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Hello world!  Here we are in a new year (whose digits total 11, which is always exciting for those of you with a taste for numerology: a gateway year, transformation from the earthly to the divine, and more) and so as well as our repeated call for everybody to carpool, rideshare, hitch a lift! I also wanted to share some good news stories, of which there are, happily, several:

1: The Motorola Renew phone - entirely made of rubbish, and totally recyclable!  Let’s all tell the other manufacturers that’s what we want.

2: Malawi, one of the most afflicted and poorest countries on earth, is turning its fortunes around by rejecting chemical fertilisers and returning to organic composting methods, with bigger, healthier yields. There’s more on this at The Independent website.

3: Speaking of traditional methods, an even bigger scheme is being hatched by the founders of Green & Black’s chocolate and Future Forests, the first carbon offsetting company.  Backed by Silicon Valley funding, trials are under way to use charcoal to stuck the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and bury it, where it will be a powerful fertiliser.  This method was developed by pre-Columbian Amazonian Indians. Cool, eh?  More on this when you got to The Independent among other places. The thing is, no matter how bad things get, humans are actually extremely ingenious creatures and there’s always a solution.  All you have to do is…imagine!  Imagine in 2009!  Okay, so maybe the rhyme isn’t so hot…but you get the idea. Anyone with other good news please share it - let’s look on the bright side as Monty Python said…

Wow - watching the news for the past week or so has been like witnessing a forest fire - there’s a certain thrilling horror to the whole thing like a Hollywood disaster movie and who knows where it will all end - barter?  Back to the land? Raw meat in caves?  What’s surprising me most is the speed of the cataclysm - we knew the budget would be tight but I didn’t foresee the end of free market capitalism! And I suppose my biggest question Mr Lenihan is where did all the money go?  Did Mr Cowen not put aside anything for a rainy day?  Hmmm… But for some good news! Besides the ever-increasing relevance of carpooling, an Irish company called ecocar can convert your petrol engine car to bio-fuel available at Maxol stations all over the country for only 600 euros.  My favourite part of this is that the biofuel is produced from the byproducts of Cork’s Carbery cheese!  Check out www.ecocar.ie for the conversion and Maxol for more info on where you can fill up. Happy trails…