Posts from — January 2007

Its Sundance time again

Robert Redford is presenting a three hour slot about the Environment every week on his Sundance channel. Called THE GREEN, it launches April 17, 2007 at 9pm, the first major, regularly- scheduled programming dedicated entirely to the environment.

Consisting of three hours a week, The Green will present original series and documentary premieres about the earth’s ecology and concepts of “green” living. It mixes information and entertainment, with an emphasis on information, practical advice and community building say station chiefs. (more…)

Green is her color

She romanced Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Departed,” and she may be in line for an Oscar.

I like being off the grid,” says actress Vera Farmiga, who eschews Hollywood excesses by living on a goat farm. “I can’t do Los Angeles. I’ve always been the anti-Barbie. I don’t want to be in a place where almost every woman walks around with puffy lips, little noses and breasts large enough to nourish a small country.” (more…)

Its lonely in Northern Canada

Thanks to guest writer Tenzicut from Down to the Roots magazine for penning this off-grid diary:
I looked out the window this morning and saw the cattle at the fence waiting for their meal. I had not yet had my own. Before the cows started pushing on the fence, I got into the thick wool sweater from the second hand store, wool army pants I have had for the last 15 years, a heavy winter coat, a touque and my fur hat. Last to go on were the (more…)

Uptight Pringle Bay.za

It seems that NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) are a global phenomenon. The Pringle Bay Ratepayers Association near Cape Town, South Africa has voted unanimously to oppose a self-sufficient eco-village on the Buffels River at Pringle Bay consisting of 79 off-grid houses  using rainwater, solar power and gas instead of relying on municipal services. The proposed village would have its own sewerage system.

The 300 prissy, Pringle Bay residents say it would set a precedent (more…)

First off the grid

Film star Cate Blanchett has announced plans to run the first completely off-grid mainstream theatre group.

Speaking in her home town of Sydney, where she is relaxing as she waits for five films she is starring in to be released, Blanchett is about to re-focus on theatre, and turn the Sydney Theatre Company, where she and her husband, Andrew Upton, are artistic co-directors, eco-friendly. “We intend to initiate discussions with companies with the aim of making the building self-sufficient, to green the building,” (more…)

Al Rutan & tabletop digester

The production of natural gas (CH4) occurs everywhere in nature in swamps, bogs, coal mines, land fills and in the guts of warm blooded mammals. In fact, anyplace where organic matter is present and air is excluded.

It is this same vapor gas that the utility companies market. Made by nature and deposited in the ground over eons of time, the chemical formula is one part carbon to four parts hydrogen (CH4). (more…)

Begley: easy to be green

TV and movie actor Ed Begley Jr would like to go off-grid but my wife and daughter are not ready for that, he told us in an exclusive interview between takes for his new reality series, set in his own home and co-starring his wife as the reluctant partner in his drive to go eco. He thinks everyone should try to go off-grid right now. It would radically change everything and solve a host of other problems.

I’m connected to the grid, but use it rarely, since I have 6.5 KW of solar on my roof, he said via email. (more…)

Ruth – “posh camping”

As off-grid life moves rapidly from fringe activity towards the mainstream, we profile four women who have built businesses around the growing demand to step off the treadmill without dropping out of the race.

First comes Ruth Lawson, founder of canvaschic.com which offers 3-star camping holidays in France and the rest of Europe. A traditional camping holiday usually means either being in a row with hundreds of other campers or really going outback with a tiny tent on your back. Canvaschic offers 12 individually and stylishly furnished Yurts. (more…)

Waste to Art

Bill Sorich always knew he would grow up to be an artist. He gestures toward the metal odds and ends piled neatly along forested pathways at the edge of his driveway in Palo Alto. “This is my little gold mine of good stuff,” he says with a grin. “I’m one of those guys who doesn’t waste anything,” The sight of rusting fire hydrants and metal rods reclaimed from old buildings may not appeal to everyone, but these are the raw materials from which Sorich, a blacksmith by trade, fashions his metal art creations. (more…)