www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

As with so many things Internet, stumbling across the website FixMyStreet.com was a happy and complete coincidence. The great thing about the site is that we were considering producing such a project here some months ago after we found that it wasn’t just us who had difficulty in getting our own local council to keep the urban environment tidy. But luckily someone else had this great idea and saved us the time and effort of building such a tool, so hats off to mysociety.org

Basically, FixMyStreet.com is a site that allows people to report, view and discuss local problems. Everything from potholes in roads & pavements, litter and abandoned vehicles to antisocial behaviour etc can be reported on FixMyStreet.com

We tested the site out ourselves just a few weeks ago when we reported some graffiti on a metal shop shutter on the way into town. The process is simple;

1. Enter your postcode or streetname
2. Drop the pointer on the place on the map where the problem is
3. Fill in the details of the problem in a handy form
4. Hit the submit button

And that’s it. A quick email confirmation needs to be responded to and the report is logged. The local council emailed us for further details of the problem, even though there is only one shop at the pin point on the map, and within a couple of weeks the graffiti was removed. You can log in again once the problem has been solved and report it as fixed.

The FixMyStreet.com site shows other local issues in your area or other parts of the country and acts as a great indicator of the problems experienced in certain localities and the speed, desire and ability of councils to deal with the issues.

FixMyStreet.com even has an iPhone application so that you can pinpoint accurately, photograph and report problems too.

If everybody in every town in Britain knew about and used FixMyStreet.com then the country would be a lot tidier and problems dealt with a lot quicker, so if you like the service use it and tell all your friends and family. It really is very good and at least makes our urban environment a better place to be.

GM’s Hummer, the 2.5 ton 12 MPG Ego Carrier, has long been an icon.

On the one hand it has been a “status” symbol – an extra 2,700 kg of perceived self-importance, a sign of machismo, being unstoppable, oozing with attitude, couldn’t-care-less gas-guzzling excess and having a tiny penis.

On the other hand the Hummer has represented everything worthy of contempt – all of the above, the death to other drivers in a road traffic accidents and the inspiration behind FUH2.

When oil prices shot up over the last few years it spelled the end of the Hummer. Even in the land of plenty U.S. gas prices, even though a gallon of petrol was still less than half the price it was in the U.K., were too much for American Hummer owners to handle and the brand’s popularity declined.

So with car maker GM in huge financial trouble, facing bankruptcy and wishing to offload the excess baggage of the world’s most hated vehicle and other “assets”, along comes China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company with an offer to buy the Hummer brand for around $100 million.

Today however, according to the BBC, it is reported that China is “to block” the Hummer takeover.

A Chinese firm’s bid to buy the gas-guzzling Hummer car brand will be blocked on environmental grounds, according to Chinese state radio.

Now that is a turn-up for the books. It seems that China is increasing efforts to cut pollution and the Hummer brand and product are completely at odds with this new green direction of the Chinese state.

For the Chinese authorities to be purportedly turning down Hummer on “environmental grounds” brings a smile to anyone who has gone green. Doesn’t that just prove what a bunch of eco fascists we are?!

You drive your car less, you cycle more, recycle more, use less packaging, re-use your grocery bags, use low-powered bulbs, switch to wind-powered electricity and remember to switch everything off when you go to bed or leave the house.

You use both sides of the paper, you only ever wash at 30°c or 40°c, you use biodegradeable washing liquid or eco balls, you let nature dry things and the tumble dryer gather dust, you walk wherever possible, buy local goods from local people, you shower rather than bath and turn your thermostat down. The gas is turned down to a minimum, the loft is lagged, you used hemp insulation, and the DIY was done with only FSC timber.

Everything is natural where possible and you donate to good causes, you go green, you vote green and environmental, you think ecological, you’re efficient, you’re kind and considerate, your books are second-hand and you prefer the packaging when it has been reused… preferably not just once but twice… or more!

