Archive for March, 2007

Agribusiness doesn’t have the greatest record in protecting the environment; it’s curious so many people are thinking it’s going to save the planet now. But anyone still convinced that biofuels are going to be a quick eco fix should take a look at…

Anyone who listens to BBC Radio 4 (and I appreciate that will not necessarilybe lots of you… but bear with me here) will know that Nigel Pargiter of the long-runing radio soap The Archers has gone green, much to the exasperation his frightful wife Lizzie. He’s ditched his car, and decided to buy only local produce for his conference centre, Lower Loxley Hall. His latest wheeze is eco weddings.

There’s obviously some kind of eco meme thing going on. After Carless in LA, I come across this guy. No Impact Man. He describes his mission thusly:

“A Guilty Liberal Finally Snaps, Swears Off Plastic, Goes Organic, Becomes A Bicycle Nazi, Turns Off His Power, Composts His Poop and, While Living In New York City Generally Turns Into a Tree-Hugging Lunatic Who Tries To Save the Polar Bears and The Rest of The Planet from Environmental Catastrophe While Dragging His Baby Daughter and Prada-Wearing Four Seasons-Loving Wife Along for the Ride.”

I just heard that Nigel’s Eco Store is being nominated for an Eco Award as Best Online Retailer by Real Homes magazine. That’s nice. I think I’m getting there. All feedback gratefully received.

I also just had as charming a comment as you can get from…

It’s freezing. Spring’s done a bunk. After a week of everyone smiling, people are grouchy again.

We’ve had Brown and Cameron huffing away trying to out-green each other and now there’s the inevitable backlash… pollsters and columnists grumbling about how they’re stuffing the green agenda down our throats and the British public don’t really care. Mutter mutter mutter.

Look out for an online alternate reality game with an ecological twist, World Without Oil, starting April 30th. Writerguy, who created the game says: “World Without Oil is the first major project to invite the Internet’s staggering collective intelligence and…

I’m just back from from visiting a walking buddy who lives at Findhorn - the spiritual education centre that first grew up near Inverness in the 1960s. It’s been three years since I’ve been there.

Ben Clowney has completed his week as Fairtrade Man, consuming only Fairtrade food and drink for fourteen days straight. Lots of nuts. Lots of bananas. Quite a bit of coffee, I should imagine. It was a nice stunt, even if he was reduced - at one point - to eating muesli fried in red wine.

Katie Rogers seems like a nice woman. She lives in LA. She decided to give up owning a car. Of course, this being LA, she also decided to make a movie about it, trading in her vehicle for a video camera. She completed the task early this year and is looking for ways to plug her movie. There’s a trailer on her site, Carless In LA.

I don’t know why I’ve always assumed that Eco Worrier is rather on the lightweight side of the ethical-living brouhaha. Since she started her blog on The Times website it sometimes seems like she’s been thrashing around in search of something to say, angsting about whether eco-friendly paint comes in the shades she requires and fretting about not being as committed as “Guardian greenies”.