The environmental movement has united people from all walks of life. This from George Monbiot…

Monbiot.com » Hypocrites Unite!

Environmentalism is the most politically diverse movement in history. Here in the climate camp I have met anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, conservatives and – mostly - pragmatists. I remember sitting in a campaign meeting during the Newbury bypass protests and marvelling at the weirdness of our coalition. In the front row sat the local squirearchy: brigadiers in tweeds and enormous moustaches, titled women in twinsets and headscarves. In the middle were local burghers of all shapes and sizes. At the back sat the scuzziest collection of grunge-skunks I have ever laid eyes on. The audience disagreed about every other subject under the sun – if someone had asked us to decide what day of the week it was, the meeting would have descended into fisticuffs - but everyone there recognised that our quality of life depends on the quality of our surroundings.

Do you fit into any of these groups? Does the environmental movement suffer or gain because it is so broad?

New York City officials have demanded a ban on natural gas drilling near upstate reservoirs because they fear the drilling could contaminate the city's drinking water…

City's Drinking Water Feared Endangered; $10B Cost Seen - August 6, 2008 - The New York Sun

New York is one of just four major cities in America with a special permit allowing its drinking water to go unfiltered, and that pristine water comes from a network of reservoirs and rivers in five upstate counties. If the special permit was revoked, the city would have to build a treatment facility that could cost nearly $10 billion, a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Walter Mugden, said.

It’s quite amazing to think of a City the size of New York as having a pristine water supply, the only other cities in America to not require filtration are Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. All that is done to New York’s water is a dash of chlorine with fluoride, orthophosphate and sodium hydroxide as other additives.  read more »

There’s a new breed of people in town, and I think it all stems from the Baby Boomer generation’s ability to continue to spend money and influence the spending habits of younger generations. (I just like being able to blame things on the Baby Boomers, it would be nice if someone started a blog about that). But in my mind, this breed is a dying one.

I used to be able to peg people pretty well into classes, you know, “Jim’s Nouveaux Riche because he’s got a new ski boat”, or “Tony’s middle class cause he buys his tools at Sears”. White Collar, blue collar, was easy, even with green collar things weren’t too tough. But nowadays it seems to be a little tougher with the introduction of the Leisure Class into mainstream society. What was once the purview of white shoed retirees in Florida, or Bling covered black rap icons can be your neighbour’s too. But shift things around from flashy diamond rings and hotted up cars, to less showy alternatives to spend your cash. The status symbols are less conspicuous, but the products can still be expensive –  read more »

Could you do your job from home?

And by 2015, according to demographer Wendell Cox, there will be more people in the country working electronically from home full time than are taking public transit.

Suburbia's not dead yet - Los Angeles Times

Telecommuting makes sense for many industries, even in some cases those that have been traditionally face to face service based. Businesses that are required to account for carbon emissions may have to take it to this level for offsets. If employees are not driving, could a business count that as an offset?

A bonus question: Would your boss be up for it?

Well we’re back from our day in Creston visiting the farms and farmers who are growing the grain for the Creston Grain CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, you can find out more about this pilot program of 200 shares in this previous post).

Below are some photos from the day and a video of Roy Lawrence  talking to some of the CSA members about why he decided to take on the challenge of growing organic grains for the small number of local consumers.

People who’ve asked us why we joined are often surprised by their own lack of knowledge of farming in the region, and that there are farmers out there who want to find ways to connect with community and provide the food that locals want. This is a core part of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and giving farmers a fair go.  read more »

We received our Crop Share Certificate from the Creston Grain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) today. As you can see from the image above, we hold share number 79 (which was out of a possible 200 for the 2008 season).  read more »