Undercurrents 15 April-may 1976

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 1

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 1

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 2

• UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN 0306 2392], was published from London, England, from 1973 to 1984 [No. 60]. This text version has been created in 2006·8 by me, Chris [Hutton·]Squire [a member of the now·dissolved Undercurrents Collective], by OCRing scanned images of a print copy; the text has been spell·checked but it has NOT been checked against the original. Health & Safety Warning: The practical, technical and scientific information herein [though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date. CAVEAT LECTOR! The many stories that Undercurrents told will interest students of a period that is both too distant and too recent to be adequately documented on the Web. The moral, philosophical, social, economic and political opinions herein remain, in my opinion, pertinent to the much more severe problems we now face. Readers who wish correspond on any matters arising are invited to contact me via: chris[at]cjsquire.plus.com This pdf version is formatted in 15 pt Optima throughout, so as to be easily readable on screen; it runs to 133 pages [the print versions were 48 · 56 pp.]: readers wishing to print it out to read are recommended to use the text version and to reformat it. The many pictures that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There no restrictions on the use of this material but please credit individual authors where credit is due: they are mostly still with us. Page numbers below are for this pdf version. The beginning of each section or article is indicated thus:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 2

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 3

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 6 EDDIES. The usual brew of News, Scandal, Gossip, Horror and Happiness. 22 LETTERS. Your chance to get your own back on us. 29 RADICAL TECHNOLOGY. Peter Harper has another stab at re·defining a strategy for what's Left of Alternative Technology movement, in this extract from our book Radical Technology. 36 HOW TO GROW MORE VEGETABLES THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE ON LESS LAND THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. John Jeavons describes the Biodynamic/French Intensive method of horticulture, which he says could make possible an ecologically·sound system of organic 'mini·farming', with yields up to 16 times those of Agribusiness. 50 WHOLE FOODS FOR HALF PRICE. Get together with your friends and start a food co·op. You'll eat better and save yourselves a lot of money. Robin Roy explains one way to do it. 53 NEW CHARGER FOR LIGHT BRIGADE. Gerry Metcalf, John Willoughby and Godfrey Boyle give the lowdown on the latest 'Mark II' version of the Undercurrents·LlD Wind Generator described in UC 12 and 13. 59 DC·ACi STEP RIGHT UP! With this do·it·yourself transistorised Invertor, a 12·volt DC supply from batteries can be stepped up to the normal 250 mains voltage, and turned into AC. Dave Graham tells you how. Who Needs Nukes? · Special Feature 63 LET'S HAVE SOME MORE RADIOACTIVITY. The anti·nuclear protest movement has succeeded in putting the nuclear power industry on the defensive. Now's the time for us to throw open the door to a full public debate on the Nation's energy options, says Godfrey Boyle. For a start, we could ?point out that a national domestic Insulation campaign would make more energy available, create more jobs and cost less than the CEGB's new reactor programme. 71 TOWARDS A NON·NUCLEAR FUTURE. Amory Lovins argues that nuclear fission, a dangerous, unforgiving technology, is not needed to _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 3

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 4

'tide us over' until fusion power, or solar energy, can take over in 50 years. A far better, cheaper, safer stop··gap is energy conservation. Solar power could meet virtually all our energy needs and could be developed much more quickly than many 'experts' predict. 85 JOB CREATION. Dave Elliott urges an alliance between the Alternative Technology advocates and workers claiming the right to work on socially·desirable products. Specifically, we should push for a national alternative energy technology campaign, and for conversion of the armaments industry to socially valuable production. 99 PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION FOR NEED. Tony Emerson points out some of the pitfalls involved in attempts to make industry responsive to the needs of ordinary people, and suggests some possible remedies. 105 IF YOU DON'T DIG IT, SHARE IT. Details of Friends of the Earth's new share·a·garden scheme, which aims to put unused gardens back into production. 106 REVIEWS. Supership, by Noel Mostert. The World Turned Upside·Down and Winstanley's Laws of Freedom, edited by Christopher Hill. Health is for People. by Michael Wilson. Vegetarian Passion, by Janet Bakis. Fertility Without Fertilisers, by Lawrence D. Hills· TIle Dome Builders' Handbook, by John Prenis. Fuel's Paradise, by Peter Chapman. Follies of Conservation. by George Edwards. Pontifex. by Theodore Roszak. Plus books on Workers' self·management. 125 SMALL ADS _______________________________________________________________ UNDERCURRENTS lnternational Standard Serial Number 0306 2392 Undercurrents is published every two months by Undercurrents Limited (Registered Office. 275 Finchley,. Road. London Nw3), a democratic, non·profit company,. without share capital and limited by Guarantee. Printed in England by Prestagate Ltd Reading OUR ADDRESS: From now on. Undercurrents will have two addresses one in the city, one in the country. Our new city address:Undercurrents., Earth Exchange Building.. 213 Archway,. Road, London N6 5BN. Telephone (01) 340 1898. Letters about News, Reviews or Advertising should from now on be sent to this office. Letters about Features and general editorial matters should be sent to: Undercurrents, 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucesteshire GL11 5BW. Telephone (0453 86) 636. Subscription orders and enquiries should be addressed to our Uley office. SUBSCRIPTIONS cost ,£2.50 Sterling (US$6.50 or equivalent in other currencies) for six issues, posted by second class surface mail to any country except the United States, Canada and Mexico. Subscriptions to these countries cost US$7.50: copies are sent by Air freight to New York and posted from there by second class mall. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 4

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 5

Delivery takes 3 to 14 days. Since Airfreight is only economic when as many subscribers as possible use it. we cannot accept surface mail subscriptions to these countries. Our US mailing agents are:Air & Sea Freight Inc 527 Madison Avenue Suite 1217, New York 10022. SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAID AT NEW YORK. NY. COPYRIGHT. The copyright @ of all articles in Undercurrents', belongs to Undercurrents Limited, unless otherwise stated, and they must not be reproduced without our permission. We will normally allow our material to be used for non profit purposes. on condition that Undercurrents is credited. CONTRIBUTIONS. We welcome unsolicited articles, news items, illustrations, photographs etc. from our readers. Though every care is taker with such material. we cannot be responsible (or its loss or damage. and we cannot undertake to return it unless it is accompanied by an appropriate stamped· envelope addressed to the sender. To make life easier for our typesetters. manuscripts for publication must be typed clearly on one side of the page only, with double or triple spacing and at least one inch margin on each side o( the type. OK? CREDITS. Undercurrents is produced by a large number of people. There are only,. two. paid staff. one full time. one part time. The rest of us work for nothing in our spare time. Here. in alphabetical order. an the names of the people most directly concerned in putting the magazine· together: Godfrey Boyle·. Sally Boyle. Duncan Campbell. Peter Cockerton, Pat Coyne. Tony Durham. Dave Elliott. R Richard Elen. Sotires Eleftheriou. Herbie Girardet. Peter Harper. Chris Hutton·Squire Martin Ince. Barbara Kern Martyn Partridge. and Peter Sommer. Other people, without whom Undercurrents, would be more·or·Iess impossible include: Graham Andrews. Gavin Browning. Ollie Caldecott. Charlie Clutterbuck. Brian Ford. Ian Hogan. Roger Hall Cliff Harper. John Prudhoe. Dieter Penner. Nigel Thomas, Geoff Watts. Martyn Turner, Joy Watt and Woody. And of course everyone we've forgotten. COVER: Tony Durham. TYPESETTING: Geoffrey Cooper. HELPERS: If you’re interested in helping on undercurrents in any way, write or phone for details of our weekly meetings.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 5

