Small Revolutions: Voluntary Simplicity in Devon

Google UK Carbon Footprint Map - But what about Google.com?

Google UK has brought out a carbon footprint calculator and map where you can stick your green, orange or red pin on a map after calculating your carbon footprint. It's at http://www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint

It's a great little tool and without being judgemental, shows you whether your footprint is considered low, medium or high.

I moved the map to the US and found only a handful of people had done it. Then I went to the same address but on Google.com and found that it wasn't there.

Google has such a vital and far reaching impact on our digital age and the way they access information that I think they should roll it out globally - that it could genuinely impact the consciousness of the millions of digital citizens and encourage people globally to reduce their carbon emissions.

So I'm asking any American or Canadian readers coming across this to click on the link above, calculate your footprint and put yourself on the map.

Then get your friends to do the same.

If you have a blog, post this address http://www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint and help show Google through force of numbers, that we should have it on Google.com and available to everybody.

If you're up for it - let me know where you have posted it and leave me a comment below or email me at reefskin AT gmail DOT com

Maybe, just maybe, it could be another gossamer thread helping to weave the fabric of a cleaner, greener world...

LETS (Local Exchange Trading System)

Yes, Exeter does indeed have a LETS organisation.

http://www.exeterlets.org/

I love the way LETS is so subtle. It creates an economy where money is not used, essentially allowing people an agreed way of sharing skills and services as well as receiving them.

It's subtly radical and decentralist, just like the philosophy and practise of permaculture...

Free Book Download: Plan B 2.0 - Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

Every now and then you come across a book and you want to buy everyone you know a copy of it. This is one of those books.

We know what the problems are for the planet. Now it's time to get behind a solution.

Written by the president of the Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown, it's an examination of the problems we face right now and how we can make the transition to a new economy which is sustainable - without overshoot, without collapse - and solving third world poverty at the same time.

I haven't read it all yet, and I will review it when I have finished it, but so far this book does what no other book I've read so far has done: it's putting together all the solutions we know we already have, and envisioning them on a planetary scale.

It is big picture stuff. It's about solutions and not problems.

More than ever, we need a shared vision which we can buy into collectively - at all levels - because too many of us just feel like 'individuals doing our bit' which can be lonely sometimes, and frustrating when we see the prevalence of the problems.

More than ever we need the hope and the optimism that we can really bring about change in a cogent and structured way. This book shows how it could all knit together in a plan for a new economy - Plan B.

Whether you buy a copy of Plan B 2.0 - Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble or you download chapters for free it's a book I think will be very important.

I'll try and review it in the next two weeks, but you can dip in and out of it and judge for yourself by visiting the Plan B 2.0 minisite at the Earth Policy Institute.

Free & Subsidised UK Composting, Wormery & Water Butt Schemes.

I am so unbelievably impressed with Hackney Council right now. In the past few weeks they have implemented a blue box scheme for compostable waste. It's composted in Edmonton - which is just 7 miles away and the result is used by the council in local parks and suchlike.

Now, I was in bed with a cup of tea thinking (as I am wont to do) about stuff this morning. I worked out that if just 1 in 10 people in Hackney composted just 2.5kg of vegetable waste each week, it would save the transportation of 2.6 million kilos of waste around the borough each year, reducing our carbon footprint even further.

So I phone up Hackney council asking about subsidised or free (here's hoping) home composting bins. It turns out they have a deal with a company called Original Organics Ltd in Devon. Not only do they offer composting bins substantially subsidised by Hackney Council, they also offer heavily subsidised wormeries. Woohoo!

I have always, and forever, wanted a wormery but never bought one as they have been quite expensive (I have seen models selling for £80 and more).

Here is the current price list (correct in March 2007) for anyone who wants a wormery, a composter or a water butt and lives in the borough of Hackney:

• The Original Wormery - £17.99 (save £31.96)
• The Junior Wormery - £12.99 (save £18.46)
• Rotal 220litre Composter - £9.99 (save £9.96)
• Rotal 300litre Composter - £9.99 (save £12.96)
• Garden King 220litre Composter - £10.99 (save £13.96)
• Garden King 330litre Composter - £12.99 (save £14.96)
• Rain Sava Water Butt - £22.50
• Water butt Stand - £9.98
• Down Pipe Connector Kit - £6.98

Delivery is free, but it will take approximately 3-4 weeks. Alternatively you can pay £4.95 and have it delivered within 5 working days. Please contact Original Organics directly to order them.

What if I don't live in Hackney? For other people looking for schemes in other parts of the UK you might want to check out these:

• Lancashire County Council offers free compost bins
• West Sussex council are offering subsidised rainwater butts for water conservation
• Barnet are offering subsidised composters and wormeries
• Customer of Severn Trent Water can order composting bins & water butts
• Customers of Thames Water can get free hippos (save up to 3 litres every flush) and subsidised composters and rainwater butts

This list is far from exhaustive (please leave a comment if you know of any more), but it shows how the tide is turning and how questions of resource use are coming to the forefront of both local councils and companies. 

It's through the little actions we'll win this.

I'll try to build a more exhaustive resource over the next couple of months - not only do these schemes save money, resources and carbon, but the more we use them and ask for them, the more we positively reinforce the message back to these organisations that they're doing something good and that they are supported and going in the right direction.

Sorry to my chums outside of the UK - this has been a very local post - but if you know of any organisations that are doing this kind of thing elsewhere, please leave a comment.

All the best,

Rob

Ecological / Carbon Footprint Calculator

I've tried number of ecological footprint calculator sites - this is by far the best.

