Rocket Stove! January 23, 2007
Posted by Graham in : General , 4commentsLast week the 2nd year permaculture class completed the rocket stove in the strawbale house at the college , and fired it up. We were delighted with the results and very excited by the prospects of rocket stove technology.
Below is a review of Ianto Evans‘ book which was the inspiration for our project and which guided our design.
One adaptation we made was to use 7 8″clay chimney pipes for the flue pipe through the thermal cob bench. These pass through the straw-bale wall (more…)
The Irish Times “Earth Issue” January 18, 2007
Posted by Graham in : General , 1 comment so farThe editors of last week’s Saturday Magazine, of the Irish Times and the guest editor Jane Powers, should be congratulated for the excellent Earth Issue. With mainstream environmentalists such as Richard Douthwaite and George Monbiot as well as features on Quentin Gargan and Clare Watson’s low-energy lifestyle near Bantry, the Cultivate Centre in Dublin and the Village community housing project in Tipperary, not to mention an interview with myself re. the Energy Descent Plan in Kinsale, what was most notable about the issue was to see how far the debate seems to have moved in the media over the last couple of years, and event the last few months. (more…)
Review: Who killed the Electric Car? January 1, 2007
Posted by Graham in : General , 1 comment so farOn Christmas Day I was guest at the lovely house of Claire Watson and Quentin Gargan, near Bantry, where much feasting and merriment was followed by two episodes of “Father Ted” (the first time I had ever seen it!) and then this recent documentary on the fate of the EV1 Electric car . http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html
As it happens, our hosts had themselves just recently bought an electric car, so the topic was of some interest.
The film- directed by Chris Paine- charts the development of an electric car by General Motors, the EV1, and its mysterious withdrawal from the market and eventual destruction. Following the format of The Corporation, the film poses itself as a murder inquiry, interviewing some of the original design and marketing teams, (more…)
