When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. So it’s not surprising that a former corporate barrister now turned green campaigner should come up with a different solution to environmental destruction – simply create a new crime against international peace, “ecocide“. An attentive audience in Kendal’s Brewery [...]

Various family priorities have kept me away from blogging for a time, but I felt I had to note the passing of the Fairtrade 500 Miles for 500 Towns Bike Ride through Kendal. The three hardy souls who arrived at Janet’s house on Tuesday looked remarkably unscathed despite some truly appalling weather as they came [...]

We’ve been getting quotes for fitting solar panels on to our roof. These panels convert solar energy (daylight) into electrical energy, which we can either use in our house or sell to our electricity supplier. The government has introduced a Feed-In-Tariff Scheme, which is a completely misleading name for what is actually a guaranteed price [...]

Two contrasting views this week of what “the environment” can mean. The Town Council has members on various organisations in the town. Three of the councillors (a record number) expressed an interest in South Lakes Action on Climate Change / Towards Transition (SLACC/TT) – the group who successfully gained Transition Town status for Kendal this [...]

Interesting debate at the Planning Committee tonight. We were considering a planning application for works at a house in the conservation area in Kendal, to replace an existing porch / conservatory of little merit with a new design. The owner and the architect had obviously studied the Green Building Bible and taken it to heart. [...]

After living in Edinburgh (population 450,000) it’s a bit of a change living in Kendal (population 26,000). We went to a Fairtrade event last night, and were pleasantly surprised at how many people we knew already from other places. I spotted another town councillor plus a district councillor there – it made me wonder how [...]

I’d seen a number of adverts for aerated showers. The idea’s simple – just replace your existing showerhead (a five second swap) and you can significantly reduce your water consumption every time you shower. The claim is that aerated showers give the same ‘feel’, but use much less water. For around £20, it seemed a [...]