Can advertising save the world?
Advertising is arguably responsible for more damage to our planet than any other human activity. More than manufacturing. More even than oil and coal extraction.
Plenitude
Many, including writer Juliet Schor,question the underlying assumptions of the consumerist mentality. She has just written a new book about it – Plenitude: The New
Daryl’s Travels
Daryl Hannah is on a world tour raising awareness of The Green Wave and the loss of biodiversity in the International Year of Biodiversity. First
Portraits of Maine off the grid
Portrait photographs of off-gridders living in Maine – intimate documentation of how off-gridders really live
Off-grid play is global hit
Success of smash hit play Jersualem has focused minds on off-grid themes in a way no other medium could. now it transfers from London to Broadway
From soft porn to Disney doc
A former soft porn writer and her film director husband have developed “a passion for living off-grid after three years in the middle of the
Off-grid Olympians
American Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter has returned to Vermont — to live in her yurt. “Mom has a huge garden and fruit trees,” she told
Up in the Air
George Clooney’s starring role in “Up in the Air” is a movie about a special class of off-gridder – the business traveller – living in
Medical self-reliance
by Susan France Bonner, Author of Opening a Registered Nurse’s Eyes: A Life Altering Journey Across North America. The health care debate in the United
Humanure – sawdust toilets
Sit, flush and forget, that’s what most of us do, multiple times a day. Composting toilets are the answer. We use perfectly good, drinkable water
Grid pollution kills 24,000 Americans a year”
A new report from Environment America names power stations as the biggest polluters in the US. It lists the dirtiest facilities and the dirtiest states.
My Off-grid plan
Treetop Jen has returned home to the UK, and now she is wondering how to reshape her life. Aim: to live off-grid in the back
Sustainable Medicine, Cuba and Peak Oil
What we have to learn from Cuba about self-medicine – when the oil runs out it will be needed
Greed cheerleaders sleaze splurge
Tracey Emin and Simon Cowell flaunt their wealth – are they out of step with the times or are we still living in the greedy 80s?
LaMar’s Simple Solar Homesteading videos
Some time back, I did a review of LaMar’s Simple Solar Homestead, a great (and inexpensive) ebook created by LaMar, the great thing about LaMar,
Top “eco-hotties”
NBC sports has come out with an appalingly sexist story naming its choice of the top “sexy and green” twitteristas. The list of female tweeters
French redefine wealth to include happiness
Economist Joseph Stiglitz heads task force to redefine French GDP
Chia pets or survival food
Remember those silly little Chia Pets? Little did we know then that those strange little seeds painted on those cheesy terracotta pots shaped like animals
Off-peg
Kate Moss off-grid fashion shoot with crusties in a field – the gypsy boho look – and despite the toe-curling hypocrisy it s a boost for off-gridders
Grandma goes TEOTWAWKI
I ran across this article today, it’s about a grandmother who has made the active choice to protect herself by prepping for an uncertain future.
The new-old way to cook / book review / video
Retained Heat CookingHave you heard about hot box, hay box or cook box cooking? It’s the new-old way to cook that saves energy, improves flavor
Alive and well-updates
Alive and wellHere is an update on what has been going on in our off-grid life. I know I haven’t written in a while, I
SS numbers are easy to fake
Social Security numbers can be easily predicted from your DOB and address according to new scientific paper
EDF:“Biggest greenwash in corporate history”
French energy company EDF stands accused of ‘Green Jack’, high-jacking the green Union Jack which already belongs to a small eco-energy company in the UK. It is accused of promoting itself as Green, when only 6% of its out put is sourced by renewables.
