The newsletter is short and sweet this month. Seems like the whole world took August off, and so not much to report this September.
The eagle eye amongst you may have noticed that I’ve put some of my content behind a paywall. I’m just playing around with ideas to make the website self-sufficient until a time comes when it’s no longer needed at all.
Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. It’s all just my own personal opinion. If you like your sources to remain independent then please;
share this article, or
buy me a coffee on Ko-fi, or
make a one-time donation via Paypal
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
I’ve tried Patreon and as lovely as my supporters were it was just too much work for the money it made. Donations are always appreciated but are generally too few and far between to make any sort of dent in costs.
Advertising or affiliate links is generally how people fund websites like this. I’m really not interested in lining the pockets of Mr Google and I feel that affiliate links jar with the site’s low-consumption ethos. Plus the companies I want to direct you too generally don’t run affiliate schemes, and I’m not about to start linking to Amazon!
At the moment it’s only the shopping compendiums that I’ve put behind a paywall, and only the non-Irish brands. I’ll see how this goes. I might expand it or do away with it altogether.
And now for this month’s eco news
First the shocker ….
New study of Greenland Ice Sheet predict sea levels to rise by at least 10 inches
And now the balm ….
Patagonia’s billionaire owner gives away company to fight climate crisis
Irish company helps homeowners avoid concrete foundations
Mid-century inspired lighting made in cardboard
Record levels of solar power across the EU this summer saved the bloc €29bn (£25bn) by reducing the need for costly gas.
Sweden’s GDP grew by over 50% since 1995, even as its energy use per capita declined by more than 10%.
Swiss retails Migros launches a package-free coffee ball to replace coffee pods
Lidl Sweden stops importing fruit by air
Get ready for a sustainable Hallowe’en
Dutch city becomes world’s first to ban meat adverts in public
A list of European train companies with play carriages on their trains
A great guide to growing fruit & veg in a drought
Crops to grow in an Autumn Veg Garden
A fabulously uplifting account of rewilding a field in Somerset
Living in an apartment and want a charge point? Now you can apply for a grant to cover some of the cost with SEAI
Morrison launch carbon neutral eggs, fed on insects, which in turn have been fed on food waste
The Circular Communities Scotland Reuse Consortium celebrates the milestone of saving over one million kilograms of furniture from disposal since their inception
GIY aiming to provide all schools in Ireland with a vegetable growing garden
5 Climate resistant food crops
Pakistan has increased mangrove coverage in the past three decades from 476 km2 in 1990 to an impressive 1,463 km2 in 2020.
Food retailer Iceland launches energy-savy cooking campaign
Canada imposes a tax on luxury cars, yachts and private jets
Great article on building your own greenhouse in the magazine Family Handyman on the Libby App
A lovely article on how Japan’s culture connects them to the natural world
Leuven, a city of 150,000 people in Belgium, has officially banned cars from its centre.
Once on the brink of collapse, Macquarie Island, off the coast of Tasmania, has become a shining beacon of grand-scale environmental recovery.
Since single-use plastic bag charges were first introduced in 2015, total usage in England has decreased by 97%.
Short video on the wildflowers planted in front of Trinity College, Dublin 2
A group of villagers in Langholm in Scotland have bought an additional 2,100 hectares to add to an existing nature reserve
How Playmobil are making toys from old fridges
The art installation ‘Walking forest of 1,000 trees‘ transforming Dutch cities
Results of 10-year project reveal that rewilding areas can boost biodiversity and crop yields
How one Irish farmer organised a biodiversity walk on his farm
Till next month. In the meantime find me on Facebook or Instagram and if you want to read previous newsletters, just click the link.
Elaine
Those carbon neutral eggs sound like a great idea. Excellent display of circularity.
I just find the term “carbon neutral” a bit odd for it.
Yes, it’s a good way of making the best of food waste. Although even better if we didn’t have it in the first instance. I’m seeing the term carbon neutral cropping up quite a bit lately. Often it just means a company has invested in a carbon capture initiative, which is misleading in my opinion. It would be interesting to see the numbers for this project.
Right?
Carbon neutral could essentially mean they are offsetting their emissions.
But if they are specifically trying to highlight how their chicken only feed on worms and the worms feed on food waste, “carbon neutral” isn’t the appropriate term.
They’re probably using it because of customer feedback. I would say ‘circular’ is probably a better description but maybe the market research indicated that this resonated less with customers.