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 6

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Eddies IT'S NUCLEAR WAR! The Friends of the Earth campaign against nuclear power moves into a higher gear on Saturday April 24 when FOEers will gather at two of the sites proposed for the third generation of reactors Sizewell and Torness · and at Windscale · where a new reprocessing plant is planned. Tom Burke, the pugnac·ious director of London FOE, hopes that these rallies will finally kill off the 'soft Schweppes' image that many people still have of FOE. London FOE have chartered a train · the Nuclear Excursion · to take 420 of them to Seascale and back. They will be meeting Half/Life and Northern FOE groups outside the plant (in the church hall if wet) for a debate between representatives of the 'pro' and 'anti' factions, a rerun in fact of the Church House debate last month. Hopefully there will be speakers from British Nuclear Fuels Ltd and the unions on the plant, as well as a couple of MPs and the redoubtable Walt Patterson. The plant however will not be picketed as originally planned. Cumbrian County Councillors are being lobbied discreetly to refuse planning permission for the extension to the processing plant. It is thought that direct action might be counter·productive. The Nuclear Excursion will return more or less merrily to London the same night. At Sizewell, on the Suffolk coast near Ipswich, Survival, the lively Cambridge·based coalition of FOE and Consoc groups, are organising a picnic with home·brewed beer, street theatre and music. They will be supported by four coach loads of FOEers from the South of England as well as local groups from all over East Anglia. There is already a Magnox reactor there, providing a good opportunity to inspect one of the beasts at close quarters. The cooling water from this station warms up the surrounding sea, so bring your swimsuit (but watch out for pistol·toting Atomic Police!). The workers and management have been invited along and Survival hope to arrange an impromptu debate on nuclear power un the beach_ They are also, as a publicity stunt for the local media, putting on street theatre and dumping Nuclear Dustbins ('Not to be opened until Easter 500,000 AD.') in the Market Square on Ash Wednesday (April 14). Meanwhile up in Scotland on the wild and windy cape of Torness five miles south east of Dunbar, Edinburgh, FOE will gather covenanter·style to register their protest at the choice of the site for the South of Scotland Generating Board\ new reactor_ Planning permission has been given for _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 6

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 7

this and work is expected to start in April The plant is already running into difficulties: a 'design rethink' by the National Nuclear Power Group will delay the completion of the plant two years (until 1984) and increase its cost substantially; and the villagers of East Linton, East Lothian, are strenuously resisting the Board's plans to quarry there for the large stone blocks needed for the sea wall for the plant. There will be music (a pipe band and folk groups) in the barn on the Thorntonloch campsite, an anti·nuclear exhibition, beachcombing and kiteflying competitions, and, on the Saturday night, a public meeting; in Dunbar. more info page 7 Fallout Shelters Planned The Home Office continues its attempts to ensure that the Home Office at least will survive the next war. Two new circulars, iss.ued earlier this year, deal with plans for fallout shelters for the gener·al population, and 'Community Organisation in War.' When the hard rain falls, the government in its confidential circular ES1/16, is clear that it would be impossible for 'public authorities to provide shelter against all the effects of a nuclear attack' at least, not for the proles. Fallout shelters are different · but it isn't entirely clear that the Home Office have any answer to the problem of people running all ways at once when an emergency is announced. This is what they'll be telling you as the bombs start falling:· If you're at home, stay at home. If your home isn't any good, then go away, taking 14 days food and water with you. Preferably find somebody else's home, by mutual agreement if possible. If at work, stay at work, unless you can easily go home, in which case go home. ... and there's more in a similarly unhelpful' and ill planned vein. There is nothing for example, which suggests that large factories in urban areas will need to establish food stocks for the workforce who would be taking fallout shelter there. The most significant suggestion is that local authorities should identify suitable buildings in public ownership which could be adopted as fallout shelters for roughly 2% of the population who will neither be near home nor work. Likely sites are underground car parks and the basements of large public buildings. The circular is intended as guidance.to local authorities. Many local authorities will be inclined to stick it in the waste bin. The Home Office, they complain, is perpetually planning for war and the _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 7

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 8

survival of government. As a result, their plans for the population at large are ill thought out and contradictory, and impossible to put into practice. Councils are more concerned with planning for more probable emergencies such as a major air crash, another Flixborough ... These emergencies they can do something about. Besides, there isn't any money. But, even if council coffers were full, many councils, particularly in the North and in urban areas wouId be totally unwilling to divert resources to war planning. The second epic war plan, 'Community Organisation in War' (ES2/76) is about the organisation of local communities in the event of a war. The purpose of this is to establish a direct link between the local controller, appointed by the council and each 'community.' A 'focal point' in each community would be needed. Here we learn that 'some local authorities, in response to local demands. have nominated and briefed wartime community leaders or advisers for this purpose in normal peacetime and in some cases vested in the m some semblance of wartime' authority.' In other words, the local councils have appointed, secretly or openly, individuals who in war would have power under emergency regulations to run their districts. Although some of these 'leaders' are likely to be district or parish councillors, the process is distinctly antidemocratic. It also smells of the private Army elite of General Walker and his kind. But such an inference would probably be wrong, as the circular says earlier that 'purpose·designed volunteer 'emergency' organisations should not be given special priority or status over other community organisations.' This is understood to be a deliberate attempt to exclude any unsatisfactory arrangements which might be made with 'private armies' at a local level. Again, the only county councils which are likely to respond to another war circular are the 'shire' rural counties and others in the south. The 'wartime leaders' suggestion probably refers to arrangements made in Devon, Somerset or Cornwall, one source suggested. Councils are now supposed to prepare emergency plans identifying different communities', possible suitable organisations within them, and then to encourage self·help schemes. Many councils won't have the money, time, or interest. Why should they, if the communities can help themselves. The Home Office's attempts to organise central control will be unwelcome. ' Green Blight In Brum The first Green Ban move·ment in Britain · modelled on many successful _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 8

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 9

actions in Australia · has got off to a good start. Building workers, all members of UCA IT, the construction union, have won the support of Birmingham Trades Council in their attempt to prevent demolition of a former Post Office in Brum's Victoria Square, and its replacement with a £10 million office development. Green Bans were described in the last issue of Undercurrents (14) in an interview with Australian Building Workers Federation leader Jack Mundey. Mundey has been giving lectures in many parts of Britain during his stay. If demolition is attempt·ed, it is now certain that union members will not work on the site, and the site could be picketed. But the move·ment against the development has already had effect At the start of March, West Midland county council voted to ask Environment Minister Crosland to revoke the planning permission granted earlier by Birmingham City Council. The City Council has now agreed to investigate the costs of revoking a planning decision. The Victoria Square affair has also been notable for its murkiness. The Post Office has no statutory power or, right to enter into a private development to exploit their own site for non·Post Office uses. And the Post Office and developers have been 'advised' by ex·Birmingham mayor Sir Frank Price. As a result, apparently, planning procedures have been rushed to get permission through, with a.lack of statutory public planning consultation which is now being investigated by the government ombudsman. California dreamin' The future of nuclear power in the state of California will be put to the test in June this year, when Californian citi·zens vote on a popular initiative statute to limit the ways in which new nuclear power plants can be set up in the state. The statute · 'Land Use and Nuclear Power Liability and Safeguards Act' imposes stringent conditions. The first condition is that any electricity company setting up a new plant must sign a waiver for the S560 million limit on compensation payable in the event of a nuclear reactor accident. They must accept liability for their equipment and its failures. This measure will concentrate nuclear proponents minds' wonderfully on problems of safety. If the utility (electricity company) does not accept this, its power output would be progressively restricted over 11 years until the reac.tor became illegal to use. Similar conditions apply to fuel disposal safety, with utilities being required to demonstrate in public complete and satisfactory methods of _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 9

