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Lydia Polzer

by Lydia Polzer on January 6, 2009 · 2 comments

in COMMUNITY


Putin: “Europe has nothing to fear” European Union leaders denounced Russian actions today as “completely unacceptable” after gas supplies via the Ukraine were reduced by 70 per cent, resulting in immediate shortfalls.

But there is little the EU can do, especiallyif oil prices remain high.  If the action continues, the gas Grid may fail to meet demand in many EU states, including the UK and Ireland.

About 80 per cent of EU imports of Russian gas are transited across Ukraine. And a cold snap across the continent has reduced stockpiles. Worries about the gas supplies, coupled with Israel’s military operation in Gaza, have pushed oil up to a three-week high close to $50 a barrel. Russia, whose main export is oil, stands to benefit for a recovery in prices,

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Homer!

March 2, 2008
Homer! You've got fish HOMER, Alaska It�s the westernmost off-grid community in America. And make no mistake, It�s a community. Its literally at the end of the road, where the Sterling Highway peters out at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. They call it the Halibut capital of America. But its a lot more than that - with art galleries, fine dining, an impressive museum, and amazing scenery across the jagged peaks and glaciers of the Kenai Mountains.

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Weekend Getaways

June 27, 2007
Weekend GetawaysFrom CA to Scotland Eco-holidays are all the rage, but how eco are they when the offer mains power and water, and all the other luxuries of modern life? Here are four genuinely off-grid vacation opportunities, though whether they are really weekend getaways depends on where you are travelling from. Martin Foster, a farmer, has an off-grid holiday cottage by the banks of Loch Sween in Argyll. The cooker runs off bottled gas while the lights are powered by a small 300 second-hand wind turbine -charging two tractor batteries. "You get about three hours' television on a windless night, and if it's windy you can watch all night," says Foster. To rent Martin ...

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UK Coast is clear

June 20, 2007
UK Coast is clear

Snooty hotels hate new law.Thousands of property owners in England and Wales will be contacted by UK Government officials from Natural England over the next few weeks to negotiate details of a 10 metre wide public corridor around the entire UK coastline. This includes the Royal family whose Sandringham estate in Norfolk still bars walkers from several miles of picturesque seashore. Off-Grid welcomes this move to free the historic 9040 miles of coastline which, in the words of Environment Secretary David Miliband yesterday, "tackles the unfinished business of opening Britain's land to the people"

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Off-Grid book a hit at Hay Festival

June 1, 2007
Off-Grid book a hit at Hay FestivalNick Rosen: "get the book"The Guardian Hay Literary Festival was the first night of a summer-long tour by Off-Grid editor Nick Rosen. Our new book How to Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside the System is out next week and Nick is criss-crossing the country in the Off-Grid van giving a talk and a slideshow. The sell-out talk was given a rave review in Guardian Unlimited. We will be publishing extracts from the book over the next few weeks, and you can contact us for signed copies (see left hand column). Nick Rosen will be appearing at the Big Green Gathering, the Port Eliot Literary weekend, and finishing his tour at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 25th August. The talk covers his reasons for going off-grid, the political context of the off-grid movement, and why there needs to be changes in the law

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Cate Blanchett goes off-grid

January 10, 2007
Cate Blanchett goes off-grid

First off the gridFilm 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,"

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Take your mind off grid

December 20, 2006
Take your mind off gridShhh! Im meditating Lydia Polzer spent last Christmas on an intense 10-day retreat - you can still book yourself in for this year.

Ever since I lost my childish thrill about everything sparkling, Christmas lost its, well, sparkle. So I was relieved to find a low-impact alternative to crackers and stockings last year on a hill near Sheringham in rural East Anglia. A 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat does add a new dimension to Silent Night. Using their meditation techniques, the Christmas period in noble silence sounded like music to my carol-worn ears. I added up the hours to learn meditation on the daily schedule of the retreat and felt a little intimidated when I got to eleven. Thats a lot of silence.

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How to build an Eco-hideaway

October 24, 2006
How to build an Eco-hideaway

eco-hideawayWe are Bob & Diane Kirkwood, we live in France, have done so for about six years, and over the last two we have become accidentally involved in the world of off-grid living and holiday lets. About three years ago we managed to get hold of a small parcel of woodland, two and half hectares, just down the lane from our house. Its a lovely spot, a heavily wooded valley with a small, source-fed lake. Set back from the edge of the lake is our holiday rental cabin. It is small, only 5 meters by 4 meters, but it contains all you need to live.

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Green Mortgages – ethical living

October 3, 2006
Green Mortgages – ethical living Green loans

If you want to buy off-grid real estate, whether it is a piece of land or a building plot, there are a number of major banks and building societies in the US and the UK which offer ethical or ecological mortgages. They will lend on assets that others banks might not be willing to accept.

Triodos Bank in Bristol, UK, is one of the best ethical lenders, but they do not offer domestic mortgages. However, if what you want is a smallholding and attached cabin, they might be just right.

In North Carolina, the State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) has approved a Green Mortgage Program. The new mortgage encourages home energy conservation with expanded debt to income ratios, a 50% reduction in origination fees, and 100% financing for qualifying members.

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