Boom Festival in Portugal takes place every two years at present. An important site for permaculture, EDM and new kinds of environmental/global thoughts!
Brithdir Mawr Collective in Wales, UK. “A community working towards sustainability” is how they describe themselves. They co-run an 85 acre farm site. Links here to their website.
A struggling, but innovative eco-experiment a metro ride out of Barcelona in Spain.
They say: “In Collserola National Park, an ecologically lush area has been reclaimed for an autonomous experiment called Can Masdeu. It was once a hospital to treat leprosy, but its mansion and broad grounds sat idle for half a century. Its co-owners were likely speculating on the growing land value. 15 years ago a group of squatters, activists and environmentalists, both local and international, ascended into the space.”
Links to their main site and an article about the community.
An innovative co-housing group in Colchester, England designed specifically to meet the needs for older residents to live more communally. They say that:
“Our goal is to create a cohousing community that embodies the following values:
Good neighbourliness – in supporting each other within the cohousing community and in making a positive contribution to the social, economic and cultural life of our locality, Old Heath, Colchester and the surrounding area.
Active ageing – as a way of encouraging participation, health, independence and environmental awareness.
Eco awareness – embodied in low energy design, sharing of resources and more integrated living arrangements.”
C.A.T. Physically based in Wales, UK, but a useful on-line resource for all. Lots of practical information on renewable, alternative technologies and sustainability.
Innovative eco-artist and architect. One of the founders of environmental art. Art, housing and nature intertwined. Born on Lanzarote and a lifelong advocate of living in harmony with the natural landscape. His Foundation continues to allow access some of his fantastical creations including his studio-home, the Cactus Garden and the underground caves at Jameos del Agua. He died in 1992.
Link to the foundation hub site. And a video which shows some of his landscape architecture.
Charles Eisenstein and the Next Step Story. Influential, but sometimes controversial author and public speaker. He says: "When any of us meet someone who rejects dominant norms and values, we feel a little less crazy for doing the same. Any act of rebellion or non-participation, even on a very small scale, is therefore a political act."
A link to his main site and their Facebook page, ‘The More Beautiful World’, which is a closed group.
Charles Fort (1874-1932)
The American eccentric writer and researcher whose name has become the ‘byword’ for all things odd, paranormal and hard to explain.
The Fortean worlds are like something out of ‘X files’, but have also spawned some serious quasi-scientific discourse and investigations. Worlds of ‘strange phenomena’.
The link here is to many of his writings.
Saskatchewan eco-village in Canada is an eco-village which is growing. Lots of off-grid pioneers. Plenty of examples of innovative building designs and links to photos, info and videos. It even featured on Al Jazeera main news. But we’ve linked to the official Craik site and Green Energy Futures’ video.
Crypto-Zoology: is described, negatively, by Google as a ‘pseudoscience’. ‘The study of hidden animals’. Cryptozoology originates from the works of colleagues, Bernard Heuvelmans, a Belgian-French zoologist, and from Scotland, Ivan T. Sanderson.
It is many things – the search for, and codification of, mythical and extinct beings – humans, animals, birds – just about anything really. So-called monsters such as Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster share the billing with the Minotaur, the Dodo and Robin Hood. Dazed and Confused?
Here are a couple of links to find out more: