Articles Directory

The simplest energy efficiency and renewables actions - taken seriously - can carry us right across 'the energy gap' - in one single bound! There is so much bad news around climate chaos that it is easy to lose heart.  We are so 'hooked' on the belief that we 'need' vast amounts of energy to live decent lives that we all shun tackling the root of the problem.

Systems ecologist, Folke Günther says it is food production that requires massive amounts of energy and is the major source of Carbon Dioxide. His concept, Eco-Units, radically reduces emissions by integrating agriculture and housing. He expands on his ideas in this interview.

We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow-men, and along those fibres, as sympathetic friends, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. Herman Melville

In recent years, humankind’s tolerance to faiths other than our own, generally, is on the up (in spite of what the media are telling us). Our sense of connection with the Universe, the Cosmos, is generally up too. Theories like ‘Gaia’ – once perceived as spiritual – are now widely seen as science. The world is ‘moving on up’!

Working authentically it is not always easy to find venues that are entirely congruent with your purpose or values.  The mainstream conference centres are a no go area and authentic venues are rare and generally involve some level of compromise.  Authentic Guide Rachel Stark went to have a look at an authentic venue with a difference.

For some time now our society has been dominated by the masculine (masculine is not neccesarily the same thing as male) and the gender balance has been skewed.  It feels to many that we may currently be entering a new era where feminine and masculine energies are more balanced.

The “80:20 rule” has served us well - in many spheres of life. Not least in commerce and business administration. But, like everything in the universe, it has limits. In truth the rule may be fatally flawed – especially when applied to systems involving individuals - to natural systems!

Huddinge, in Greater Stockholm, is the first municipality in Sweden to get its own urban walking map. The map will combat increased sedentary living and growing waistlines by encouraging people to get out and walk more. And for planners, highlight the importance of walking as environmentally friendly transport. Hopefully, Huddinge’s 89,000 inhabitants and planning departments will be in better shape and better prepared to meet the effects of rising fuel costs as oil becomes scarcer

The film Mad Max tells of a post-apocalyptic future in which society, because of a scarcity of fundamental resources, has degenerated into a self-destructive brawl. While this cult favourite is a work of fiction, it may soon be fact: all without the need for a nuclear explosion as the catalyst.

If you hate numbers, but want to get your head round climate change… to make the whole thing add up… here are some simple sums to give some scale to your thinking.