Off-grid medicine – horehound
Now I’ve gone and done it, (a Texas phrase), this is such a rare thing to happen to me, I am sick. There I said
Bittersweet sunrise
Ahhh, if only I had a camera that would/could capture the beautiful colors I am seeing right now. I am usually sleeping at this time,
Save our Mountaintops
Judd PalinThe clean-up crews are slowly moving in to deal with the smoking craters and ecological detritus of the Bush years. The latest teams actress
Secrets of happiness
A UK born Buddhist singer-songwriter explains why he is living in a yurt in the Spanish Pyrenees
Maverick millionaire
Exclusive interview with founder of Lush cosmetics who funds protest groups others would not touch
Why “survival panic” is good
For many, their self image depended on consumption. now they no longer have money, they descend into wierdness. Long term the result of less consumption is a net benefit
Eco Innocence
We are living through a massive extinction of species on Earth The true innocents are the planet’s endangered species.
Pictures…
…are worth a thousand words, or so they say, I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of myself, I know that when
Brown is the new Green
Big Brother’s marketing men have appropriated the word ‘Green’ to help sell us more stuff — it’s time for a new word.
3 of 100 things…
…that you may not know about me. … This is a continuation of a list 100 things that you might not know about me. Well,
2 of 100 Things…
… that you may not know about me. This is a continuation of a list 100 things that you might not know about me. With
Miss Manners
Hey everyone, I have a Miss Manners type of question and would like your honest input. Here’s the situation, I am about to be going
Mind Games pt 1
If you want to participate in a small experiment and start on the road to improving your mind and body, before you read any more
Interiors Editor goes off-grid
Style mag boss takes her 2nd home off-grid and makes her first home “more Hollywood.” Right.
End of Consumerism
WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell has announced the end of the consumer society in a remarkable series of unreported speeches to the business community
Citizen energy at SolWest
SolWest fair in Oregon is a key meeting place for off-gridders. This year the themes are Citizen energy and transport.
Sundance has The Green Idea
Sundance channel has started it’s second season of their regular programming called The Green. The Green is both on TV and interactive by way of
Getting the Children Involved
When deciding on changing to a more self-sufficient lifestyle it’s important to include your children in on the reasons why and it’s benefits. Some children
Telecommuting spreads
Telecommuting has multiple benefits including: increased control of your life, improved work-family balance, reduced stress and greater worker retention.
Telecommuters the norm by 2018
Big companies expect more of their staff to work from home, or sub-contract. There will be no job security, yet employers will have more power, management study forecasts.
Autobiogeographies
Social mapping and mashups are the next big thing. There are civil liberties worries, but the power of the GPS to find people like you wherever you go is too great to ignore.
The Land
The immortal song by Woody Guthrie is about to become the anthem for a new generation of dispossessed.
How to disappear
There is plenty we can do to fight back against the surveillance society.
Energy and global warming
The Intergovernmental Climate Change Panel’s 2007 low-end temperature prediction for this century is a 3.6
Island addiction center
Behind the scenes at an Off-Grid addiction treatment center with many star clients
Fortune steps tentatively off-grid
Birds make great ringtones Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.This piece from Fortune Magazine sums up the ambivalent relation many of the Blackberry
DANGER from the Grid
Stoate: fear of frying Britain edged closer to a ban on house building near high voltage power lines THREE YEARS after it was first announced
Just green friends
Cameron Diaz and new boyfriend David de Rothschild are an eco-item according to the London Daily Mail
Kirsten Dunst rambles on
Kirsten Dunst loves wild-walking, designing eco-handbags and going to the Oscars in a hybrid.
Burning man, Green man
As the founders of Burning Man struggle for control of this iconic off-grid anarchist art event, it has been announced that this year�s Burning Man in late August will have an environmental theme.
God is off-grid
Hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christians are getting the off-grid message
Jessica Alba – secretly green?
Jessica Alba’s two new films have apparently persuaded the actress to embrace her green side. In the Fantastic Four sequel, The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Alba will be driving a Hybrid car � the �batmobile� of the Fantastic foursome, Fantasticar. In Good Luck Chuck, she’s a dolphin trainer. She’s also a fan of cult organic labelsLush, 1921 Premium Denim and Levi’s ethically-made jeans.
Orlando Bloom’s Epiphany
Orlando Bloom is taking time out from acting to study Buddhism, and he is building a nearly off-grid home in London at the same time. Orlando says he needs time to reflect on what�s going on in his life. He embraced Buddhism after a break-up, and says it helped ease the pain after the four-year relationship ended.
