Articles by Dave Darby
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
Low-impact & the city 3: our solar pv system is one year old – how’s it performed?
We had solar panels installed on our flat roof on a London terraced home one year ago. The panels are attached to plastic tubs filled with ballast. During the daytime, we use the electricity as it’s generated, so we make sure we use the washing machine / charge phones / anything else we can think of …
What were your ‘light bulb moments’ in understanding the way the world works? Here are mine
Here’s a rash statement, but I believe it to be true. Most people these days know, either rationally or intuitively, that humanity is heading in the wrong direction. If you ask people whether we’ve seen the back of ecological calamaties, financial collapses, corruption, poverty or war
Suggested campaign to remove unnecessary regulations from independent businesses
Three things have happened to me recently that have made me realise that local, independent and/or community-owned businesses have been put at a huge disadvantage as regards regulations that cover their activities, and the independent sector is being unnecessarily penalised for the damaging activities of the corporate sector.
More details of the ujamaa collective village system in Tanzania (from first-hand experience)
This is an account of my visit to two ujamaa villages in Tanzania in the early 1990s, plus a lot more background information on the system itself. The ujamaa system has since been dismantled after pressure from the World Bank, but at its height, 20 million people out of a total population of 24 million …
10 reasons we need a non-corporate system as well as a sustainable one (and there are many more)
Like all environmental / social change organisations, we’d like humans to live in a sustainable system. But unlike many other organisations, we clearly state that we’d like that system to be non-corporate. What do we mean?
10 reasons our yurt holiday on a farm in Wales was the best ever
We got back from a holiday in a yurt at Old Chapel Farm in Powys last night. We were bowled over, and this article is a little advert for yurt holidays on farms and smallholdings in the UK, although several of the points below are specific to Old Chapel.
Low-impact & the city 2: what are urban gardens for?
I Iive with my partner in a terraced house in London, and we have a garden. So we have to work out what we want the garden for. Do we want to use it to impress people, to give it a ‘make-over’, to make it orderly and tidy, or to produce food? We’ve decided that …
How to answer the question: ‘if you don’t like this system, what do you want to replace it with?’ – aka a review of The Democracy Project by David Graeber
Graeber was a leading light in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the book begins with a fascinating insider’s view of the goings-on in and around Zucotti Park in 2011. The most important point in the book for me though was the reminder that people always want a blueprint for a new society
If you’re not exactly ‘time-rich’, here’s how you can change society with your money as well as your actions
Since Lowimpact began as LILI in 2001, we’ve offered a constantly increasing bank of information, courses, products, services, books, magazines, links, videos and advice for people wanting to change their lives – to live in a more sustainable and less corporate way.
Why land, on which to build a home and grow food, is our ultimate security
There’s a general feeling – and a growing one I think – that we’re headed for disaster, and that no-one is in control or able to steer us away from the precipice. Here are four categories of reasons that people give for pessimism about the near future:
Greece v the Empire; how to understand what’s being done to the Greeks
I’ve been thinking about how to write articles about the fact that we live in a corporate empire – trying to work out a way to present the idea, thinking that it would sound rather silly or extreme to many ears. Then a former World Bank economist (Peter Koenig) says:
Thoughts about the Breaking the Frame gathering and an idea for a potential spin-off
I’ve just returned from the Breaking the Frame gathering – a long weekend at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire. My head is still spinning from the workshops, talks and panels featuring specialists on technology around GM, the military, nuclear power, surveillance, synthetic biology, health, energy, toxics annd climate, plus TTIP, emerging and alternative technologies.
Help set up eco-settlements by moving your money and getting a better return than from a bank savings account
If we want to: help set up organic smallholdings; allow people to build natural homes on their land; preserve rural skills and livelihoods; and develop a sustainable, non-corporate food supply, we have to do more than just talk about it.
Good luck to Greece, and why you won’t find the real reasons for their crisis in the mainstream media
It’s so ironic that the biggest lesson in how to destroy democracy is being delivered to the world in the birthplace of democracy.
Why I’d like to bring together radical academics and people building a sustainable, non-corporate system on the ground
I’m going to the Breaking the Frame gathering on Thursday, representing Lowimpact.org. The event has been organised by Corporate Watch, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Rising Tide and Luddites200. Dave King of Luddites200 contacted a couple of years ago and I’ve been going along to his ‘politics of technology’ reading group one evening a month since.
Goodbye to WWOOF and to Redfield Community: the dawn of a new era for Lowimpact.org
Today we part company with both WWOOF and Redfield Community. Here’s a bit of history, including why we’re splitting, plus an advert for both WWOOF and Redfield.
What I learnt about US Middle East policy and the international oil market in a kebab shop in Tooting
I learnt something about US foreign policy (or more accurately, corporate foreign policy – this has nothing to do with the American people) in a kebab shop in Tooting – or rather, I didn’t so much learn about the foreign policy as how events that are largely unknown to most British people are common currency for …
Low-impact & the city 1: introduction – how possible is it to live in a sustainable, non-corporate way in a city?
I lived at Redfield Community for 13 years – it’s where Lowimpact.org was born – but now I live in London, and so I’m assessing my options for living as low-impact a life as I can.
I’ve joined the board of the Ecological Land Co-operative because I want to change the way land is owned and farmed
On Wednesday evening I attended the AGM of the Ecological Land Co-op at Freightliners City Farm in London. I was standing for election to the board after being invited to apply by Shaun Chamberlin of Dark Optimism
Why Panorama’s GM propaganda was false, there is no food shortage and we don’t need GM to feed the world
Did you see the BBC’s Panorama on monday, promoting the GM (genetic modification) industry? Here are four reasons their message is just pure propaganda on behalf of the corporate sector.