Ordinary voters rarely get the opportunity to vote for change. Lifestyle-altering decisions such as the ban on smoking across the UK, and the compulsory charge for plastic bags in Wales (October 2011) are taken by governments without reference to the electorate. The best we can do is to vote for a party with a radical… Continue reading
Sorting out the weakest link in holiday travel.
Our preferred way to travel on from the airport to our hotel is by chauffeur-driven Bentley. Well, isn’t it yours? BMWs, unless they are top of the range, are so last year, don’t you think? Seriously though, the best you can hope for if you’re looking for ultra-reliable transfer is a nice new rail… Continue reading →
“Do you want sustainability with that?” – How a humble chippie went green
While we wait for governments and big business to take the necessary big initiatives on climate change and sustainability that are really going to move us forward in this worrying area, some small businesses are just getting on with it. Add them all up, and the significance of these individual actions is still tiny…. Continue reading →
Building underway on world’s first high-rise (17 floor) greenhouse in a city
At this moment our fridge, fruit bowl and vegetable basket contains the produce of many nations. Plenty of healthy eating grown (mainly) under plastic in southern Spain and shipped to the UK in lorries. Other produce comes from even further afield, some of it even by air. What if much of that food could be… Continue reading →
African safari camps switch to solar power
To switch an entire tourist operation over to solar energy in one go is quite an achievement. But Wilderness Safaris are beginning to make a habit of it. This spring Mombo camp in Botswana became the latest in the company’s portfolio to become entirely solar powered. Wilderness invested US $860 000 in replacing diesel-powered generators… Continue reading →
Is the Volvo V40 the safest low-emission car around?
I just received a 6498 word e-mail from Volvo on their new five-door, five-seat hatchback, the V40, which was launched at the Geneva Motorshow on 6th March. That’s the size of quite a long magazine article. The company has an awful lot to say about this new model. At first I thought this was going to be… Continue reading →