Four women living their dream
whitepod, cornish Tipi holidays, Canvas Chic, Vintage-Vacations
Power and Water – problem solved
Dean Kamen, remote power, clean water, water treatment,
The Toxic Consumer – book review
dangerous chemicals, household chemicals, toxic groceries,
Heading down the river
Clay Jenkinson, Little Missouri River, Melanie Carvell, North Dakota,
Prepare and Survive says Lovelock
James Lovelock, Revenge of Gaia, end of civilisation, self-regulating planet,
H5N1 – cashing in on killer flu
H5N1, Tamiflu, Nature, Tokyo University, oseltamivir, Roche, zanamivir, Relenza,
Slow down? Manana….
Carl Honore, In praise of slow, Blackberry, Canberra, downshifting, slowing down, dropping out, Orion,
Downshifting lovers of Oz
Jo-Anne Baker, downshifting, sex, relationships, Australian Institute for a Just Sustainable Peaceful Future,
I Feel Free re-release
Cream – Songs of Freedom Classic Rock band Cream have re-released their hit song “I Feel Free” after 35 years. Its not exactly an anthem
Free fitness and a cleaner UK
Volunteers wanted Hundreds of ‘green volunteering’ activities are being organized in May to combat the stress and strains of modern living. In an attempt to
Wild food for free
free food, wild food, richard mabey, roger phillips, food for free, wild mushrooms,
Ayhuasca and Alistair
Alistair Appleton, Ayhuasca, Brazil, shaman, Cash in the Attic, native Indian medicine,
Women for a Clean and Healthy America
Keely Shaye Smith The Environment 2004 kickoff in LA drew a strong slate of celebrity environmental activists including Pierce Brosnan, Melissa Fitzgerald of “West Wing”
The Vision Quest Ceremony
by Sarah Brown Founder Meredith Little Four days and nights alone in the California desert without food or shelter is not everyone’s idea of a
Here be Unicorns
Moonrise Photographer Colin Prior, who took this photograph says: I am fascinated by the fleeting nature of the optical phenomena I observe outdoors, such as
Be your own Yes-Men in 3 steps
The Yes-Men got international coverage when one of them impersonated a spokesman for Dow Chemicals and announced a multi-billion dollar compensation settlement for the people
Organic Christmas Recipes
We all know its an orgy of pointless over-consumption. But despite our moaning, most of us succumb to the jingle of bells and the mulling
Power-napping is a political statement
Sleep, it seems, has become a luxury. A report published earlier this month by po-faced think tank Demos found that 39% of adults suffer from
Nice little package
Imagine this. In the future, you get in from a long, hard day. You open fridge a take out a slab of pasta and pop
Pod Life
Off-Grid loves any excuse to kick back and enjoy the view, and design team The Collaborators have made it possible to do that just about
How to build your own Power Plant
So you live in a two bed room semi detached house in a regular housing estate. Despite appearances, (and perhaps assumptions), even the most conventional
Sports sandals
In the past couple of years, sports sandals have grown up, evolving from cousin of the flip-flop to globetrotting year-round shoe.
Be ready for first aid
Not a plaster to be had and several unopened jars of stuff you’ve never heard of? Quit buying overpriced First Aid kits off the shelf
Organic Week
Organic Week 4th to 12th September all across the UK. Events include the Organic fair in Bristol on 4th and 5th Sept, discounts on organic
Walk the walk
Walking is the simplest of all off-grid experiences. Visit a site dedicated to walking. We-walk.com is a collective of artists, surfers and travellers who post
Grow your own clothes
A pair of knickers made of stinging nettle fibre is part of a UK government-funded scheme to show off new uses for one of Britain’s
Recipes 4 Survival – Manifesto
Recipe$ 4 $urvival, Utilitarian Cooking and Much More by Donna Goldman The aim is that mo more than four dollars is spent on additional ingredients