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  • Dave Darby

    Dave Darby bio

    Dave Darby founded Lowimpact.org in 2001, spent 3 years on the board of the Ecological Land Co-op and is a founder member of NonCorporate.org and the Open Credit Network.

    Articles by

    Dave Darby

    Why an economy that’s not dominated by the corporate sector would be much better for individuals, communities and nature

    Dave Darby 27-Apr-2017

    Lowimpact.org is an organisation that was founded by two people in 2001 because of concerns about ecological damage and what that might mean for the future of humanity. The focus has always been on individual lifestyle change Read more

    Let’s build a sustainable, non-corporate world; but what exactly does ‘non-corporate’ mean?

    Dave Darby 24-Apr-2017

    This is the first of two articles examining the non-corporate sector, and its advantages for ecology, democracy, communities and individuals. Here’s a checklist of the benefits of reducing the reach of the corporate sector, but first, let’s work out what kind of organisations comprise the non-corporate sector. Read more

    Dump Skype, switch to Jitsi: non-corporate, open source, nothing to download, no harvesting of your data

    Dave Darby 09-Apr-2017

    Here’s a free, open source programme for online chat / video chat: Jitsi. The corporate equivalent is Skype, which is now owned by Microsoft. Read more

    Why the ‘natural’ in natural soaps is so important

    Dave Darby 06-Apr-2017

    True soaps can be made from a range of oils and butters which come from plants, trees and in the case of some oils such as tallow and lard, from animals. These oils and butters are chemically classed as mild acids. Read more

    New Ecological Land Co-op share offer launched: here’s a chance to help bring about change in land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for your trouble!

    Dave Darby 04-Apr-2017

    Please share this as widely as you can. I’m on the board of the Ecological Land Co-op, and so I know how much hard work has gone into this – it’s an opportunity for people to shift their money to help change the nature of land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for… Continue reading New Ecological Land Co-op share offer launched: here’s a chance to help bring about change in land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for your trouble! Read more

    Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?

    Dave Darby 16-Mar-2017

    In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 11: buying a laptop without Windows – with Linux or with no operating system at all

    Dave Darby 08-Mar-2017

    This is the last in a series of articles to help you to jettison Windows and corporate software generally. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 10: how to install Linux on your hard drive (alongside Windows)

    Dave Darby 06-Mar-2017

    This is the latest in a series of articles intended to help you become Windows- and corporate-software-free. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 9: learning to use Linux

    Dave Darby 16-Feb-2017

    Remember the previous two blog articles about switching to open source / free software? The first was about switching to free / open source programmes whilst still using Windows, and the second was about downloading the Linux operating system onto a datastick so that you can play with it and familiarise yourself with it, but… Continue reading Low-impact & the city 9: learning to use Linux Read more

    How to misrepresent Adam Smith: review of P. J. O’Rourke’s ‘On the Wealth of Nations’

    Dave Darby 14-Feb-2017

    I don’t know if you’re familiar with P. J., but he’s an excellent writer, and he’s extremely, acerbically funny. With this book, as with his Give War a Chance, several times he made me spit my tea out and have to stop to wipe tea off the page. Read more

    Why we’d be better off living like the Saxons (with a few mod cons)

    Dave Darby 05-Feb-2017

    If you spend your life trying to promote low-impact living, you sometimes get asked the most ridiculous questions. More than once I’ve been asked something along the lines of: ‘you want to take us back to the Middle Ages, don’t you?’ Read more

    Is a Permaculture world achievable, and if so, why are we moving in the opposite direction?

    Dave Darby 31-Jan-2017

    Every species has to live in harmony with nature, and humans are no exception. The alternative is gruesome and very short-term. Our ultimate and most valuable treasures are the soil and the sea. They provide all our food Read more

    Part-time work available in the Lowimpact.org team

    Dave Darby 25-Jan-2017

    We’re looking for a somebody to work with us – from home, part-time, to market our activities and our publications to more people. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 8: how to test drive Linux from a datastick, but keep Windows for the time being

    Dave Darby 17-Jan-2017

    A while ago I blogged about the various open source programmes I’m using. I’m absolutely non-techie when it comes to IT. I have no interest in the technical underpinning of what I want to do with my computer, and this makes it difficult for technical people to explain things to me. Read more

    What to do if you want to build your home on a spot occupied by an ancient tree

    Dave Darby 15-Jan-2017

    We’ve been contacted several times by people who ask why we’re promoting the building of timber homes and the burning of wood in wood stoves or biomass boilers. Their argument was that timber building and the production of firewood require the felling of trees Read more

    Ecology as theology: religion must oppose the destruction of nature

    Dave Darby 13-Jan-2017

    The vast majority of the world’s population subscribe to a religion. According to Pew Research, although the number of people unaffiliated with a particular faith will increase by 2050, as a percentage, this group will fall from 16% now to 13% in 2050 Read more

    What are the roots of right and left thinking, and can we unite left and right against corporate power?

    Dave Darby 08-Jan-2017

    Why do people who consider themselves ‘left-wing’ seem to embrace a raft of policies that appear unrelated? For example, if you’re of the left, and you believe in (say) progressive taxation, why should that also mean that you believe in gun control, or Read more

    Low-impact & the city 7: our experience of a local fishbox / community-supported fish scheme

    Dave Darby 06-Jan-2017

    You may remember that we blogged an interview last summer with Guy Dorrell, who set up a ‘fishbox’, or ‘community-supported fish’ project, called ‘Faircatch‘. After interviewing him, my partner and I signed up to his scheme to try it out. I’m now reporting on how the idea worked for us Read more

    Reasons not to buy from Amazon

    Dave Darby 03-Jan-2017

    In 1983, Richard Stallman launched the GNU free software project, on which many people could collaborate, and in 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation, to promote and assist the development of free software. Here is a page from his website Read more

    Is the quest for perpetual economic growth the witch-burning of our times, and could this be the year we start to challenge it?

    Dave Darby 01-Jan-2017

    Johannes Kepler was one of the major figures in the 17th century Scientific Revolution. In his day, people were grappling with the question of whether the earth was the centre of the universe, as the Church said it was, or whether it was just another planet, revolving around the Sun Read more

    There’s a crash coming – a slap from Mother Nature. This isn’t pessimistic; it’s realistic.

    The human impact on nature and on each other is accelerating and needs systemic change to reverse.

    We’re not advocating poverty, or a hair-shirt existence. We advocate changes that will mean better lives for almost everyone.

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