Book review: The Value of Nothing, by Raj Patel

in The Big Issue on 19 January 2010

Q & A with Michael Shuman

in Social justice, Community development on 22 December 2009

Cooling your home

in Greener Homes on 7 February 2010

In his 2008 book, Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel exposed the roots of a global food system that fattens one billion people while another 800 million go hungry.

This time around he’s skipped the entrée and devoured the big cheese: capitalism. Or more specifically, the idea that the price of something is a good indicator of its value (see the global financial crisis). Prices, he argues, are blind to ecological and social ills and “at best, only give a blurry sense of priorities and possibilities”.

Earlier this year I interviewed American economist, lawyer and writer Michael Shuman. He’s the author of two books on re-localisation, Going local and The small-mart revolution and a founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

Choose cooling that won’t break the bank.

Summer hot spells not only induce BBQs and beach holidays, but also snap decisions to shell out for expensive air conditioners. Christopher Zinn from Choice argues that air con should be the last option, not the first. “People can – like lambs to the slaughter – be taken to very high energy use air conditioning systems. There are better, lower cost, lower impact options.”
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