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 10

fuel disposal. Business fronts like the 'California Council for Environmental and Econom·ic Balance' claim that the measures will force a total shutdown of California' existing three nuclear plants, and a moratorium m on new construction. The proposers of the bill point out that the honesty of nuclear safety claims can well be tested by removing the shield of a compensation limit which stops people who are injured, mutilated or have relatives killed in a large accident from seeking full compensation. The bill will be decided by a referendum held in june. There is a similar bill coming up in Oregon in 'October, with more planned for other states. If California votes yes to the bill, the nuclear industry may soon be fighting a rearguard action against demands for full safety · or no nukes. Uranium Export Plan Debated The attempts of the Australian government and mining interests to start exploitation of a uranium mine in Aboriginal lands is meeting with difficulty, according to Marg Smith in the Australian National Review recently (6th February). An inquiry into the development of the proposed Ranger mine at jabiru in Northern Territory re·opened late in February. Commissioner Judge Fox has chosen to hear very wideranging evidence about the environmental effects of the mine · such as the effect of Australian uranium exports on the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Australia's new conservative government has told journalists that Japan will be supplied from Australian sources. japan has not signed the nuclear non·proliferation treaty. Yet the government has prevaricated on a request from Commissioner Fox for a clarification of the government position on uranium exports. The commission · which is viewing the proposal in terms of environmental impact · has reportedly been asked to report by June 30th. Witnesses to the hear·ing, which has travelled round Australia taking evidence, have also stressed the impact on the Aborigines whose land the uranium has been found. Open cast tech·niques were planned, bringing considerable hazard to the surrounding area as well as miners, through the release of radon gas and particular radioactive material. Further information all the campaign: QLD Camp. PO Box 59, Toowong. 4066 Australia. Electric Newspaper: Groups in Britain and France are proposing multimedia distribution networks. That means texts, tapes, video recordings _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 10

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 11

and slides which would be gathered and circulated by a central organisation. In London, Steve Herman of International Times has proposed the re·establishment of the Electric Newspaper, a 'people's newsreel' which was started by an early video co-operative, about 1972. But the price of suitable equipment, and the consequent lack of inlets and outlets then caused the project to fold. Steve would like to hear from anyone with offers, suggestions as to origination of material, possible locations for regular showings or views on organisation and use of the recycled Electric Newspaper. A similar request is made by Connexite·Mediadrome who make very clear propos.als for classification and organisation of radical material on audio visual of a nature. They have already worked out a fine prepared alternative library classification of topics for their network. Interferences, an amazing French magazine, with an Undercurrents style, looks ·t the technology of com·munications and social interrelations, has just published its fourth issue, 12 Francs. from Antoine Lefebure, 94 Quai jemmapes, Paris 75010. (Subscriptions 44 Francs). Undercurrents, however, has a few copies of the previous edition, No 3 · No 3 covers electronic espionage and surveillance, insurgent and counterinsurgent radio, computers in China, graffiti communi·cations, more. It's extremely well produced and a good (French!) read. Post free from Undercurrents, 70p. Peoples Habitat In Dockland In an effort to break down barriers to change a People's Habitat at Rotherhithe Street in London will take place at the same time as the UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver (end of May and beginning of June). Rotherhithe Street curves round 600 acres of land lying fallow in the Surrey Docks, 10 minutes from Tower Bridge. People's Habitat can provide an ideal opportunity for ideas on the future of the Surrey Docks to flourish on the spot. In fact some ideas . are already being demonstrat·ed: an urban farm (Hilary Peter's farm is in the Surrey Docks overlooking the Thames), allotments (they have been staked out and seeds have been sown), graz·ing for totter's ponies (Tottie's pony is there with hawks flying overhead). Small workshops are beginning in the old warehouses next to the river · there are already violin makers, weavers a printer, a glassblower, a toy maker, a saddler and a knitter. Other ideas _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 11

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 12

could range from fish farms in the remaining docks to Colin Ward's Do·it·Yourself New Town. There will be buskers and street theatres · the Waterside Theatre is already there · music will range from African to chamber music · people can bring their own musical instruments A camp site for approximate·Iy 100 tents will be available. Information from: Fiona Cantell Intermediate Technology Publications, 9 King Street London WC2E 8HN Tel: 2402106_ Sponsored by Comtek, Intermediate Technology Publications, Resurgence, Street Farmers and Undercurrents. ·Windmill School The winning project in the BBC's 'Young Scientist' competition, to be screened during April and May, is an oscillating windmill devised by a York school. The main component of the device is a solid aerofoil section pivoted at its lower end. As it reaches full travel on one swing, the pitch of the foil changes and it is driven in' the opposite direction. The team at Pocklington school deliberately went for intermediate productive technology rather than the more typical aping of con·sumer high technology. The device has two advantages over conventional rotors · the normal tower is not needed; and the reciprocating action can drive a pump or similar device directly. Regional Network Survey Undercurrents has just completed a survey of the subscription list by area which reveals interesting information about the distribution of readers around the country. The highest concentrations are, predictably, around London · there are 57 subscribers in Essex, 35 in Middlesex, 54 in surrey, 40 in Kent and 40 in Sussex. North London has 63, South London 72, West 47 and East 33. The other main concentration is in the York, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield area · with more than 60 subscribers. There are 86 in Scotland overall, 14 in Glasgow, 11 in Edinburgh. Cardiff has 12 and Wales has 38, Lancaster/Lanes also 38. The main difficulty as far as the Regional Network is concerned is that we do not have the correspondents in some areas · and we would welcome volunteers from any of the following locations: ·Manchester/Stockport (30 subscribers) ·Cheshire/ Chester (21) ·Liverpool (14) ·Bristol (31) ·Cambridge (24) ·Oxford (32) ·Cumbria (12) ·Glasgow (14) ·Dublin (17) ·Leicester (17) ·Derby;'Staffs (20) ·Lines. (10) ·Northampton (20) ·Norfolk (19) ·Berks, Beds, Bucks, Hants and Hamps, together with Surrey, Essex, Wilts, Dorset and _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 12

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 13

Somerset, all need correspondents. ·So do Gwynedd, Dyfed & Gwent. We also need contacts in rural Scotland and Ireland (there are 40 subscribers scattered about the North and in Eire). If you feel you would like to join the network can you contact: Dave Elliott, 39 Holland Park, London, W11 4UB. The main aim of the Network is to try to build up informal contacts between individuals and groups involved in AT or related activities. This may lead to local group meetings and perhaps to contributions from the regions outlining local activities for publication in UC. It shouldn't involve too much work, just the occasional·letter, although of course we'd be delighted if you started to generate local initiatives, contributions and sales! There are 21 members of the Network so far: see UC issues 13 or 14 for their addresses. Oil Industry Examined A major report on the impact of oil development on the Aberdeen area, Oil·on Troubled Waters, was published in March by Aberdeen People's Press. Its basic message is that the oil boom has nothing to add but added deprivation for most people in the Aberdeen area. It makes the richer many of whom star in the centre spread 'Who owns Aberdeen' diagram · even richer, if they are astute enough, But the rest really have no choice but to get poorer. Prices of everything, and especially housing, have risen steeply, so that now nobody who isn't well paid can buy property in Aber·deen. Likewise, few jobs are created in the city except for qualified personnel. mostly immigrants from other oilfields, for whom the North Sea is just the latest 'prospect.' This supports the case made by 01 and GA Mackay of Aberdeen University. who claim in a recent book that the peak of forseeable Scot·tish employment in the North Sea oil boom has already passed with the finishing of the first batch of platforms late in 1975, And the few who get oil jobs don't pull in the fabulous salaries we're led to believe. Control over the activities of the oil companies by local or central government has, APP claim, been negligible. Although every government recognises its obligation to look after its own country's energy supplies, the British government has done this by encouraging offshore operators and paying little attention to the effect of oil development on areas like Aberdeen. Aberdeen has been in the forefront of oil development, in defiance of long laid local plans and traditions and despite the lack of _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 13

