People

MARYSVILLE, Mont. (AP) – Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is proud of his off-the-grid getaway. A day spent with Schweitzer riding four-wheelers and talking politics makes it easy to understand why he’s one of the most unusual – and most effective – governors in the country.

The former scientist and mint farmer built its spring-fed fishing ponds, rigged the plumbing system, designed the rudimentary battery-and-solar-powered panel for the log cabin 40 miles from Helena. It has no cellphone service.

At his ranch – and anywhere else – Schweitzer, a popular Democrat in a conservative state, never misses a chance to leave a lasting, even outlandish, impression. “I’m well-armed,” says Schweitzer, who hangs a gun on his office wall despite a gun ban in the Capitol.…

David Higgins works for Interpol. He wants the world to wake up to eco-crime, and take steps to prevent it.

Higgins is head of Interpol’s Environmental Crime Programme. He helps police forces around the world when their investigations crimes like pollution, illegal deforestation or trade in animal parts take them across borders and outside of their jurisidiction.

Higgins started as a member of the Tasmanian police force, then moved to wildlife law enforcement for the Tasmanian government, and the the Australian Customs Service, then the Australian Department of the Environment before joining Interpol.…

“By the time I was 18 we owned three tractors, four cars and five computers,”says photographer Lucas Foglia. Growing up on a small farm in New York State, Foglia lived a very modern self-sufficient lifestyle. His family grew and preserved all their food. They bartered their crops for everything else they needed, including clothes, shoes and even visits to the dentist. But they also had all the attributes of modernity.

From 2006 he travelled through the southeastern US, befriending and photographing people who have abandoned the city to live off the grid and in many cases give up the accoutrements of modern technology.…

Prolific writer-producer JJ Abrams is behind the new series Revolution – a post-apocalyptic off-grid drama to air on NBC in a late-evening Monday slot – See series summary below.
The multiple award-winning writer directed and wrote the two-part pilot for Lost and remained active producer for the first half of the season. That same year he made his feature directorial debut in 2006 with Mission: Impossible III, starring Tom Cruise.

If trailer does not appear above click here to see.…

Canadian Country singer  Fred Eaglesmith is our kind of environmentalist.

“I’m not part of the trend. I’m not part of the Green Revolution,” he tells the Globe and Mail. “I don’t like the green revolution. Fashion is always a bad thing. It is very fashionable to be green right now. That means it will go away.”

He’s pushing a new album at the moment – needs to be a bit controversial, but we’re liking it.  Nick Rosen wrote an article a couple of years back – Brown is the new Green, and Eaglesmith is echoing that philosophy when he says “Corporations love it. Now they are marketing green. It’s just horrible. Green will go the way of the wide-legged pant.…

The Falklands (or the Malvinas Islands) is the world’s most hotly-disputed off-grid territory. Now, just as the UN Secretary-General exhorts Britain and Argentina to step down from the sabre rattling, a new player has appeared, in the form of Trade Union activist and bon viveur, Alicia Castro. The 62-year-old former Stewardess on Aerolineas Argentinas has been moved from the post of Ambassador in Caracas, where she became extraordinarily close to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (pictured to left of Castro), to take up her new role as Ambassador at the Court of St James.

Embassy staff are agog,…