The Story of Stuff is a little snippet of digital mastery from Free Range Studios that succeeds in succinctly capturing the environmental and social down sides of the consumer society that many of us are both victims and perpetrators of at the same time. It explores many of the hidden costs of the consumer chain from extraction of resources, through to production, distribution, consumption and disposal.
Every dog has its day and in February 2008, I had my date with the small screen where I, along with my neighbours at Lynedoch EcoVillage, the Mabeba family, unleashed ourselves on the South African TV-viewing youth in a programme called Keeping it Real on SABC 2 to talk about global warming in a dedicated episode on that topic. In a flagrant act of rampant self promotion, I cut and spliced some excerpts from the programme into a short 6 minute clip...
The following PDF document (1.09 MB) is a cursory assessment of some aspects of the environmental impact of my cottage at Lynedoch EcoVillage in the areas of water, waste and energy.
Paul Yeboah has informed me that Greg Knibbs, a certified and experienced permaculture practitioner from Australia, will be offering a Permaculture Certificate Course in Ghana from 23 April to 6 May at a cost of 500 000 cedis (about 395 ZAR or 54 USD). The cost does not include food and accommodation.
The Cognition site enters the realm of Web 2.0 (well, as much of Web 2.0 as our restrictive telecommunications monopoly will allow that is) with a 3 minute video clip summarising the building of my adobe cottage from the making of the unfired clay bricks to the final home.
I am impressed with myself I thought earlier. Four months after acquiring my solar cooker and not only am still using it, but my cooking has progressed in leaps and bounds from when I first started out, with roast chicken and potatoes being about as adventurous as I would get.
For the last 2 weeks, my Mechita has been running on B30 (a blend of 1 part biodiesel to 2 parts normal petroleum diesel), blended by pouring the biodiesel directly into the tank and with no modifications to the engine whatsoever. The B30 is enough to produce a strong aroma of french fries, characteristic of cars running on biodiesel produced using waste vegetable oil (WVO) as the feedstock and certainly beats the noxious odour of pure petroleum diesel.
Since becoming aware of their existence, solar cookers have always intrigued me. Yet I have to admit to having previously harboured a certain degree of scepticism as to their efficacy and practicality. A visit to some friends a week ago, where I witnessed a solar cooker performing some low level bean-cooking, had the effect of upgrading my intrigue to full bodied consumerism (with an ecological slant thankfully) which I acted upon...
My participation in the Building and Social Housing Foundation's study visit to the Solar Houses in Gårdsten, Göteborg, afforded me the opportunity to catch the X2000 high-speed tilting train (an experience in itself) to Stockholm where I spent an afternoon rambling around Hammarby Sjöstad, a high income urban development incorporating numerous sustainability related innovations. I felt at times like I was in some sort of futuristic movie. Pictures that I snapped of some of the features follow...
The first week of spring heralded my taking ownership of a W123 Series Mercedes Benz 300D, the icon of the veggiemobile movement. She (for she is a she) is a 1985 model with a seemingly undercounted 323 000 odd kilometres on the clock.
After the hints of optimism that emerged from the UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal earlier this month, it might be apt to revisit the somewhat poignant ending to George Monbiot's speech delivered at the Climate Change march on the 3rd of December lest we forget where the real struggle lies...
Global warming is already affecting Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that, “the effects of climate change are expected to be greatest in developing countries in terms of loss of life and relative effects on investment and economy.”
A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.
The building of my clay cottage at the Lynedoch EcoVillage is well underway. Foundations have set, the first few rows of conventional bricks are in place and the clay brickwork has begun....