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 14

suitable infrastructure. Improvements in local facilities are paid for by generally raised rates where there is often a sound case for offshore developers, who will have almost exclusive use of facilities, paying all or most of the cost. The report singles out developments at Peterhead, a formerly isolated fishing community now threatened, and the proposed new town of Maryculter, for case studies of difficulties caused by sudden development. Both will still be there, probably changed for the worse, when the oilmen have moved to the Canadian Arctic, or Greenland, or another prospect. The report holds out lillie hope for the inhabitants of these towns getting anything they need from oil money which is presently pouring past them The report is the product of much work, including interviews with local officials, trade unionists, oilmen, and others. It does not apply the portable left wing analysis against capitalism, in Scotland or anywhere else, now or next year; and it is one of the best things yet produced by a local activist group. Oil on Troubled Waters. 75p from Aberdeen People's Press, 167 King Street, Aberdeen. Shetland hit by OiI With the recent winter weather things in Shetland have been relatively quiet. The Shell pipeline into Firths Voe is now complete, and work on the Brent line has stopped temporarily with 66km of the length laid. But it has not been smooth going all the way. Although the testing of spill·collecting equipment is obviously vital, in July the Department of Trade and Industry decided to spill several lots of oil off north·east Shetland to see if they could pick it up again, ignoring several million auks whose migration through the area is at a peak at that time of year. As Jon Tinker pointed out in the New Scientist, the information gained might well be wortha fair number of oiled auks, but the most disquieting thing was that the Nature Conservancy Council, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and local environmental groups were not even notified until after the times and places for the experiments had been fixed, Luckily notice was taken of the many complaints that were made nationally and locally, and the scale of the tests was cut back considerably. Then in August a rig supply boat which had run aground in Lerwick harbour pumped over 100 tons of barytes (drilling mud) over the side _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 14

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 15

without telling anyone to try to refloat itself. It was not even pumped into the sea, where it would have settled to the bottom, but left to blow over grassland on the neighbouring island of Bressay. The Shetland Times ran the story as the pumping overboard of cement, which would have been environ·mentally disastrous (although barytes, being totally inert, can be relatively safely dumped), but no attempt was made by the companies involved to point out the difference. Also in August a kilometre of the Shell pipeline mysteriously rose to the surface of Yell Sound, apparently because quality control at the Forth coating yard was not all it should have been and the concrete coating fell off the pipe when it came into contact with sea·water. A Ministry enquiry is currently under way, but Shell'themselves have totally refused to give any public explanation of the rising pipe. They are also in trouble with Shetland Islands Council and the local fishermen's association over compensation to fishing boats, one of which hit the pipe at night (expect·ing it, of course, to be.on the sea·bed) and several of which have had their nets fouled on ex·oil jetSam (despite there being a clause in the Council licence forbidding the tipping overboard of unwanted rubbish). . So, heels into the peat for the next round of the great Shetland oil tug of war. Post Office Parcel Spies The Post Office, despite public reports, is not allowing the parcel service to die without a fight. This includes spying on their competitors and circulating the contents of business letters sent out by the firms. According to 'Intelligence Exchange' a confidential Post Office publication recently sent to Undercurrents, Post Office parcels service representatives are in the habit of examining their client's. correspondence. 'While on a customer's premises in the Bolton Area 'one item relates, the PO's rep 'noted a current memo from Huddersfield Parcels Ltd', pointing out their rates were 3p less per pound. The item appeared under the heading 'Blatant Undercutting. ' In other items, the Postal Service Representative at Southampton learns confidential information about a competitor, BRS Parcels, in a euphemistically termed 'wide ranging discussion I no doubt following a little gentle persuasion, Other snippets were apparently gathered by chat·ting up competitor's drivers. And, somehow, letters sent by Securicor to their custom·ers end up in Post Office hands. How? Parcels companies _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 15

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 16

who operate in competition to the_ Post Office parcels service will be interested to know that Intelligence Exchange is published several times a year by Chris Blagg of PMkl.5 and contains 50 detailed pages of confidential information about them. What an enterprising nationalised industry is the PO! BSSRS IN ITS EARLY years the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science worked as a 'pressure group' to publicise the abuse of science. During those years it campaigned against chemical and biological warfare, the use of CS gas in Northern Ireland, nuclear testing, and pollution. A series of conferences were held on topics such as Science Education and The Social Impact of Modern Biology. These conferences were 'talk shops' concerned with abuses of science not 'workshops' aimed at organising scientists and technicians around specific issues. Times have changed: During the last 18 months BSSRS's work on health hazards in industry has brought it into contact with the shop floor and left groups. Its interpretation of the role of science and technology in society has shifted away from a use/abuse model towards a marxist·based analysis. Some of the work that BSSRS has done over the past year includes · • Talks to trade union groups on health hazards issues. • The reprinting of The New Technology of Repression: Lessons from Ireland. • The publication of an internal bulletin to inform members of BSSRS activities and to be a forum for political debate on its work and aims. • A Hazards Bulletin to support trade union struggles to improve the conditions of work in British industry. We are in the process of drafting a new Policy Statement. When this draft was discussed at our AGM in November it raised some basic questions about the nature of BSSRS, its political position and its constituency, including: • the need for BSSRS to serve as an 'umbrella' group for individuals of varying political positions. • BSSRS's task is not so much to radicalise scientists and technicians as to pro·vide a focus for the activity of radicalised scientists and technicians. • BSSRS's present structure with a National Committee and central office _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 16

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 17

combined with autonomous local groups should be maintained. • BSSRS must increase its membership amongst indus·trial scientific workers, i.e. our membership is still too college·based. • We must avoid becoming bogged down in theoretical debate, i.e., our theory should be closely linked to our action. Sound interesting? You can contact us c/o BSSRS. 9 Poland St, London WI (01·43727281· Members receive our quarterly magazine Science for People,and reductions on pamphlets. There's plenty of work to be done. NUCLEAR DEMOS· how to get there WINDSCALE Windscale is eleven miles south of Whitehaven, Cumbria due west of Wasdale and the Scafell Pikes (from which it can easily be seen in clear weather). Get to it via the A595, turning off at Gosforth (from the north) or Holmrook (from the sou·th). The meeting will probably be in the car park outside the main gate (British Nuclear Fuels permitting) starting about 1 pm. The Nuclear Excursion leaves London at 7.30 am_ It will stop at Watford, Birmingham, Crewe, Warrington, 'and Preston, and arrive at Sea·scale at about 1 pm. Return fare from London will be £5. There may still be a few seats left. Contact Czech Conroy at the FOE London office for details (9. Poland St, W1, phone 01·434 1684). Coaches will run to Windscale from other parts of the country. Contact your local FOE group for details. TORNESS Torness is five miles south·east of Dunbar and twentyfive miles northwest of Berwick on the A 1. FOE will be running a soup kitchen Buses run every two hours and will stop anywhere en route to put you down or pick you up. Edinburgh FOE will probably be running some coach·es. Contact Mary Mclintock for details (031 2257752 office or 031 5572516 home) Assemble at the campsite at Thorntonloch. Coming from Dunbar, get to it via the road running east from the second of the two road junctions signposted to Crow·hill and Thornton. SIZEWELL Size well is on the Suffolk coast six miles east of Sax·mundham. Get to it via the A 12 London to Lowestoft Road, turning off at Saxmundham (B119) from the south and Blythburgh (B1125) or Yoxford (Bl122) from _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 17

