Nick Rosen at Edinburgh book festival

Nick Rosen “free yourself”

Off-Grid Editor Nick Rosen will challenge the UK government to make clear exactly what its plans are on the five eco-towns it proposed building back when Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office in June.

Nick will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival at midday talk about his personal journey to a free-er, greener life and to promote his book, How to Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside the System.� He has visited and learned from those who have simplified their lives and reduced their dependence on the major utility companies.� He will present his unique solution to the national housing shortage, and advise Gordon Brown on how he can make good on Labour�s promise of building the eco-towns.

Rosen kicked off his book tour in June, at the Hay Literary Festival, and this talk in Edinburgh is the final leg of his summer speaking enegagements. He will talk about his trip around the UK, traveling to off-grid communities from Totnes to Ullapool, driving a veggie-oil powered camper vanincluding the remote peninsula of Scoraig, where there are now 80 off-grid households, up from just three in 1964. On the platform with him for part of the talk will be a resident of Scoraig who will talk in detail about the way of life there.

Rosen calls Scoraig the most successful off-grid community in the British Isles, and will explain why he thinks it is a shining example to the rest of the country. He is skeptical of Gordon�s brown�s new eco-towns, saying �Despite all the government’s talk of affordable housing and eco-towns, it is well nigh impossible to get planning permission anywhere that is truly affordable. The prime minister’s pledge to build five eco-towns is all very well, but to be truly sustainable, shouldn’t they start as eco-villages and grow organically? They need to be populated by people who have the desire and know-how to live sustainably. Where is Gordon Brown planning to find these paragons?�

With the book tour concluded, Rosen plans to spend more time campaigning for a change in the planning and zoning laws around off-grid building, as well as researchinga book about Off-Grid in North America. He can be contacted at nick(at) off-grid.net.

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