cannot think straight — alcohol, gold, diamonds, travel – these are the status symbols that our society adores — rather than love, wisdom, loyalty or honesty.

The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, according to a new report (State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability) published by the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC.…

January 14, 2010 3 Comments

7 green building trends for 2010

From web-based displays that track energy usage in real time, to the downsizing of the American home, here are the key trends that will affect the way we build new homes in 2010.

1) “Rightsizing” of homes. A larger home no longer translates into greater equity. Given that the forecast for home valuation remains conservative, that energy prices are expected to rise over time, and the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates mid-year, homeowners will likely feel more…

January 10, 2010 2 Comments

Home hydrogen to spark energy revolution?

Hydrogen fuel cell technology takes a great leap forward with the launch of the first domestic hydrogen generator…

January 8, 2010 10 Comments

Saved by the neighbours

An off-grid equestrian and her family had their Christmas dinner delivered by a Welsh police mountain rescue helicopter today.

The family was stranded for two weeks by snow at their hilltop home in the UK, as the country ground to a halt because of a freak snow flurry. BBC News carried a story about the mercy mission near Knighton, Mid-Wales after worried neighbours called local cops.

The BBC PM show interviewed Annette Potter, 39, who appears in the book HOW TO LIVE OFF-GRID, and runs a stud farm and horse training grounds on her isolated mountainside. She shares their tiny cottage with her mother and her 14-year-old daughter. …

January 6, 2010 No Comments

Johnson & Johnson zillionairess dies, ignored by family

BABY-oil heiress Casey Johnson had been living off-grid in the months before her drug-fueled death.

British model Jasmine Lennard, a friend of the troubled heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, visited to her house, called Grumblenot, on Mulholland Drive: “It is a mess,” she told Page Six last month. “The electricity is off, there are rats, the pool is green because there is no water.”

Journalists are trying to establish how Casey heated her home, and whether she was carrying in bottled water

“Casey basically needs to go into rehab for a long time. She has walked out [of treatment programs] twice against her parents’ wishes, so they told her no more money. The last time she left early a few months ago and wrote at the bottom of her exit form: ‘[Bleep] you – keep the money.’

Commenting on the death for NBC News Dr Drew Pinsky said: “fame has become an autonomous motivator for young people today. It is an attempt to fill emptiness.…

January 4, 2010 6 Comments

Bloomington preppers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Dec. 21 — The city of Bloomington issued a press release fully endorsing a report into post-peak oil scenarios.

December, 2009, “the Bloomington City Council overwhelmingly approved the report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force entitled Redefining Prosperity: Energy Descent and Community Resilience (PDF 13.36 MB). The report is the product of a seven-member task force and outlines the community’s vulnerability to a decline in cheap oil and proposes numerous mitigation strategies.”

Within 30 years, Bloomington’s least-used roads could be dirt or gravel instead of asphalt. City residents could have to capture and collect the rain water that falls on their roofs if they want to receive city water service.…

December 24, 2009 1 Comment

Survivalism vs the media

Cody Lundin, the survivalist author, spent two years spent living in a brush shelter in the woods where he slept on pine needles and cooked over an open fire, becoming disenchanted with his new role in the elite class of television survivalism presenters.

It seems like Hell may have broken loose after Cody issued a bizarre letter at the end of the first week filming his new series, Dual Survivor, for Discovery Channel.

“I have little if any control over how Dual Survivor is ultimately concepted, produced, and edited….” Lundin tells a small group of survivalism fans.…

December 24, 2009 7 Comments

Bankers nixed Copenhagen

It was obvious from the start that the Copenhagen climate conference was doomed.

World leaders were trying to square an impossible circle. They had to reduce carbon emissions whilst paying off the crippling debts incurred by Western financial institutions during the asset bubble of the past few years.

The only solution that would have led to an agreement in Copenhagen would also have caused riots in Washington, Paris, London, Berlin and Tokyo. The problem comes from an inability to level with the public as to exactly what has to be done to get a grip on pollution.

For carbon emissions to fall, energy use has to fall and for that to happen, either the population has to fall or GDP per capita has to fall (see our earlier article on this subject – https://off-grid.net/2009/11/12/scrap-carbon-targets-–-they’re-pointless/).

There is no chance of the population falling, unless H1N1 comes to the politician’s rescue. And that means GDP has to fall, which entails a shrinking economy. This in itself is no bad thing after decades of growth.…

December 19, 2009 2 Comments

All you need to go off-grid

Events

Haiti rebuild starts

Lori Ryker speaks

Off-Grid art show in Dehli

Haiti may rescue Venezuela

Greed is US

7 green building trends for 2010

Home hydrogen to spark energy revolution?

Saved by the neighbours

Johnson & Johnson zillionairess dies, ignored by family

Bloomington preppers

Survivalism vs the media

Bankers nixed Copenhagen

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