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 18

the north. Coaches will run from Cambridge. from the South Coast, and probably, from Milton Keynes. Groups from other parts of East Anglia may run their own coaches or they may make their way to Cambridge, depending on numbers. The Cambridge contingent will leave from the Senate House at 9 am. For further details contact Rob Edwards at Jesus College (room K11). You can leave a message on Cambridge 68611. Education Media Lash Out The Open University's course on Man·Made Futures is going public from the start of 1977. The course · which looks at crises in food, housing and jobs, .and suggests alternative living systems· is joining the list of post·experience courses which can be taken in isolation without registering for an OU degree. An important part of the course is the project. Potential projects can cover a wide range of familiar ideas such as solar heating, food growing co·operatives, or using waste materials in farming. More details from the au: Walton Hall. Milton Keynes_ It is possible to buy the course books, which are specially written. in bookshops. or with other materials. from the OU. National Health Prevention With the National Health Service gasping for funds, it .might have been thought that the government's Consultative Document Prevention and Health: Everybody's Business might have come up with one or two positive ideas on how people might take their health into their own hands and reduce the burdensome queues in the GP's surgery and at the Hospital gates. But apart from regurgitating the arguments for and against screening (with minimal cost benefit analysis), and identifying the effects on health of people's life styles·from smoking, drinking, and doping to 'the sexual revolution and the changing environment' the document has little to offer in the way of ideas for stimulating the physical and mental well·being of the community. The report devolves responsibility for preventive medicine on the individual himself. 'There is a danger that people are led to think they have discharged their respon·sibility for their own health if they have taken this test or accepted that procedure. Important though these are, there is more to it than that. Much of the responsibility for ensuring his own good health lies with the individual. We can all influence others by our'own actions.' _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 18

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 19

A bit of a cop out considering the continuing official embarrassment and blind eye turned towards the first comprehensive experiment' in community preventive medicine, the Peckham Health Centre. When this was started just before the war it was equipped with gym, swimming pool, theatre and recreation rooms. Consulting surgeries were conspicuously unfeatur·ed. The idea behind the project was that health was just as powerful and infectious as disease. Children would encourage their parents to come along, and the health of the whole family would benefit. But by 1951 the Centre was closed and one of its founders, Scot Williamson was writing, 'The sequence of events which have led up to the ending of the Peckham Experiment makes it impossible to escape the observation that a 'Welfare State' must be the sale arbiter of its nation's destiny. To maintain its integrity it can brook no influence that comes from outside its own programme of compelling 'care.' It stands upon the ground of cure and prevention of disease, disorder and vice. It is not ready to consider the possibility that the cultivation of order, ease and virtue in society might prove an even greater power for the welfare of the people than the abiding 'care'of the administrator. ' Since the closure of the Centre a small group of medics under the name Pioneer Health Centre Ltd. have been trying to keep its ethos alive. Currently the University of St Andrews is talking of running a Peckham·style project in the new town of Glenrothe in Fife But the Peckham concept has never been happ·ily accommodated by the administrators who hold the purse strings. Current financial difficulties in the Health Service only exacerbate their disinclination to investigate new departures in medicine. But the savings, not to mention the intrinsic gains of Peckham type experiments are not the sort that can be calculated by the economists of the DHSS. What's On The INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ENERGY SOCIETY are having their 8th Technical Meeting and AGM on April 22, from 1)".45 ·17.30. This will take place at the Main Hall of N.E. London Polytechnic, Forest Road, London EI7, and the theme is European Solar Houses. Included will be talks on the Philips House, in Aachen, the Euroc House, Sweden, and the Milton Keynes Solar House. Tickets are available from the Secretary, UK·ISES, The Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London WIX 4B5. There is to be an EASTER CONFERENCE ON LAND at Laurieston Hall, April 16·23. The object of the conference is to survey the work people _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 19

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 20

have done relating to the politics. of land, to exchange experiences and question our aims. The weekend will be devoted mainly to discussion on the politics of land tenure, followed by a greater emphasis on the practical side of living off the land. Some suggestions for workshop discussions are: how to make a small plot of land viable, and also the production of a manifesto of agricultural policy. You can also visit some of the local groups. For more details, write to Land Conference, Laurieston Hall. Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. It will cost £1.75p per day and you will be welcome for all or part of the week, Book now, as numbers will be limited. MUSTARD SEED · a Festival of Alter·native Living in Ireland will happen from 8 pm April 23·25 at the Glencree Peace Centre, Co. Wick low , which is 12 miles from the centre of Dublin. There will be workshops, demonstrations of self·sufficiency skills, intermediate technology, celebrations, music and a market. Accommodation will be rough, as this is mountain country. For more information write to Michael Walsh, Fieldside, Knocklyon Road, Firhouse, Dublin 14. Telephone: Dublin 977741. SERA (Socialist Environmental and Resource Association) will be holding a one·
________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 21

FOE, on Saturday April 24th. See article elsewhere in Eddie s. DESIGN FOR NEED is the title of a conference at the RCA to be held on April 12·1 ... It will look at a variety of projects aimed at meeting social needs. ENVIRONMENTAL HUSBANDRY is the theme of a course to be held at The College, Danebank A venue, Crewe, Cheshire, from April 29·May 1. It is organised by the Soil Association and will cover the principles and practice of environmental husbandry, organic farming, nutrition and economics. Lecturers include Dr. E. Schumacher, Dr. B. Latto, and Mr. Sam Mayall, whose organic farm will be visited. Course fee is £ 12. or £5 per day all inclusive. Write fOT a programme and form to Don farmer. at the college. The Alternative Society is holding a NEW COMMUNITIES EXCHANGE weekend June 18·20, at Celmi, Tywyn, Merionethshire. This weekend is to act as an exchange where those interested in joining new community endeavours will be able to link up with those who are already taking part in such work, and will gain from the wide range of experience they have accumulated. Write to 9 Morton Ave., Kidlington, Oxford, for details. MEGALITHIC SITES is an exhibition at the ICA, Nash House, the Mall, from April 7 to May 2. It is about astronomical and geometrical indications in standing stones, circles and avenues in the British Isles and France, with Prof. A. Thorn's drawings and plans, and photographs by others. Also included in this exhibition will be the results of the computer study of the megalithic alignments of Lands End by Pat Gadsby and Chris Hutton·Squire of Undercurrents Concurrently with it is Wind and Water, an exhibition of aspects of Geomancy. This was the way in which the Chinese used a geo·mancer's compass in assessing the landscape and topography for architecture and engineering of landscape. Both exhibitions are FREE, so don't miss them! PEOPLE'S HABITAT (see article in Eddie's) will be at Surrey Docks from 29th May to June 6th. In STOCKHOLM, the ARARAT group are holding their exhibition (see Undercurrents 14) on Alternative Research in Architecture, ReSources Art and Technology. The exhibition runs from April lst to June 10th. ARARAT, Skeppsholmen, Fack, Stockholm. ORGANISING AN EVENT?? Please send any information for inclusion in this section to Barbara Kern at Undercurrents.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 21

