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Remember the classic sitcom “The Good Life?”  John Seymour, the man whose books inspired the series, spent the latter part of his life on his small holding in Wexford.   Despite his profound commitment to being self-sufficient and living off-grid, towards the end of his life he told Patrick Bridgeman of Positive Life that total self-sufficiency was just too difficult; what he envisioned for the future was co-sufficiency: self-reliant local communities that could work together to meet their needs and make the transition to a post-industrial society independent of fossil fuel.

To this end, the Cultivate Centre has developed a course to nurture community sustainability called “Community Powerdown – Training for Leadership, Livelihoods and Local Resilience.”  It can be taken as a weekend intensive workshop or over a ten-week period.  The Powerdown Show, made for broadcast on DCTV, is also available from Cultivate as a DVD.  We can’t all live off-grid or in eco-communities, but within the lifestyles we already enjoy we can change so much to improve our co-sufficiency - this show might just be The Good Life for the twenty-first century!

Imagine a city that is completely green - not just ecologically sound and sustainable, but literally, visibly, green as far as the eye can see?  This fantasy is becoming a reality around the world.   The movement known as vegitecture, or vegetated architecture, is taking off,  and is not just beautiful, but is also an environmentally friendly way to literally add life to a city.
The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris has an 8,600 square foot vertical garden featuring more than 170 different plant species.  The walls use a combination of sunshades, solar panels, and ventilation to catch water, making them self-sustaining ecosystems. The benefits aren’t just aesthetic — the walls reduce noise and provide natural cooling for the surrounding buildings because they soak up noise and heat, whereas concrete just reflects those things. Architects imagine people one day being able to grow and harvest food from vertical gardens.

One of the main leaders in the field is Ken Yeang, a Malaysian-born architect and writer who first designed the Tropical Skyscraper in 1992.  Examples of his visionary work can be viewed here. The technology required to create and sustain a vertical garden is rather complex, but considering it can reintroduce biodiversity to urban areas and even cut down on air conditioning and air purification costs, maybe Ireland’s urban planners could start including vertical gardens to their designs - we certainly have enough rain to water them!

It’s a dog’s life - sometimes being a website mascot is really demanding!  I’ve been on three photo-shoots now, and not once did someone style my hair or offer me any mascara.  Still, what can you expect from humans?  I forgive them - the main thing is that I’ll do anything to promote carpooling - besides the joy of car-surfing, I really hate smog and traffic.  My humans also seem to like sharing costs - and if they’re saving money they might be able to afford the odd treat for me, which is important!  Have a read of the article and see what you think - is my hair okay?

I’ve suspected it for years, and now there’s proof: a Journal of Applied Toxicology study recently linked the aluminium in traditional antiperspirants to breast lumps.  Whoever thought applying aluminium to your lymph nodes every morning was a good idea was probably the same person who dreamed up mercury fillings for teeth and turning cows into cannibals – some things just smell fishy right from the start.

As reported by Ecochildsplay, cancer researcher Philippa Darbre of Reading University is conducting a study of the levels of aluminium found in breast cysts, blood, and breast milk. Her research has found that levels of aluminium in cysts in the armpit area are 25 times the normal blood sample level.  She says, “this might be a wake-up call about the risks of anti-perspirants. Either women should stop using them or the manufacturers should look at ways of reformulating their products.”  Claire Dimmer, of Breast Cancer UK, feels strongly that antiperspirants should not be used, and hasn’t used them herself for over 15 years.  “Aluminium is in most of them and it mimics the effect of estrogen, a hormone known to promote growth of breast cancer tumours,” she says.  And let’s not be sexist – men get breast cancer, too, and they don’t need extra doses of estrogen or aluminium.

But quitting is easy – there are a number of non-aluminium deodorants on sale, though you do need to check the ingredients even in health food shops.  You don’t actually need to buy any product - it’s easy to make your own spray deodorant: just mix around 40 drops of your favorite essential oil in a 2-ounce spray bottle full of rubbing alcohol. For extra bacteria-fighting power, try oils with antiseptic qualities like tea tree, lavender, peppermint, or sage.  Not all hippies are smelly, you know!

According to the green US website The Good Human (which I recommend following on Twitter, for those of you tweeters out there), many neighbourhoods in the US and Canada are bringing the strength of collective bargaining to greening their homes.  More and more, neighbours are getting together and approaching green energy companies with a collective agenda.  Sometimes the community reps are able to negotiate far lower (sometimes as much as 25% less) rates for installation of solar panels.  In Colorado, the reps also found a company who were able to rent them the panels, thereby avoiding the large financial investment that installing them would have required, as well as the difficulties of maintenance.  Most of us who live in towns and cities in Ireland have access to a residents’ association, and in rural areas there are also local groups or locally elected representatives.  So if you’d like to go green but are concerned about the costs involved, don’t go it alone – see who else in your neighbourhood wants to join in - you might be surprised by the size of your new green community!

How would you like to get your electricity from wind power, and at cheaper rates than the ESB?  It’s really easy to switch to Airtricity online, all you need is your ESB account number (on your bill), and if you have the number of the meter reading to hand it makes things even quicker.  Within 5 minutes you can be finished with ESB and fossil fuels!

Airtricity is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).  The renewable-energy company, established in 1999, was the first independent supplier of green energy to customers both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  It has now built up a considerable infrastructure of wind farms across Ireland, with 17 onshore wind farms generating 878 mega watts of electricity – enough to power 180,000 households. At present, the company provides green energy to just over 60,000 customers across the island of Ireland, of which 45,000 are SMEs and 15,000 are domestic customers.

Airtricity has also just announced that they are to create 200 jobs in the Irish market, in the areas of sales, customer support, billing and support services. Fifty of the positions will be created in Airtricity’s headquarters in Sandymount, Co Dublin, with the remaining 150 comprising outsourced roles.  Green, clean, and profitable: these are the kind of green shoots that matter.

By now, most people have seen the clip on YouTube or even the feature-length documentary about GM crushing its 1999 electric cars at the behest of Big Oil.   Ironically, GM are now trying to furiously claw back their initial advantage with the Volt, though the field is a lot more crowded now.

Electric cars are all the rage, as illustrated by the British Government’s announcement last week of a £25m scheme to get the public to test-drive electric cars from various manufacturers.  John Walsh of the London Independent tested several of them, including the Tesla roadster, far and away the car of choice for anyone looking for speed and style, although a US home-made drag car version is just as powerful and a little more unique.
But as I’ve written before, switching from oil to electricity is a little like switching from heroin to methadone: it’s still addictive, messy and unhealthy.  More interesting to me are complete alternatives, like the hydrogen-powered car, although refuelling for this one could be a little more complicated.  But my number one prize goes to the Japanese water powered car - who can fault water as the fuel of the future?  Well, Big Energy, maybe!  Is that why we haven’t seen any publicity about this one?  The only method that could be more innocent to the environment is the velocipede - that’s right, pure calorie-fuelled energy as you pedal – for 14,000 dollars!!!  Glass of water, anyone?