Are SUVs a crime against civilisation, or paragons of efficiency? Are they ugly, arrogant and antisocial, or bright, beautiful and mobile? And do the polar passions they arouse pit the politics of envy against the Americanisation of British culture? Paul Kingsnorth and Michael Harvey discuss
A staggering 30-40 per cent of the water we use in our homes is for flushing the loo. That works out at two baths worth of water per day for the average family. Yet by taking a few simple steps or swapping your old toilet for an ‘eco-loo’, you can minimise your water usage, and save money too.
Imagine you could turn 30 per cent of your household waste, at no cost, into high-quality compost for your plants, while also reducing toxic emissions from incinerator plants...
Ka Hsaw Wa has seen many of his friends killed and has suffered torture at the hands of the Burmese military. Now he is taking Unocal, one of the US companies that trades with the murderous regime, to court. One of the most wanted men in Burma, talks to The Ecologist.
Unlike large dams, now widely acknowledged to be unsustainable and ineffective, micro-hydro involves the use of small mills and dams to provide clean energy and an alternative source of income for rural communities.
The community of Machynlleth has gone beyond just investing in someone else’s wind turbine. They’ve clubbed together and planned, built and paid for one of their own.
Within two years, Britain could be facing a series of blackouts and the ignomony of importing the resource it once considered so plentiful from a host of politically unstable countries.
Do wind turbines provide an affordable means of harnessing a limitless source of clean power, or are they inefficient blots on the landscape that devastate birdlife and are more likely to exacerbate than reduce CO2 emissions?
Some 245 Indian villages are in the middle of being destroyed by a $7 billion dam project that will consume more energy than it provides and has even been condemned by its World Bank sponsors.
Costing over $1 billion, the Karahnjukar hydroelectric dam in Iceland is a hugely controversial project. Mark Lynas journeyed to the blasting face, hoping to work out for himself whether this industrial elephant is green or brilliant-white.
‘Refined'. Of a higher quality. The result of conscious improvement. Not so with sugar. Refined sugar has been depleted of its vitamins and minerals. What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates.
Isolated by the surrounding desert, Kashgar was once
an oasis on the old Silk Road. Now the city is being overwhelmed in the rush to open up the region’s oil and gas reserves. By Dan Box.
