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My week of living (very, very) cheaply
Stuart Jeffries, Guardian
A Shanghai businessman has challenged his fellow countrymen to live on just £10 a week (not including bills) – hoping it would inspire them to lead a simpler life. Would it be possible in this country? Stuart Jeffries finds out
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… This is the end of day one of my experiment to see if I can live on £10 a week – and I’m miserable. I’m doing the experiment because in China, at least 100,000 people have accepted a challenge to live on 100 yuan (about £10 a week) as part of a scheme to persuade big spenders to embrace a simpler life. My editor wants to know if it’s possible to live as cheaply in one of the world’s most expensive cities (ie London).
The Chinese experiment, devised by 24-year-old businessman Wang Hao, does not include accommodation costs or other regular debits such as fuel bills, council tax, etc. Wang’s aim was to stop himself spending so much on transport and food. He failed his self-imposed 100 yuan challenge. I’m pretty confident I will succeed.
(9 April 2009)
Green Patriot Posters
Sarah Kuck, World Changing
In response to the environmental crises we are facing today, our art-centric allies at The Canary Project recently asked artists to design powerful imagery that could rekindle our collaborative, innovative spirits — much like what the artists of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did during World War II.
Their Green Patriot Poster competition, which launched a few months ago, asks artists to create designs that illustrate strength, optimism and unity in the fight against climate change and drive for energy independence.
We stopped by the site to check out the entries that have been posted so far, and picked out a few that we thought did an excellent job of combining positive solutions with quality design:
(6 April 2009)
Energy Co-op Brings Power to the People
Peak Moment
What if a community owned its electric utility cooperatively, rather than paying a for-profit company? Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative could be a model. Energy Services manager Jessica Nelson describes how this locally owned, democratically governed non-profit serves the good of the community. Besides lower rates, customers benefit from incentives to conserve electricity, install geothermal heating/cooling systems, and solar panels (photovoltaics). The coop’s dream? To not only distribute power but to generate it — through a wind turbine project. (www.psln.com)
(19 February 2009)
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What Can Transition Initiatives Learn from Smallholders?
Rebecca Laughton, Transition Culture
Rebecca Laughton, author of the newly published ‘Surviving and Thriving on the Land’ (Green Books), has written the following article exclusively for Transition Culture, about what lessons Transition initiatives might learn from the smallholding community. It draws from the book, which is based on extensive research and interviews with people in a broad range of intentional communities and smallholdings.
– Rob Hopkins
Lessons from Low Impact Living on the Land, by Rebecca Laughton.
In order to feed ourselves in a post peak oil future, a much larger proportion of the population will need to live and work on the land. Such a prospect appeals to many, but are we prepared for the work involved in managing land with minimal reliance on fossil fuels?
Many communities focus on subsistence, rather than commercial food production, resulting in a significantly lower cost of living.
Many communities focus on subsistence, rather than commercial food production, resulting in a significantly lower cost of living.
During the past fifteen years, the low impact development movement has created affordable opportunities for people to live and work on the land. Tinkers Bubble was one of the first projects to obtain permission for a small community to live in self-built homes on 40 acres of land in Somerset. Members of the community manage orchards, grassland, gardens and a forestry plantation without the use of fossil fuel powered machinery, whilst aiming to derive their income from the land’s resources.
In addition, residents cook solely with firewood and generate electricity with wind and solar power. During the time I lived at Tinkers Bubble I worked hard at growing and selling organic vegetables, took part in the communal decision-making process, hand-milked our house cows, and sawed all my own firewood by hand. Whist my lifestyle was probably sustainable in terms of natural resource use, I sometimes found myself running low on that other, most valuable of resources – human energy.
The maintenance of personal health and happiness is imperative for the success of any environmental project, and I set out to discover how other smallholders and community members manage to balance their own needs, with ecological sustainability and economic viability. Many of my findings are applicable to the Transition movement, especially those who are endeavouring to adopt a low carbon, land-based lifestyle in an economy where cheap oil still provides challenges to economic competitiveness.
(8 April 2009)