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 22

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Letters ICATTY letter Since Mr l:Godfrey Boyle, writing about the ICAT conference, displays a passion for washing dirty linen. I gladly present him with the following sad lapse for his laundrette. For I 100 have a passion. one no! shared by Mr Boyle: it is for truth· fulness in reporting. Very much depends on it if we are ever 10 get anywhere. I was Chairman of the final Plenary· Mr Boyle says that I "failed to allow any time for an attempt to reach a constructive synthesis" and that "this contrasted strongly with the careful organization of the rest of the event." Alas: e,"'en in this backhanded compliment Mr Boyle's fascinating capacity for getting it wrong shines forth. I should have thought that 'careful organisation' was about the last description which would have occurred to anybody who was there·. It was in fact a revoltingly badly organised event, and had it not been for the frantic efforts of a handful of last·minute volunteers, I doubt whether it would have started at all. This sadly mundane reason was the cause of half the messup in the final Plenary. The other half was caused by the supporters of Mr Boyle. The facts are these: I. The Plenary had about Sill hours' work to get through in three. I explained this at the start and asked ·or co·operation. For the most part I got it and was grateful: but even with that I had no hope of ensuring a hearing for all, or even most, of the matters chat should have been brought forward. 2. With one exception all reporters from commissions went overtime and I don't blame them, for the time they were allowed was derisory. But Mr Boyle's men really turned the timetable into a dog's dinner. Not for them a single reporter; they must have three, I assume because they did not trust each other: and all of them went overtime. Nor, in fairness, was theirs the only commission to adopt this wildly impracticable fad. 3. Once, when the discussion had degenerated into personal mudslinging, I sought guidance from the audience, as I had said I would do; and they, having made it quite clear that they had had enough, I terminated the discussion. No doubt, Mr Boyle disapproved of me; but, even at such heavy cost, that is what I would do again. 4. Finally with regard to the washing of linen: Commission 8 approached me in the lunch·break, i.e. immediately before the Plenary, to ask for my help in getting their statement photocopied for circulation. I at once _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 22

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 23

reached for my typewriter and took it down at their dictation; that is how it got OUt and I am glad it did. In fact I disagreed with the criticism of the ICAT organisers in its first paragraph; but had I. because of that, wanted to suppress this document all I needed to do was to continue placidly munching my Civil Aid lunch. All of this is perfectly well· known to Mr Boyle, but not to those of your readers who were not at the Conference. These might be tempted to believe what he writes, a risky thing to do without independent verification. I'm glad that Mr Boyle was pining for a constructive synthesis. Maybe I'm dim; but the actions of the radicals somehow failed to suggest this to me. They seemed to have thought that the way to make progress was to pUt up as many backs possible including, mistakenly, _ my own: for the really funny thing about all this is that I was privately in favour of the radical view all along, though as Chairman of a highly disparate conference I was not entitled to say so. The view, yes; the tactics, never. What I privately suffered up there, longing to rescue a good policy statement from the hamfisted fools who were mangling its chances! With better sense · and a lot less persecution·mania · it could have won a lot of support; it could have been the partial resolution of differences which Mr Boyle says he was seeking; I am personally hath sad and angry that it didn't happen. but for that the gutter·tactics·of some · though by no means all · of the radicals are to blame. D.G.Arnott The Holt, Chorley Wood, Herts WD3 SSQ Don Arnott's wild over·reaction to my relatively restrained comments on his ICAT chairmanship serve only to confirm my suspicion that my shafts of criticism touched a nerve of truth. To take his points one by one. The Conference may·not have seemed "carefully organised" to Mr Arnott: organisers of conferences tend 10 see only the backstage chaos. But {or us participants, the impression given by the elaborate registration procedure, the advance documentation, and the generally regimented air of the proceedings was definitely one of order. not chaos. I utterly reject his assertion that I and my 'supporters' (and incidentally · though conspiracy theorists like; Mr Arnott will not believe me · I had never met any of my 'supporters' until the Conference) somehow sabotaged the timetable. I timed the various com·mission reports very carefully, and the only one to keep reasonably on time was the one in _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 23

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 24

which I participated. We overran our allotted 10 minutes by only 2 minute· but Mr Arnott allowed some of the other reports to lost for half·an hour. If he had been as strict with the other commissions a.t he was with us 'radicals', there would have been at least an hour left for synthesis at the end. There is insufficient space for me 10 rebut the rest of Mr Amott's unfounded assertions. I left Mr Arnott's name out of my original report because I did not want to indulge in the pointless personal mudslinging to which he now seems to have descended. AII I can say is that at no time did any band of 'hamfisted' 'radicals' armed with 'gutter tactics' attempt to make a 'dogs dinner' out of the event. And if Mr Amott believes they did, well, I feel sorry for him. Godfrey Boyle W.A.A.T. Visiting my son recently in Western Australia, the land of the bore·hole and wind·pump, I noticed that Perth's affluent city dwellers were adopting solar heating· of water. This is hardly surprising: on December 30 at 0 noon my thermometer read 70 C under glass in a sealed air cavity with a dark grey absorption slab of concrete under it. For about a year a small panel about 5 metres square has been on the market for about £600; the cost is said to be recovered in 5 years. The unit is simply planted on the roof and plumbed directly to mains pressure. Water now is by convection. However, installation costs are high because plumbing is considered to be highly·skilled work not to be done by amateurs. A number of those who approached me for advice concluded that a BRAD·style pumped system would be better value; most already had corrugated iron roofs and so decided on a trickle system with a storage tank below the roof. Efficiency is not crucial in these latitudes and they thought they could opera Ie such a system manually, without thermostatic controls. Bill Crowe 179 Strand Road Merrion Dublin 4 Eire I CAN SEE THEE, WOODY .... Unlike the various critics, I thought Woody's style was a model of clarity. Having recently read a lot of Ivan Illich's work, I was glad to find someone who does use more than the absolute minimum of words. It is easier to read and understand a longwinded essay on a difficult topic than something as tightly written as llIich's stuff. I suspect thai the reason the var·ious moaners found Woody's style incomprehensible was really that _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 24

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 25

they found the subject unfamiliar. Sorry, but I consider anyone who expects to understand one article on an unfamiliar topic without doing any background reading is a fool. Understanding rarely comes without effort, and your typical genius Who understands anything instantly has typically devoted many hours of eyestrain to reading countless books on every topic imaginable, and a few others. Sandy Morrison Dun Romin 47 Church Road Dover . . . . FOR THE BEANS We were a bit disappointed with the tone of the article on the Fiskeby V soyabean (Undercurrents 11) We have grown this bean here (70 kms. from Stockholm) for two seasons now and can say that we are veT)' happy with it and feel that it is a very significant development · especially for AT oriented agriculturalists. AT cannot stand by itself · it must be combined with some decentralisation of society and the development of rural self·sufficient communities. This means vegetable protein which in northern climates is not easy. So we are grateful for this bean. The first season we had about 50% germination and good yield (we're not into recording exact figures) comparable to the other beans we grew. The second year we used the previous year's crop for seed. The result was better: about 80% germination and resistance to strong frost in which other beans were lost . We recommend starting with commercial seed bUI keeping back some of your own produce for seed thus developing better strains for the particular conditions. Also it makes you more self·reliant and keeps you out of the clutches of big business. Brian Porter Tim Ohlund Box 559 A 19063 Orsundsbro Sweden HOME ON THE LINE Have you ever thought about the potential of disused railway lines? We have been living on one in a 20' geodesiC dome for three months. No·one seems to mind. We were protected from the storms at New Year because we were in a cutting. It would be no problem to try it on with a caravan. Thanks to Dr. Beeching such lines are to be found all over the country. Macintyre of Spoilbank and Claire c/o Alford PO Lincolnshire HOT HAY .. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 25

