The UK is in the grips of a power cartel, says an insider from the governing UK Labour Party.

That cartel actively hinders the fight against global warming by lobbying for its own narrow commercial interests at the cost of local democracy and the future health of the planet.   It’s an argument that off-gridders and anti-capitalist campaigners will be familiar with. It’s not really what you expect to hear from an advisor to Her Majesty’s Government. Yet it is precisely the belief of Alan Simpson, who occupies a place close to the heart of political power in Britain as  energy advisor to the Secretary of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband and Member of Parliament for Nottingham South.
>>Keep reading “Top govt advisor attacks Big Power”

Some time back, I did a review of LaMar’s Simple Solar Homestead, a great (and inexpensive) ebook created by LaMar, the great thing about LaMar, is he is actually LIVING this lifestyle, not just spouting theory.

>>Keep reading “LaMar’s Simple Solar Homesteading videos”

Nick: the age of the micro-grid Off-Grid expert Nick Rosen is giving a talk in Denver October 21st.

Is nuclear power a “Green” energy solution? What is the UK view? Is it a viable option for mitigating climate change? Can small nuclear energy modules provide the energy for off-grid communities – and in particular the baseload power required to make solar and wind power plants continuously productive?
>>Keep reading “Nick Rosen in Denver”

British prime minister Gordon Brown made an eco-promise when he first got the job – he would create 5 eco-towns.  Then it was ten eco-towns. Now it looks like we will be lucky to get two eco-towns – whatever they are.

So his claim in today’s speech to Labour Party conference that he would create a quarter million green jobs is likely to be just as much of a pathetic fallacy.
>>Keep reading “Green nonsense from pooped-out Brown”

The freedom of big power companies to pollute was curtailed this week when a New York court ruled that they can be sued to make them cut their carbon emissions.

The trail-blazing judgement by the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that five giant utility firms can be sued in federal courts because their carbon dioxide emissions are a public nuisance that contribute to global warming and other environmental problems including heat waves, smog, drought and forest fires.
>>Keep reading “Big Power loses freedom to pollute”

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) has warned of a new financial bubble fueled by banking greed and called for urgent, far-reaching reform of the world’s financial system and foreign exchange markets so they serve the people and productive economic investment, rather than the other way around.

The Unctad report questions the extent to which there is a genuine self-sustaining economic recovery going on, arguing that falling wages present a huge danger to the world that is being too often ignored by many economists and policymakers.
>>Keep reading “Fresh bubble threatens financial system”

Cycle-powered hovercraft UK campaigners are just dismantling a week-long “Climate Camp” in London which succeeded in highlighting the link between finance and the climate crisis in the world’s media.

Nearly 2,000 campaigners set up temporary home on Blackheath, an area of open common ground in South London, overlooking the financial towers of Canary Wharf and The City of London.

“We are targeting the City of London because it is the centre of an economic system whose obsession with economic expansion and the chase for profits is making it impossible to deal with the climate crisis,”
>>Keep reading “How to power a Climate Camp”

Berry: a calming effect What a coup!  Organisers of this year’s Wisconsin Book Festival have secured a personal appearance by Kentucky farmer and nationally acclaimed poet and writer Wendell Berry.

Festival director Alison Jones Chaim said, there was a feeling of doom and gloom about the economy, but …
>>Keep reading “Wendell Berry in person”

Union Hijack says Ecotricity

French energy company EDF has been accused of stealing the idea of a green Union Jack by a tiny eco-power company. The nuclear giant is using the logo to launch its first Green Britain day. So is EDF’s Green Day a laudable attempt at social responsibility, cynical corporate green-wash or just plain old theft?

For the past month French-owned energy company EDF has bombarded British consumers with images of British cultural icons dyed green to promote the first Green Britiain Day.

Despite the fact that only a tiny fraction of its own energy is generated from renewable sources, the company describes the event as a “landmark national initiative to help people reduce Great Britain’s carbon footprint by 2012.”
>>Keep reading “EDF:“Biggest greenwash in corporate history””