• home
  • posts
  • category
  • commons economy
  • Info, news & debate

    Commons economy posts

    Announcing Sharenergy’s largest ever community energy share offer

    Jon Halle of Sharenergy | 29-Apr-2015 | 0

    Sharenergy is happy to announce the launch of its largest ever share offer. We’ll be raising £1.35m to add to the £450,000 already subscribed for Heartland Community Wind in Scotland. Shares will attract EIS tax relief under the extension to EIS recently announced. Read more

    Ecological Land Co-op plan 20 (!) new settlements, and you can get involved – new community share offer launches today

    We’re excited to announce an opportunity to invest in the development of ecological smallholdings in England. Our key aim is to widen the access to land for sustainable use through the creation of affordable low-impact smallholdings. We’d love you to join us in making this possible. Read more

    What’s the ‘next system’ going to look like?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 24-Apr-2015 | 28

    I want to bring your attention to this group, if you don’t know them already. They’re called ‘The Next System Project‘ – very slick, very American and very new (founded in March this year), but what they’re saying is rare and, I believe, essential. Read more

    Incredible ‘Frackogram 2015’ shows the many links of vested interest within the fracking industry and government

    In July 2013 I produced a very rudimentary ‘map’of the connections related to un/conventional fossil fuels at the heart of Government. Finally, after two years of research, I have now produced the final detailed version – the Frackogram 2015 Read more

    the Ecological Land Co-op have produced a much-needed, free overview of research on ecological agriculture in the UK

    The Ecological Land Co-operative recently produced an overview of research on ecological agriculture in the UK. We’ve used this to create a new online resource, freely accessible via our website. Read more

    Let’s stop subsidising giant, damaging agri-business – join the Landworkers’ Alliance on April 29th

    Join the Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) as we celebrate Via Campesina’s International day of Peasant Struggle. Weds April 29th, British Sugar Factory, Bury St Edmunds, 1.30pm Read more

    Are schools just for preparing kids for a corporate world, and should home education be the norm in a future, non-corporate society?

    Paul Jennings of Criafolen | 07-Apr-2015 | 10

    There was a time when it was much easier for me to stumble into an argument over the choice to home educate than almost any other subject. People who would hesitate to call me a fool for being an anarchist or a vegetarian would wade in with all kinds of Read more

    Braziers Park community wants to set up a university completely independent from the corporate sector, and you can get involved

    ‘When a university becomes a business the whole of student life is transformed. When a university is more concerned with its image, its marketability and the ‘added value’ of its degrees, the student is no longer a student – they become a commodity and education becomes a service.’ Read more

    Ecological Land Co-op publishes its first annual report; feedback welcome

    NB: the Ecological Land Co-op set a precedent in England (following the success of Lammas Ecovillage in Wales) by gaining planning permission for homes on smallholdings outside the development zone (in Devon), by agreeing to abide by strict ecological criteria Read more

    Mark Lynas thinks that corporate capitalism can solve climate change – that’s like burning your house down to keep warm

    Paul Jennings of Criafolen | 12-Mar-2015 | 7

    Oh do beware someone who comes before you and claims to be the voice of reason. Mark Lynas does exactly that in this morning’s Guardian and it doesn’t wash. His argument is barely an argument at all, more like a sort of faux man-in-the-street flimflam. Beware. Read more

    What is TTIP exactly, and what’s it for? Interview with the World Development Movement

    You may have heard of a proposed trade deal called TTIP (generally pronounced tee-tip). You may also be aware of an awful lot of protest against it. Do you know what it is, and why there is so much opposition to it? Read more

    Why Adam Smith, father of capitalism, would have hated neoliberalism

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 30-Oct-2014 | 2

    1776 was a very good year. The US declared independence and Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. Both of these events helped mark the transition to a new world; both have contributed enormously to human freedom, and have therefore been claimed by neoliberals as their own. Read more

    Help put energy into the hands of local people, and make yourself a bit of money at the same time

    David Calver of Low-Carbon Hub | 21-Oct-2014 | 0

    The Low Carbon Hub has just launched its 2014 community share offer to raise £1.5 million investment into its first wave of renewable energy schemes for Oxfordshire. Read more

    Are we ‘silenced by economic power’? Paris 2015 and the Hartwell Paper

    In December 2011, South Africa welcomed the United Nations Framing Convention on Climate Change. The host city was Durban, where a number of years before, and just after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela had Read more

    Where do banks get the money for mortgages from?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Oct-2014 | 1

    The simple answer is that they don’t have it. They check your credit record, decide you’re OK, type some numbers into a computer and suddenly you owe them a significant portion of your income for 25 years, plus interest. Read more

    Do you consider yourself left-wing or right-wing, and does it matter any more?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 26-Jun-2014 | 3

    Do you label yourself ‘left’ or ‘right’, or somewhere in the middle? Do you think the Labour party in the UK or the Democrats in the US, are left-wing parties? Or do you have only a vague idea about what those labels mean? Read more

    Who runs the world?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 12-Jun-2014 | 0

    It’s widely believed that we have democracies in the West. We’d like that to be the case, but it’s not – because ultimate power is corporate, not political. By ultimate power, we mean the ability to control the direction in which humanity moves. Read more

    Ethical investments in renewable energy – you can make it happen

    Jon Halle of Sharenergy | 07-Jun-2014 | 0

    A quick update on Sharenergy-supported projects and share offers. Firstly some great news – the first wind turbine supported by Sharenergy is now up and running in Dingwall Read more

    Could you explain Mercantilism, if you were asked?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 02-May-2014 | 0

    If you were asked, could you describe Mercantilism? I dare say you could have a good go at Capitalism and Feudalism. But Mercantilism? And is it worth finding out? I think it is, because it tells us a lot about the system we live under now Read more

    Can we have multinational corporations and democracy?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 20-Apr-2014 | 0

    Up until this moment in human history, power has always been abused. By ‘power’ I mean ‘the ability to make decisions that affect the direction in which humanity moves’. Ultimate power in other words, rather than local power. 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.

    Sign up to our newsletter

    Facebook icon Twitter icon Youtube icon

    All rights reserved © lowimpact 2023