The idea that the earth has entered the ‘anthropocene’ – the age of man – is gaining credibility. It’s the subject of Mark Lynas’ book The God Species (reviewed here). National Geographic have run with it, and now there’s a new campaign to educate people about it. It’s called ‘welcome to the anthropocene‘, and this [...]
Author Archives | Jeremy
97% Owned
A new documentary about the democratization of the money supply. This one’s focused on the UK, and it’s great to see campaigners like Ben Dyson and nef’s Sargon Nissan get the feature doc attention their arguments deserve. On the other hand, how many of the top ten documentary cliches can you spot in the trailer? [...]
Let us be Human, by Sam Charles Norton
Sam Norton is a Church of England rector committed to teaching Christians about the big issues of our time. I came across his work through an essay on the theology of peak oil a few years ago, and wrote it up here on the blog. That essay has now become a book: Let us be [...]
Where do the banks put their money?
Here’s a really important graph from the Positive Money campaign. Banks have the power to create money, and they have a choice about who they make that money for. Here’s where their money has gone in the last few years: To hear a politician speak, you’d think the bottom one was the most important – [...]
Why do we have droughts in Britain?
This weekend I was reading our local Luton paper, and columnist Steve Lowe was writing about the drought. Or the “phoney drought” as he calls it. “I cannot believe there can be another country in the world where it rains so much but we apparently don’t have enough water to hose our gardens” he grumbles, [...]
LBTL day 5 – our little exception
It’s friday, the last day of living below the line. We’re upping the ante a little this evening by having a couple of friends over and attempting to dine below the line. I’m still trying to work out if I can cook three courses for 33p per person. Maybe two is enough. In the meantime, [...]
LBTL day 4 – growing your own
As part of Live Below the Line, you’re allowed to use food you’ve grown yourself, as long as you factor in the cost of production into your £1 a day food budget. So we’ve been drawing from the garden a bit. It’s unfortunate timing really, because in Britain this is about the worst time for [...]
Live Below the Line – interview
There are 23 different charities participating in the fundraising side of Live Below the Line. I’m donating to the Global Poverty Project, who run the challenge and just happen to work out of the same office as me in London. I popped upstairs to talk to the UK campaign manager for Live Below the Line, [...]
LBTL day 3 – How is our food so cheap?
When I was a child growing up in Madagascar, there was a jam factory not far from where we lived. Codal made the only local jam that we were aware of in the country, and in the 80s their canning technology was a rather out of date. The jam came in tins, and often you’d [...]
LBTL day 2 – Understanding Purchasing Power Parity
When I talk about extreme poverty with friends, one of the most common responses is an excuse: in poorer countries, things are cheaper and money goes further. I’ve heard it a couple of times now in reaction to the Live Below the Line challenge. A lot of people seem to assume that living on £1 [...]
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