The world’s favourite precious metal is hiding a dirty little secret. Laura Sevier reports on the truth behind the glitter, and asks whether gold can ever be green
So you want to go off-grid? Or maybe you want to find out what it’s like before taking the plunge? How about taking one room of your house off grid? It’s a less expensive way of learning the technology, before committing yourself.
Making the transition from wine writer to viticulturist was a leap of faith for Monty Waldin. What could he expect from his new hilltop vineyard in the Pyrenees?
Don’t be afraid of the recession, says Andrew Simms , it may just be the lucky break we need to get our heads around a more sane economy and a better quality of life
The corporate market has become the institutional equivalent of a compulsive eater. It has a built-in hunger that cannot be filled, and it is hard to stop the damage within the framework of its own game.
It’s the battle of the century. In one corner, the Economy – big, bloated, greedy and growing. In the other, the planet Earth – fragile, finite and fighting back.
What does quality of life mean to you? Is it the stuff you buy, keeping up with the Joneses? Or is fresh, clean air, the company you keep, and a less stressful living environment more important?
I’ve just been shopping. I went to London, walked into shops and bought things. New things. Not many – in fact my little pile of shopping bags is tragically small. I rapidly got bored and tired, and came back home.
Every year we’re landfilling or incinerating 200 million non-recycled, mass produced, unromantic valentine cards. So this year we should all make more of an effort to keep our romance and the planet alive.
February 1968. From South Vietnam the explosive Teêt Offensive has dealt a final blow to shattered US troops and sparked a worldwide appetite for insurrection. Left destitute by standards of living and provoked by a three-year war on their ideological comrades, student leaders across Europe rise up with a single voice ‘We shall fight. We will win. Paris, London, Rome, Berlin.’ Within six weeks, 20,000 protesters will besiege the American embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square. It is the Spring of Discontent, and revolution is the air.
A year ago, my brother, who is probably a better gardener than me (even though he does insist on giving half his land over to mangel-wurzels, whatever they are) gave me a book called "Gardening and Planting by the Moon"
Sometimes, choosing not to think like a scientist can be a good thing. Jon Hughes sits down with the Harrisons, environmental activists and conceptual artists
Three years ago, winter was not a good time of year for residents at Hoathly Hill in West Sussex. A community founded in 1972 on the principles of Rudolf Steiner, many of Hoathly Hill’s residents enjoyed the sense of quiet self-sufficiency that living on a smallholding in Sussex’s High Weald gave them.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average UK household spends more than £870 per year on fuel and power, and produces around six tonnes of CO². £300 of this cost (and around two tonnes of CO²) could be saved by being more energy efficient.
