How to build a house for £4,000
Posted 03/01/09 by Matt B in the Urban category
It feels good to be right - building a house for a small price. This is something I dream about and long for. Here is someone that has done just that.All for £4,000.
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Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse
Posted 12/12/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
Our problems are of our own making. We made them and so it should follow that we can solve them too.What causes a society to fall apart? In this video we learn that there is always an environmental element that is the initiator.
What steps are you planning to take?
Save money by planting trees
Posted 16/11/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
Did you know that you can help to "save the planet" by finding ways to spend less money? Did you know, for example, that you can save money on your energy bills by the way you plant trees? That last bit I did not know.Which has more heavy metals a tin of tuna or an energy efficient bulb? All these things are covered in this one video.
How Green Are Green Cars?
Posted 30/10/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
In today's guest post Charles Cridland takes a critical look at "Green Cars" and asks how green are they realy?How Green Are Green Cars?
By Charles Cridland
With the issue of global warming taking on international importance in recent years, unsurprisingly the focus has fallen on car drivers, with cars seen as one of the major contributors towards global warming. Green cars have been held up as a potential solution, one that motorists should be embracing.
But are green cars actually 'green'?
Firstly, let’s take pure electric cars. Unfortunately these electric cars are anything but good for the environment. The electricity that they run on is produced in power stations, where only 30-40% of the energy is converted into electricity. Transferring this electricity along electric cables then results in a further 30% being lost to heat energy. So by the time this electricity reaches an electric car a huge amount of the energy has already been lost. Good for cutting down inner city pollution but efficient it certainly isn’t.
» Read More: How Green Are Green Cars?
Local Drinking Water
Posted 03/10/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
One story that is never likely to show up on the water section of the Green Moral Eco Portal is that of Thanet's Water Supply. Possibly because it is "too local" to be noticed. Thanet is in Kent, which is just south of London in the UK (EU).The big fear, aside from the concreting over of green spaces is that the entire island might end up with contaminated water. The reason for this fear is that large industrial complex (known locally as the China Gateway) is proposed to be placed right over the main aquifer for the island.
Local bloggers are worried that the donations made by the company building the project to local political parties may have clouded their judgement.
The issue is due to be heard before the full council shortly.
No More Poverty (part one)
Posted 06/08/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
If we take as a comparative society the medieval feudal system we can actually see that things rather than improving have simply changed and in changing allowed conditions for some to become worse. To justify this statement we will consider the conditions of poverty within a Feudalism Autocracy based society and compare it to the current system which is a generally Capitalistic Democracy. I will show that there are strong parallels that will allow us to consider our society from a new perspective.
Feudal Britain had a number of “working class” and poverty class levels which included the Slave, the Serf, the Peasant, the free labourer and the Artisan. The peasant and the artisan were free as were, often the free labourer. The surf and the slave were bonded to masters and were non-free.
It is tempting to consider the serf and the slave as equivalent but the serf would rightly have been able to look down on the feudal slave. A slave was effectively forced labour with minimal (if any) rights and they were not considered citizens. The surf was a bonded servant and had rights and citezenship and could expect to be cared for, housed and fed in return for his labour.
The surf had a contractual arrangement with the master that included the masters requirement to care for the surf and would often include a period of bondsmanship which might have been in lue of payment of debts. The bonded surf (and his family) would then work for the master (most often on his land).
» Read More: No More Poverty (part one)
Pissing in your own well?
Posted 19/05/08 by Matt B in the Urban category
Following on from the question What replacements are there for main water? is a story from Thanet (where I live). Local Thanet District Councillor for the Eastcliff ward in Rmasgate, Thanet (Kent, UK) posts on blogspot "Save Thanet's Water where it quickly emerges that not only is the airport right on top of the area's main drinking water supply but a huge planned building project is due to be placed there too.This has led to the creation of a blog dedicated only to this topic. Save Thanet Water Supply says that there is potential for significant pollution of the aquifer to occurr and that the building work will take place on agricultural land (not brown field). The area in question is subject to "Source Protection Zones" of which I know very little but I understand this to mean that any liquid allowed to fall to the ground (or seep through) must be fit for drinking.
What has worried a number of people is that the selfsame council has a financial stake in the building work and full authority to grant itself planning permission where none other would gain it.
"I am not qualified to comment on how the project will affect the amount of water collecting in our aquifers but building on water catchment areas, inevitably reduces the water that reaches the aquifer. In dry years it is not inconceivable that water reserves will run out."
savethanetswatersupply.blogspot.com
Do any readers know of similar events and how they worked out?
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