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 26

I hope the following may promote thought about an alternative energy source. It came from a countryman whose wrinkled cynicism became positively prunelike when I attempted to get his assistance with a slurry source for a possible methane digester. His comment · "There's more heat than you could use in the haystack, if you can find a way of getting it out." He's right · or else my thermometer, jury rigged on a long stick, is being sucked by hot·blooded rat. In my case, the house is alongside an old barn permanently used for hay storage, but when one thinks of the millions of haystacks built every year up and down the land, the mind boggles. Are they primitive thermopiles or am I being romantic? Could any of your more scientific readers advise me of the prospects here, or at least steer me towards someone who has looked into it? R. Brown 73 Deodar Road London SW1S .... OR HOT AIR Inset in my kitchen window is a small plastic rotary extractor fan, which whirls away ceaselessly all day. It uses no electricity, and is caused to revolve · or 50 I'Ve always assumed · by the difference in temperature, and Therefore of air pressure, between the two sides of the kitchen window. At any rate, it stops abruptly when the kitchen door is opened onto the yard. Otherwise, even the most negligible pressure differential seems to start it spinning. Now, I'm writing in the hope that someone will disillusion me by saying that the rotor does not work for the reason I'Ve assumed; that it could not be used to charge a battery; that even if it could, it would not be economically practical; thai one could not build 'air engines' consisting of large, black·painted boxes or tubes with rotor/ dynamos set in them. Please let me know why it won't work · I',n beginning to day· dream on the cooling·tower scale! Frank Adey 130 Victoria Street Willenhall West Midlands WV 13 PLANNING PROBLEMS I read with interest your Communesense Guide to Planning (Undercurrents 1.1). This area certainly presents problems if you are not familiar with planning applications, building regulations, improvement grants, and so on. The fact is that there are no hard and fast rules: the correct tactics will vary according to the circumstances of each case. Remember that Local Government keeps files on everything and each department may have its own 'history' of your property. Do not let on to _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 26

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 27

anyone what you are doing until you have worked out your tactics. I have considerable experience of both sides of the problem: I have worked in Development Control Planning for 2 1/2 years; al the same time, with some friends I completely renovated a 17th century cottage without having even applied for planning permission; I have also advised on a number of similar projects. Go into it thoroughly before making an application and get good advice from someone who knows what he is talking about. The best advice is obtainable from the Planning Officers themselves but you may find it hard to convey your ideas without giving too much away. Emphatically, do not attempt to study the Planning Acts: they are so incomprehensible as 10 be of little value; I have not read them myself. Instead, read 'The Town and Country Planning (General Development Order) 1973' (HMSO) which tells you what you can do without applying for permission. To find out what your Council's policies are, look in the Written Statement attached to the Development Plan or Structure Plan. If you decide to apply for Building Regulations Approval (in the right circumstances there are ways of avoiding it) try to get on friendly terms with the Building Inspector. He may make several visits to inspect the work and he can offer valuable advice and more. Those I have known are very human bureaucrats and do enjoy a cup of tea and a fag. You can familiarise yourself with the basic rules of this game by studying the Building Regulations 1972 (and the subsequent amendments) or 'The Guide to the Building Regulations 1972' by A.G. Elder (Architectural Press 1972). Regarding communes, in most cases there should be no problem. The Planning Authority is only likely to be alerted when a 'change of use' application is made; it is not concerned with how many people live in a place, though the Public Health Inspector might be interested if he suspects there is overcrowding. I would be pleased to advise any Undercurrents readers on specific planning problems. Gary Burton Rox Pole Thornbury Nr. Bromyard Herefordshire GOATS On the question of milk yields from goats (Undercurrents 11 and 12): the figures are available for those that care to enquire. Anyone who keeps goats seriously either has them officially recorded or does it himself to see that feeding and breeding are carried out on a rational basis. A goat _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 27

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 28

giving much less than 200 gallons will eat as much as one giving 300, so why keep a poor yielder'? If you go in for buying scrub goats then don't complain if they don't milk welL Tom Kewell Little Pook Hill Farm Burwash Weald Sussex ANYONE GOT A LEY? I am writing a standard popular book on leyhunting. It will be published by Fontana in February next year. I am writing to ask leyhunters to send me examples of leys they have found for inclusion in the book. I want 10 include leys from all over the British Isles. Each ley should take in at least four points on a 1:50,000 O.S. map. As I have to complete Leyhunting by the end of April please send them to me as soon as possible. Michael Balfour 32 Egerton Gardens London SW3

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 28

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 29

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Harper Radical Technology Radical Technology is the name of our just·published book. 'Radical Technology' is also the name we've given to an eclectic collection of concepts which began life a few years ago under the increasingly·unsatisfactory banner of 'Alternative Technology'. We've been trying to clarify them ever since. Here, from the Introduction to the book, is Peter Harper's latest attempt to nail them down . GIVEN THAT modern capitalist industrial societies are morally contemptible, ruthlessly exploitative, ecologically bankrupt, and a hell of a drag to live in, is there anything we can do to change them? Let us grant that remedial gimmicks such as economic growth jags, foreign aid, Billy Graham, catalytic afterburners, and lobotomy on demand are not going to do the trick. Let's face it, nobody has all the answers. But something has got to be done, and this book is a compilation of proposals which we think are going in the right direction. 'We' are a group of friends who for the past four years have been producing a magazine (Undercurrents) under the slogan Radical Science and People's Technology'. It always saves a lot of trouble to have a strong party line, and trying to work this out, we are per·petually tracking the elusive beast which we now call 'Radical Technology' in order to cage it once and for all. In spite of all our efforts it remains at large. (Who knows where it will strike next?) But to resume the hunt: the word 'radical' literally means 'going to the root', and accordingly 'radical technology' implies a fundamental re·examination of the role of technology in modern societies. It also implies a commitment to the ideals of the political Left. Let's say we're into liberation. We have to break through the political, economic, social, and psychological forces that constrain and oppress us. The trouble is these forces hold one another together in a web of mutual reinforcement so consistent that it's hard to know where to begin loosening their grip: patterns of ownership, status games, the way you work, what you learned at school, what the neighbours think, who gives the orders, what turns you on, what you see on TV, what you can or cannot buy .... Technology is one of these also, but we think it's a good place to get your fingers in the crack. Out of that assumption a syncretic model is developing which is both descriptive and normative, and suggests that real socialism will require a reassess·ment of the whole basis of productive activity: machines, methods, products, work·places, work·patterns, training, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 29

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 30

allocation of work, loci of control, reward systems, distribution, pricing, economic co·ordination, attitudes, engineering principles, conventional scientific theory .... Where does this 'model' come from? You can only ever see it out of the corner of your eye, so it's difficult to say. But we can identify a number of influences which have accumulated over the years, starting in the febrile days of the late '60s, when young scientists and technologists·and even some old ones · were dropping out like flies into spaces of personal and political discovery they never dreamed existed. Critics of industrial society Industrialisation hasn't always been an easy pill to swallow, and it has had its critics. In the past few decades, as Western capitalism moved into high gear for its assault on the consumerist Parnassus, a new version of 19th century pessimism emerged, with critics arguing from several different standpoints that the whole thing was quite intolerable. Writers like Huxley, Mumford, Ellul, Marcuse, Roszak and Iilich hardly constituted a coherent school of thought, but they had in common a belief that modern technological·industrial society itself engendered most of the problems, not just particular forms of it, such as capitalism. This implied dismantling the technostructure and decentralising into a simpler, more spartan and generally rural,form. Some critics went even further and asserted that the scientific world·view itself · objective, analytic, reductionistic, dispassionate, manipulatory · was the root of modern alienation. Th is implied a romantic, even mystical, reconstruction that drew inspiration from pre·industrial technologies and primitive' culture. Well, some of us fell for this and some of us didn't, but it certainly made us think about technology and 'modern consciousness' and what being human was all about. Counter·culture Meanwhile, it was hard to be young in the sixties and not get caught up in the wild cultural revolution against the dominant values of industrial culture reliability, ambition, obedience, technical rationality, privacy, competitiveness, consuming, mask·wearing etc. · influencing and influenced by the anti·industrial intellectuals. The freaks were into relationships, communalism, head .trips, being rather than having or doing. Their technologies (apart from domes, beads, and candles) were inner technologies·, for exploring worlds in the head, and creating a mode, a mood, a vision, a way of seeing and feeling more alive. It was _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 30

