Posts from — January 2010

Bellerive: we must decentralise

Off-grid technologies, such as lights and cookers has been a major feature of the Haitian relief effort. And as the international aid effort is finally getting through to the people, thoughts are turning to the next stage: the reconstruction.

Now an off-grid approach is the best hope for the long-term reconstruction of the stricken country say politicians and development experts.

The effects of the earthquake that struck on Jan 13 were so debilitating, at least in part because power, water, government, fuel, transport and distribution were all centered on the capital Port Au Prince. Once that was destroyed it was difficult to provide even basic amenities to the population of 7m.

Speaking this week Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said; “We have to decentralize. It’s the only way to be efficient. It’s also the only way to avoid the same problems happening in Haiti again.”

(more…)

Ryker - off the grid pioneer

Lori Ryker, architecture professor and author of two books about Off The Grid living, will speak at Louisiana state University college of art & design, Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 103 of the Art & Design Building.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Lori is researching the relationship between communities and the larger environment relative to design and building practices. (more…)

Raqs media collective

The Anant gallery in Dehli had a group show last month called Living off the Grid. It was about ways to escape the many grids that circumscribe our lives.

Here are curator Meera Menezes notes on the show:

Like it or not, our lives are enmeshed in the intersecting lines of a Grid in the worlds both real and virtual. (more…)

Barnett & Hearne: ground source

It’s hard to live off-grid, disconnected from mains electricity, gas and water, in a small, densely populated country like the UK. That’s why off-grid living in this country has hitherto been limited to travellers, hippies, dedicated greens, and unsociable eccentrics.
But finally it seems that the appeal of the life off-grid is going mainstream as increasing numbers of perfectly conventional people choose to live sustainable lives unfettered by connected amenities. (more…)

Time to act

Actor and broadcaster, Griff Rhys Jones has joined the battle against the Grid. He opposes the new electricity towers,or “Super pylons,” which are supposedly needed as part of the coming “Smart Grid.” Here is Griff’s manifesto against the new Super-Grid:

“We live in perplexing times for rationalists. The people of Suffolk have recently been presented with a “choice” by National Grid, the largest electricity provider. You may recognise the proposal from the school playground: “What do you want, a punch or a slap?”

The “punch” is a new length of super pylons across an exquisitely beautiful landscape (more…)

Chavez - joke's over

At the same time as the Venezuela government introduces measures to ration electricity, President Hugo Chavez accuses the US government of deliberately engineering the Haitian earthquake.  But the sight of U.S. Marines on Venezuelan TV, risking their lives to save the poorest Haitians, reminds Venezuelans that those Marines could help save them.

It might set Venezuelans to questioning just why Chavez remains their president.  If it does, the irony would be of U.S. Marines taking Chavez down — without even firing a shot.

Chavez told Spanish newspaper ABC that the earthquake was the product of a “tectonic weapon” launched by the U.S. Navy in a test-run for the U.S.’ ultimate target: Iran. (more…)

Cujatar - won permission

If you want to go off the grid in the UK, Pembrokeshire is where its at. It now has recognised over 50 off-grid homes.

Officials around the country are doing everything to discourage individuals and groups from living simple, low-carbon, off-grid lives – in other words, despite all the talk about going green, anybody who actually wants to live a truly green life has to overcome many obstacles.

But Pembrokeshire may become the exception. A low-impact dwelling near Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire, Wales, has just  received retropective planning permission. This is the third such project in the county to be officially recognised. A small settlement on land at Brithdir Mawr, and the Lammas project, which intends to build at eco-village on the outskirts of the village of Glandwr have already been rubber stamped. (more…)

New veg-box scheme

The world’s first portable, containerised vegetable garden is set to be delivered in April. The scientifically developed  “vegetable factory”, from Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. is an insulated 40-ft shipping container, equipped with water-circulation system and LED lighting.

Reacting to a scandal caused by the importation of pesticide-tainted dumplings from China, Japan is seeing a number of designs emerge for small vegetable factories in which crops are grown artificially. Many are cultivated hydroponically in tiers of shelves under energy-saving LED  lighting.

Some are so small that they can be installed in a floor space equivalent to a “tatami” mat (2 metres square). (more…)

Symbol of a sick society

George Clooney’s starring role in “Up in the Air” is a movie about a special class of off-gridder – the business traveller – living in a peculiarly amoral world, of airports, corporate hotel rates and frequent flier cards. George Clooney plays a smooth-suited consultant whose job is firing people at a time when downsizing is the fastest growing industry in the US.  “We take people at their most fragile and we set them adrift,” says Clooney’s character.

Directed by Jason Reitman, the hero of Up in the Air inhabits an entirely new state: Airworld, where the hometown paper is USA Today, the laptop-plus-executive-lounge is the office, a mobile phone is the only permanent friend, the indigenous cuisine wilts under heat lamps, and the citizenry speaks a Byzantine dialect of upgrades, expense accounts, and market share. (more…)