What will your vote count for in the next election? Not a lot, if you live in one of the ‘safe seats’ – those ones that always vote the same way. Although the popular wisdom maintains that we have a ‘one person, one vote’ system, in reality your vote may count for 0.25 of a [...]
Archive | April, 2010
Payback: Debt and the shadow side of wealth, by Margaret Atwood
I read Margaret Atwood’s novel The Year of the Flood last month, and I was reminded that she had written this non-fiction book on debt. Since Atwood is one of my favourite writers, and debt is an important topic, I picked it up from the library. Payback is based on a series of lectures for [...]
What we learned this week
Make Wealth History has been nomimated as one of the ‘top 50 social entrepreneurship blogs to watch in 2010′, (if you have time to watch that many) by PR company Evan Carmichael. It’s also nominated among the ‘top 50 independent green blogs’ by the directory service Konnector. Having browsed the other nominees on the list, [...]
Robin Hoodies
The latest video from the Robin Hood Tax, and idea which seems to be on a roll. If you want to get more involved, tomorrow is a day of action for the campaign, including the invitation to give up 0.005% of your day. Now let’s see if any of the parties are brave enough to [...]
The People’s Manifesto
The election campaign kicked off in the UK this week, in case you hadn’t picked up on it. I shall resist the comment on every twist and turn of the election, although I shall at some point compare the major parties from a Make Wealth History point of view. For today however, I wanted to [...]
Green up Luton, one month in: energy
A couple of months ago I mentioned Green Up Luton, a competition run by the council climate change team. Twelve households are competing over three months to reduce their energy and water use, reduce their waste and travel more sustainably. There’s a £500 council tax rebate for the winning household, and the council gets some [...]
After microfinance, micro-insurance for Kenyan farmers
Small farmers in developing countries often operate on a shoestring budget. With so little capital to spare, stumping up the initial outlay to invest in higher quality seed or fertilisers is very risky. If the crop fails, there is no way to recover those funds and you won’t have enough to buy seed for the [...]
Close the gap
I’ve mentioned the gap between rich and poor before, but I came across Close the gap a few weeks ago and thought I’d mention it again. Close the Gap is a campaign from Church Action on Poverty. Sign up and they’ll send you a campaign action once a month. Why? Because those on low incomes [...]
What we learned this week
Elephants work like 4x4s. Has the government finally acknowledged peak oil? Rob Hopkins was in the meeting. Plastic or cardboard, which is better for the environment? Chris Goodall reports on Riverford Organics’ dillemma.
Junk thought
More information, and next steps towards a mental detox, on junkthought.org
Books
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