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FRONTLINE Action from the Grass Roots Lorna Howarth repor ts USA SHARING TOOLS Notions of waste consume Chuck Templeton, particularly the statistic that kicked off his “distributed tool shed” OhSoWe: there are 60 million drills in the US that are used, on average, for 10 minutes a year (and as with drills, think ladders, airbeds, skis, etc.). OhSoWe is a localised network of 16,000 users engaged in collaborative consumption: sharing tools, goods and services – and the beauty of this model is that it can be replicated online anywhere in the world. The potential for reducing consumption and creating real wealth is endless if we all buy less and share more. It only needs to be coupled with a local e-currency, and we’ll have a 21st-century Local Exchange Trading System that could really help people to adapt and survive in these turbulent economic times. www.ohsowe.com COSTA RICA MEASURING HAPPINESS According to The Happy Planet Index: 2012 Report we are still not living on a happy planet. No country has combined success across the three indicators of high life expectancy, high experience of wellbeing, and living within environmental limits. However, for the second time, Costa Rica tops the Happy Planet Index with the second-highest life expectancy in the Americas, wellbeing higher than many richer nations, and a per capita ecological footprint one-third of the USA’s. Norway, in 29th place, is the highest-ranking European nation. The UK ranks 41st and the USA ranks 105th out of 151 countries. If you agree that for things to improve we need new measures of progress, why not sign the Happy Planet Charter? The Charter can be found at www.happyplanetindex.org UK COMMUNITY FARMING To overcome the multiple crises facing humanity, we must re-imagine our relationship with the Earth and remember that we are all dependent on a few inches of topsoil and worms. One way to do this is to become a member of a community farm like the one in the Chew Valley near Bristol. The farm is a Community Benefit Society owned by its 400 members, who have a say in how it operates and the opportunity to volunteer and learn the vital skills of growing and farming. Members get 10% discount on the farm’s vegetable boxes, voting rights, free access to the farm and much more. Organic and sustainable, Chew Valley Community Farm’s 22 acres is setting a precedent that experiments in recreating the commons. www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk 20 Resurgence & Ecologist November/December 2012
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AFGHANISTAN A HAVEN OF HYDROELECTRICITY Deep in the Hindu Kush, Afghan communities are working to install six run-of-the-river hydroelectricity-generating plants with a total capacity of 1.3MW – enough to power 63,000 homes and businesses. The hydro-generators do not require dams to be built and so are cost-effective and have a minimal environmental impact. In return for power in the villages, farmers must agree to stop growing opium poppies, but such is the appeal of electricity that this rule has largely been observed. A constant supply of electricity allows children to study, hospitals to function and artisans to ply their craft – all fundamental to building a resilient country. Leaf map of the world © Imagemore Co Ltd/Corbis INDIA ENDING POVERTY The majority of the word’s poor share three traits: they live in rural areas, rely on land to survive, and don’t have rights to that land. Landesa, an organisation that helps poor families around the world secure land rights, has worked with the Indian government on an innovative solution that has successfully secured land rights for over 430,000 families. Each family is given a ‘microplot’ of land about the size of a tennis court – enough for a home, small animals, a vegetable garden and fruit trees – and it’s changing lives dramatically. The government buys the land on the private market and then gives the rights for each microplot to a family, lifting them out of poverty in a way that is also costeffective for the government in the long term. www.landesa.org RWANDA WOMEN TRANSFORM POLITICS Thanks to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), whereby women have been trained as cross-party parliamentarians and legislators, Rwanda is transforming into a peaceful and stable country with one of the strongest economies in Africa. In the past, women had no voice in the politics of the nations and suffered terribly at the hands of warring tribal factions. Now women are leading partners in development projects as well as in government departments, where they have prioritised the reduction of poverty rates, which haven fallen by 12% in the last five years. “The transformation from a war-ravaged society into a vibrant and dynamic nation is evident everywhere you go,” said Auke Lootsma, UNDP’s Country Director in Rwanda. The country ranks number one in the world in terms of the number of women in parliament – now over 50%. www.undp.org.rw Issue 275 Resurgence & Ecologist 21

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FRONTLINE

Action from the Grass Roots Lorna Howarth repor ts

USA SHARING TOOLS

Notions of waste consume Chuck Templeton, particularly the statistic that kicked off his “distributed tool shed” OhSoWe: there are 60 million drills in the US that are used, on average, for 10 minutes a year (and as with drills, think ladders, airbeds, skis, etc.). OhSoWe is a localised network of 16,000 users engaged in collaborative consumption: sharing tools, goods and services – and the beauty of this model is that it can be replicated online anywhere in the world. The potential for reducing consumption and creating real wealth is endless if we all buy less and share more. It only needs to be coupled with a local e-currency, and we’ll have a 21st-century Local Exchange Trading System that could really help people to adapt and survive in these turbulent economic times. www.ohsowe.com

COSTA RICA MEASURING HAPPINESS

According to The Happy Planet Index: 2012 Report we are still not living on a happy planet. No country has combined success across the three indicators of high life expectancy, high experience of wellbeing, and living within environmental limits. However, for the second time, Costa Rica tops the Happy Planet Index with the second-highest life expectancy in the Americas, wellbeing higher than many richer nations, and a per capita ecological footprint one-third of the USA’s. Norway, in 29th place, is the highest-ranking European nation. The UK ranks 41st and the USA ranks 105th out of 151 countries. If you agree that for things to improve we need new measures of progress, why not sign the Happy Planet Charter? The Charter can be found at www.happyplanetindex.org

UK COMMUNITY FARMING

To overcome the multiple crises facing humanity, we must re-imagine our relationship with the Earth and remember that we are all dependent on a few inches of topsoil and worms. One way to do this is to become a member of a community farm like the one in the Chew Valley near Bristol. The farm is a Community Benefit Society owned by its 400 members, who have a say in how it operates and the opportunity to volunteer and learn the vital skills of growing and farming. Members get 10% discount on the farm’s vegetable boxes, voting rights, free access to the farm and much more. Organic and sustainable, Chew Valley Community Farm’s 22 acres is setting a precedent that experiments in recreating the commons. www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk

20

Resurgence & Ecologist

November/December 2012

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