BBC Radio 4's eco-show Costing the Earth was, in this week's episode, asking the question: "Can 'green greed' save the planet?" I'm not sure greed can save anything, except maybe - and only temporarily - oneself. But what would be the point of that? And anyway, what is it with saving the planet? As someone who's just "quit my job to save the planet", I am aware of the stupidity of the phrase, which I fear has become just another commodity alongside all the other commodities that, by their various processes of production and trade, are killing our planet, whilst causing as yet undefined, though clearly noticeable 'collateral damage' on our hearts and minds. You can see this in the Sunday papers and magazines (or 'Taliban t...

Did you hear about the UK wind turbine that was destroyed this week by an, as yet, unknown force? Apparently, a 65ft blade from the 290ft turbine came off in the incident and a second was bent in the unresolved incident in Conisholme, Lincolnshire, on Wednesday.Bright flashing spheres were seen by hundreds of locals in the skies above the turbine, some even believe the damage was caused by UFOs. The turbine's owners have been endeavouring to resolve the mystery, dismissing three early theories: A chunk of ice thrown from another turbine Frozen urine dropped from a passing plane, and A lightning strike Other theories include unmanned stealth bombers on test flights as well as a design or construction error with the turb...

Hero,Peacenik, Super-economist   There is inspiration is theconquest by Sean Lemass of economic conditions much worse than today's economic crisis when his policies more than trebled Ireland's wealth and opened a new avenue to peace,giving rise to: THE CENTURY'S GREATEST SUCCESS STORY IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.  The rise in  Ireland's per capita GDP from 1/3 of the USA level in 1934 when he was elected as economic minister, to 1 and 1/6th  [of the USA] derived directly from his policies. His policies more than trebled his peoples wealth. THE CENTURY'S DEMOCRATIC LEADER LONGEST IN OFFICE.  Only dictators held office for longer.  He was elected 10 times to 28 years of effective control over the Irish economy.  This was longer than a...

WRITTEN DEC '08, PUBLISHED JAN '09  A Solution for Humanities Problems [You don't need to read this -- it will pan out this way anyhow -- Just watch it happen for the rest of your life] As so often, the solution is staring us in the face.  It is Universal Land Development for bio-fuel with Carbon Capture and Storage - the development of the vast under-utilized stretches that lie beyond our horizons.   This is the solution for Oil exhaustion, climate collapse and terrorist threat, even ultimately nuclear terrorist threats not for under cultivation.   Bio fuel production with negative emissions needs only the abundant supply of reources and land and labour are in such surplus that they are valued at 0.  See Financial Times 21and 22.11.200...

I want to wish everyone on Copperstrings and it's sister sites a Happy New Year!  I wish you luck, peace,  riches and great love. My goal for the new year is to work on my second book. :) What is yours? Your Truly, Cynthia Y.

Most Indians complain about the imperfections of the Indian systems. The wealth does not trickle down; the schemes and the programmes of the western world can't have a similar success here; the stock market.... and the list is endless. The common woe -- "Nothing works here..." A week ago, I was visiting a very small town in the heartland of India. I asked people about the impact of recession on their lives. They said "But that is happening in Delhi and Mumbai and the US right?" I asked the local shopkeepers too and took the effort of explaining the meaning of recession in the local language to them. They also seemed quite unaffected.   In fact one of them asked. "But haven't the times improved?" I was taken aback and asked him t...

It's amazing what you find in among the growing membership of CopperStrings: The wonderful Michael Galardi is clearly a cool dude with a very cool idea. Here it is "The Jolly Green Ice Machine (JGIM) has been a developing idea for the past three years. The proposal’s main core is to turn a large school bus into a mobile command center that travels the music and art festival circuit selling unrivaled and choicest flavored shaved Hawaiian ice! The idea has become much larger over time and now the JGIM has been born into a movement...The bike ride would take us through cities and towns across America “searching” for the Great America Jolly Green Ice Machine. We plan to volunteer and work random jobs to pay for food and other necessi...

Dearest Readers, It is wonderful that everyone is pushing for individuals to cut back on their usage of water and to recycle, but the businesses are the ones that the main focus should be on. Restaurants waste millions in the following ways. 1. They spray the dishes off instead of washing them all in soap and water. 2. Spraying the floors down every night, instead of just once a week. 3. Spraying the parking lot down to often.; Name more if you know of any. Restaurants also waste food that could be donated  to either local homeless shelters, half-way homes, or abuse shelters. They throw away perfectly good food, because of regulations in place by the Health Department. Although, some of these regulations are nece...

There was a fascinating programme on Radio Four a few months ago that really got me going. This was exploring how the ‘Jam Generation’ of politicians – i.e. those who had been growing up during the mid 1980s – related to society. Unsurprisingly, this was rather polarised, but what really struck me was their consensus on practicality rather than on beliefs. It suggested that parties such as Labour or the Lib Dems which had originally been set up to try and change society, had apparently lost their emotional commitment to a particular outcome. And by definition, the Conservatives didn’t want anything to change at all. So it looked as though we’re in a position of stasis.   The programme came at the time when I was writing...

Talk of a New Age, 2012 and a ‘quickening’, as well as general agreement that these are interesting times (credit crunch becoming recession, peak oil and more wars than ever) plus the very notion of post-modernism, all suggest these are transformational times for humanity. But don’t humans always think this is the case, whatever time they are born, live and die in? Probably. However, I only know these times and they feel pretty turbulent and full of transformational energy to me. I don’t know about you, but I’m going for it. I’m convinced there’s more to life than medication, “education”, debt and fear (that’s my 4-word synopsis of peri-modern industrial society by the way, not just the editorial guidelines of the Western media). ...