You care and you like to see that quality in others, you learn and you share and you wish that the world would be better place and you pay a slight premium to have food without chemicals and meat without steroids, compassion in world farming and fair trade on your table.

Ethics, sustainability, care and attention. Down with obsessive consumerism, up community projects. At one with nature, respect it and the planet.

And then someone says… that’s Eco Fascism.

---

I was only entering the book A Blueprint for Survival into my Facebook page when I spied the mere two star rating and a short review;

My copy dates from 1972, interesting to revisit over thirty years on, we are all still here! My note on the inside back cover still stands, ECO FASCISTS.

Well, I’ve not read the whole book yet as I’ve only just started. I shall make a judgement at the end as to whether I think they are “Eco Fascists” and whether I, a green and a moderate, might also be an “Eco Fascist” and I shall make more than a 2-line judgement or review as I think the subject deserves better than that.

After thumbing through the last ever printed edition of The Ecologist the other day there was a mention of the book A Blueprint for Survival, written in 1972 by the then editor of The Ecologist, Edward Goldsmith. A Blueprint for Survival is an extremely important work as it was the book that inspired the manifesto of the Ecology Party which eventually became the UK’s Green Party.

Despite the already overflowing bookshelf of unread tomes such as George Monbiot’s Heat and The Age of Consent to E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered a used copy of A Blueprint for Survival was purchased for the princely sum of 1 new pence (plus post & packaging).

Arriving in reused packaging (we like that) the book that inspired a political party’s manifesto is now eagerly awaiting a read and as soon as this 35 year-old pearl of wisdom is digested we’ll give you an update.

Until then Shhh, we’re reading…

It arrived this morning and was waiting there on the doormat when I got home – the very last, the ultimate, the final print edition of The Ecologist, “the world’s leading environmental magazine”.

I subscribed to The Ecologist only a few years ago, probably around the time this green blog was launched at the start of 2006, but the magazine has been going for nearly four decades!

Started in 1970 by environmentalist and eco-philosopher Edward Goldsmith the magazine was run by his nephew Zac Goldsmith who, whilst no longer the editor, remains the Chairman & Director of The Ecologist.

Despite all the huge positives over the years such as publishing a special edition that inspired the formation of what is now the Green Party, the constant, often controversial & deeply inquiring investigative journalism, being printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally-friendly inks and being stuffed with the most useful information, news, ads, goods, services & even the “flyers” – The Ecologist, even with its 20,000 circulation, has called it a day on the printed edition.

However, all is not lost. In a time when advertising revenues are taking a hit, newspapers & magazines are shutting their doors for good, The Ecologist is making the most of its online presence. So from now on you’ll be able to get your fix of ecological goodness online anytime and the audience is limitless. What the cost & carbon footprint of a copy of the magazine is compared to the online edition, we don’t know, but here’s to The Ecologist and to another 40 years of environmentalism. Cheers!

I was in Oxfordshire the other week taking a look at the Uffington Horse, a huge prehistoric horse figure marked on a hillside in chalk, when I looked down from the ancient slopes and spotted three wind turbines.

Being in Farnborough, Hampshire, we don’t have any wind turbines down here, although there is one powering a business park about 10-15 miles away at Reading in Berkshire. So you can imagine my delight at knowing I was not far from seeing my first wind turbines close-up. What’s more, I was wearing my favourite Mono Turbine t-shirt, so it was almost as if I was destined to see these great pieces of engineering.

I drove a little way from the Uffington Horse in search of the wind generators and found them in a field which was nicely marked with an informative sign. I was standing before Westmill Windfarm and took a stroll nearer to satisfy my curiosity.

No, these windfarms are not noisy. The periodic “swoosh” as the blade spins past was all I could hear with the faint hum of the equipment at the base of the tower. The main tower was 50 metres high and the blades are 30 metres in length, so when the blades are pointing straight up the whole setup is 80 metres or approximately 240 feet high. That’s impressive.