It's accessible, simple and shows you immediately and visually the things you can do to make a difference to your ecological footprint.

I've done mine and realised I still have some way to go before I can really consider myself green. It currently sits at 6.3 tonnes a year and if everybody lived like me, we'd need 2.1 planets to sustain it.

So I have still some way to go.

Have a play and you'll find it interesting changing the options to see what you can do to change your carbon footprint.

We're the change.

"A sustainable future emerges when citizens recognize the absolute necessity of change and use their tools of mass communication to undertake an unprecedented level of dialogue about the most healthy pathway ahead." Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity.

Logging on to my email today, I found an email from the health editor of Red Magazine.

Anna is writing an article for the June issue on voluntary simplicity, so we had a bit of a talk about what it means for me and why I do it.

Despite being horribly hungover (at 2pm in the afternoon) after my leaving do, I was surprised at exactly how much sense I made and how cohesive my thoughts were.

We may or may not get a link to the Voluntary Simplicity Book project. I'm hoping we will.

What's important is this: voluntary simplicity is a step towards ecology, happiness and a better quality of life. The more people that are interested in it, the more people will have a better quality of life and be happy and ecological. It's as simple as that. And we're all contributing in our own way to the health of our world together.

We, as individuals blogging, communicating online, talking together, are starting to create a trend. We are the innovators and change agents in Alan AtKisson's amoeba of culture.

Just by being here. Just by blogging. Or using forums. Or having a website.

It may seem for the most part self-absorbed and "all about me". Which it probably is, really, but who cares? No-one bugged Hemingway because he felt the need to write.

Today I realised that what we're doing here - as individuals, whether it's Jessica, or Dibnah or Mel - each from our own different perspectives really is the start of the kind of 'small revolution' I talked about in What's Your Small Revolution?

I started this blog off with nobody reading me - on average I get about 30 people (unique visitors, not subscribers) a day now. That's 900 a month. Over 10,000 if it continues for a year.

Together, in small and imperceptible ways we are all being the change we want to see in the world.

We may all have small voices individually, but together we shout and we are important and we do make a difference.

Today's small revolution is: keep talking, blogging, emailing, posting, communicating - you do make a difference.

9 Lights

A week or so ago I went round the house and I wass shocked to find there were 9 lights (with energy saving bulbs) which didn't need to be on around the house.

The thing is I am normally quite conscious about all that.

Perhaps its the energy saving bulbs which had me resting on my laurels.

Even better than saving some of the energy in a light bulb, is saving 100% of the energy...

Conclusion: Internet Free Day

I gave up smoking just over a year ago. This is probably one of the biggest achievements in my life, because nicotine is an iniquitously addictive chemical. I'm happy to give up TV too, and I have cut back on mobile calls by tearing up my contract.

In short I have a will of steel. Or so I thought.

Could I spend a day without logging on? Could I hell...

I logged on less, but my web-based job and years of using the internet as a social networking tool and general encyclopedia have meant I have wired myself in.

If there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it's the extent of my 'dependency' on the internet and how much it shapes everything I do.

I got through a week last December on my coppicing course without logging in, and practically no mobile coverage. So I know I can do it.

But it's really brought home to me how much a reflexive action it is for me to log on for my 'jolt'.

Which is precisely what I am doing now by writing this blog post...

Voluntary Simplicity Wiki: New Home

After a bit of fiddling, the Voluntary Simplicity Wiki is now at its new permanent home.

A couple of weeks ago we got a bit drunk one evening, and somehow ended up looking for domain names (as you do).

Well, being a little sozzled, I bought a couple of daft ones like www.strawbaleconstruction.co.uk (for the straw bale project down the line and another adventure). There's nothing there yet so don't bother visiting it.

But then I just tried another one: voluntarysimplicity.co.uk. And it was free! So I bought it and now that is where the voluntary simplicity wiki is.

So being drunk isn't always a bad thing.

Kyoto Protocol & China: My Part in Their Downfall

China will be building a coal fired power station (the worst possible type for CO2 emissions) every week for the next 7 years to support its super-charged economy [source: BBC News].

And why not? They want to catch up with the West and have their people experience the same affluence that we do. Which is one reason why they haven't signed the Kyoto Protocol.

So what did that have to do with me?

Well, firstly, I'm living in the midst of the world's 5th largest economy demonstrating the kind of 'affluence' that they keenly want to catch up on. Inequality creates aspirations.

But secondly, I buy products made in China. By buying products from China, I'm helping fuel their modern consumer economy.

A lot of people go on about how the earth is under climate threat but why should the US sign up to the Kyoto Protocol if China won't etc. etc. Blame the politicians and all that. That's all well and good. Maybe we can affect global politics, maybe not. Maybe it is the responsibility of governments, whether they are owning that or not.

But more importantly, I need to own my own actions. I am a part of a society that other people aspire to because of its affluence. Well, by de-emphasising that affluence in the way I live my life, I'm making the gap a little less wide.

Secondly, if I don't want the Chinese economy to be growing into a big new consumer economy, then maybe I should stop sending my money there. I regularly buy products Made in China.

So, whether I like it or not, my actions have contributed.

So rather than complaining about how the politicians and governments aren't "taking responsibility", and expecting them to solve the problem, I can still take care of and own my part of the problem.

And that's what it's all about in the end. Billions of people starting to take responsibility for their own part of the problem. Nothing more. Nothing radical.

Climate change affords us neither the time nor the luxury of laying the blame elsewhere. Governments are not, I repeat ARE NOT going to do anything about it until it's too late.

Which is why I have to. And every little bit counts.