It was genuinely awe inspiring to see these wind turbines and I think it would be even more impressive to see a huge windfarm, but we’ll have to wait for that one

It was an unofficial “bee day” yesterday.

It all started when I came home from my local beer festival on Thursday night. Sitting on the sofa at midnight I caught the last half hour of a BBC programme entitled Who Killed the Honey Bee? Being concerned about the recent plight of the bumble bee the show was really interesting.

Then on Friday whilst I was working from home for a change I went to work from my laptop in the back garden to take advantage of being out in the sunshine an fresh air. The patio was swarming with tiny bees -  a quick search of the internet revealed them to possible be Halictidae. These bees would occasionally burrow their way through the dry dirt in between the cracks in the slabs on the patio.

Back indoors, there was a lone bee, what a layman like me would call a common honey bee, trapped in the house. I rescued the bee but he seemed out of puff. A quick search of the Internet and I found that you can feed bees syrup (half sugar, half water). So I gave the little guy a dab of syrup which was tucked into with gusto and half an hour later, after much aimless wandering on foot, the bee finally flew off into the sunset. Happy

So despite me cycling to work and back on Earth Day I did forget to buy a bee box, so maybe this was nature’s way of telling me to do something for the bees? It might be cheaper, easier and more fun to build your own bee box (thanks, Devon County Council). We’ve got a typical English garden so hopefully the crocuses, tulips, roses, apple & pear blossom, bluebells, buddleia and lavender will keep the bees happy and healthy for another year.

What are you doing for the bees in your garden?

Well we’ve had Earth Hour and now this one’s 24 times better – it’s Earth Day.

Britain may well be under the spell of the Budget today as its beloved Chancellor tries to dig his way out of the worst economic crisis in modern times but let’s see if he can do something positive for the environment, spark up some green initiatives and move in a new sustainable direction with some green job generation. If he borrows more money to pay of the country’s huge debts (which we have from borrowing too much money in the first place) I shall just have to scream.

So the idea of Earth Day is similar to Earth Hour’s switching off the lights but on a bigger scale. Sure there are 24 hours in a day so Earth Day should be more effective but it also encompasses more than just the awareness that we should treat our planet with far more respect than it has received in recent years.

Earth Day gives people the opportunity to actually do something for the environment in the whole 24 hours. Whether you cycle to work for a change, walk, take public transport or share a car, replace your light bulbs with energy efficient ones, buy some cotton & hemp green loft insulation, plant a tree or donate a little money to a green cause you’ll be part of a worldwide movement to raise awareness and change people’s attitudes for the better.

Me? I’m going to wear my organic cotton t-shirt from red robot and make absolutely sure I cycle to work today. I admit that I do drive my car to work a bit too often – I work from home before going to work and leave it until the last minute to pack up my laptop when I realise that there’s no time to cycle so I drive in.

Other than that it’s business as usual here at everything’s gone green. With our green insulation, contingent of LED and low-energy bulbs, power off when it’s not needed and a policy of no unnatural chemicals, the cycle to work will be the main difference today and with spring in England in full swing it’s a lovely day for a bike ride.

What are you doing for Earth Day?

Every so often you find a piece of clothing that you really like. And I mean REALLY like. You like it so much that it becomes your favourite piece of kit and you want to wear it every day. That’s how we feel about the organic t-shirt range from Red Robot.

Not only are Red Robot’s t-shirts made from supersoft, guilt-free environmentally-friendly organic cotton but they’re also incredibly cool too. Of all their range we particularly liked their Mono Turbine in a gorgeous yellow (Aspen gold) with a fantastic distressed print graphic.

Their attention to detail is sublime too, with an embroidered logo on the sleeve. Some of their other shirts also have a  signature single arm ringer; those sort of details are always a nice touch but also the mark of quality.

So if you’re a Joy Division fan (see their Robot Pleasures design), a Quentin Tarantino fan (have a nosey at the Robot Dogs T) or just a lover of great quality organic cotton t-shirts then go check out Red Robot for some additional cool wear for your summer wardrobe.