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 31

true the freaks tended to be parasitic on society as a whole, living in the interstices. But they were cheap to run and they pioneered a whole new life style of hedonic poverty. Some of us got into that trip and were never the same again. Ecology Another plague of the late sixties was the Apocalyptic Mania. Some of us caught this very badly. We did get over it eventually, but what remained was an awareness the Old Left never had, and still hesitates to take into account, of the physical and biological constraints on global human action. You can't go on growing forever, increasing energy consumption, use of raw materials, population; and you can't treat the biosphere like an infinite rubbish dump. Suspecting a basic incompatibility between industrial technology and long·term environmental stability, many people felt that the only really safe technologies in the long run were those which imitated 'Nature' as far as possible, or at least treated her with appropriate deference. This led them to the familiar criteria of arcadian technology in smallness, frugality, antiquity, rural setting, use of natural materials, and the cult of 'self·sufficiency'. More pragmatically, it spawned 'biotechnics' or 'Low·impact Technology', and all the familiar gadgetry of renewable·resource devices like windmills, solar collectors, methane digestors etc, of which this book has its due share. The Third World The spectacle of advanced technology applied in the non·industrial countries was extraordinary, even under the aegis of a 'benign' aid programme. It reduced rather than increased employment, produced luxury goods for the ruling class rather than essentials for the masses, accentuated the disparity of city and countryside, eroded old skills and exchange patterns, and created a tremendous dependence on foreign supplies of material, parts and technical assistance." 'Development' did take place, if GNP is any witness, but in a hideously distorted form. As an alternative it was suggested (originally by Schumacher) that smaller scale, labour·intensive technics based on local skills and resources · 'intermediate technology' · would allow more even development, production geared to real needs, and greater self·reliance. This impressed us as further testimony of the evils of Big Technology and of the remarkable 'Taming Power of the Small'. The only missing ingredient was socialism. At this point, inevitably, China enters the story. She was practising many principles of radical technology _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 31

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 32

in a strikingly original way, reviving the old arts and blending them with the new; decentralising factories; judiciously combining big and small technology so as to get the best out of each; using natural materials and waste·products; encouraging self·reliance at all levels; and creating a balance of mental and manual work in a context of rigorous equality and guaranteed welfare rights. What was important to us was that the Chinese seemed to invert the conventional strategy. Instead of putting the sole emphasis on economic growth and hoping that social benefits would accrue as a side effect, the Chinese set out to establish social justice and minimum living standards, and found that economic growth appeared as if from nowhere. They put people before economics and the heavens did not fall down, even at a GNP per capita of under $200 · whatever that might mean in China's case. It can be done. The Chinese were, and remain, an inspiration. The anarcho·utopian tradition Right from the beginning we were all socialists of one kind or another. We didn't need any persuading that capitalism had to go. And yet, many of the things we felt were most wrong in capitalist society were heartily approved by many others who called themselves socialists. We began to realise that there are two great streams of socialist thought. One, represented by Marxists and social democrats, however deep its disagreement with capitalism, at least shared its rational, materialist values of Progress, Science, Efficiency, Specialisation, Growth, Centralised Power, and fascination with the numbing achievements of smart·ass technology like Apollo and Concorde. And this was not all. They seemed to have a model of social development similar in many respects to the ideology of corporate liberalism: that society should be organised for maximum production, with the products themselves being the principal rewards, offered as compensation for the inevitable alienations of life and work in an industrial economy. Of course, under these tough·and·realistic forms of socialism, distribution would be fairer, work safer, products more rational, and public services much better. This was not in question. But the basic separation of production and consumption, the assumption of alienation·with·compensation, and technocratic criteria for social priorities;was broadly the same as liberal capitalism. Even the projected future was similar. Provided we all worked hard and behaved ourselves, eventually a state would arrive ('post·industrial society', 'communism') in which machines would take over most of the work and we could all go out and play. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 32

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 33

But the other great stream of socialist thought, represented by the anarchists and utopians, looked at things quite differently. At first one could hardly take them seriously. They seemed to believe that the subtle human satisfactions should be given priority over production require·ments; that life should be satisfying in all its aspects; that power should flow from below; that the action is not all in the city; that production and consumption need not be segregated in the factory and the home, but could be fused in the .& community; that revolutions are born of e hope, not despair. It is probably true that in the 19th I century all this was hopelessly impractical · premature as they say · but later examples of local or regional economy run by anarchist collectives, although short·lived for external reasons, encouraged us a great deal. It became obvious that there were no technical or economic reasons why decentralised, participatory producer· and consumer· control production systems could not be set up which would be quite 'efficient' enough to provide all the necessities and a good deal more. The main obstacle to realising it may be merely that people hardly dare believe it could be true. It became clear that part of our task was to persuade them that it was. What do we do while waiting for the revolution? We let out imaginations off the leash and get on with building parts of the post·revolu·tionary society wherever and whenever we can. What emerges from these varied influences is a jumble of theories and elements: A theory of technology and society which insists that we con control technology, but if we don't it will control us; Recognition of physical and biological constraints on human activity; Social structure emphasising group autonomy and control from the bottom UP' A bias towards simplicity and frugality in life and technology wherever possible; Preference for direct gratification in production rather than through the medium of commodities; An exploratory rather than a dogmatic application of the theory (such as it is ... ); Willingness to learn from unlikely sources such as 'primitive' cultures and technologies, 'mystical' experiences or abilities, and even liberal social theory. This may seem a strange chimera. Well, we have no monopoly on radical technology. Make up your own criteria if you don't like these. Two topics deserve more comment. One is the question of romantic sensibility in technology, and related to it, economic restraint as a positive and deliberate life style. A focus on 'inner life' may be far more rational than we think in terms of buzzes received for effort expended. Neither need it be incompatible with a fine command of the hardware · as Robert Pirsig demonstrated in _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 33

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 34

Zen and the Art of Motor·cycle Maintenance. Likewise, frugal life·games may be far more efficient than opulence·games in terms of resources needed for satisfaction gained · down there in the lower reaches of the marginal utility curves. The other topic, in many ways complementary to the last, concerns the nature of production and how small·scale community technologies can fit into a wider national or regional economy. Some goods must be mass·produced centrally. It is possible but unlikely that 'alternative technologies' could be introduced in factories. What is really needed is change of ownership; change in the patterns of immediate control; change of work·organisation on the shop floor; and change of products. And this in a context of reduced factory work, as useless production is progressively cut out, and the output of useful goods and services increases at .the community and household levels. Of course, rotation of work, adjustments of money and other rewards, consultation with consumers, variable hours, and so on, all have to be continually debated. The aim is an optimum balance of public, community, and private production. What's the next step? Most of the ideas that have been around for some time can be found in this book. The programme continues in its ad hoc way. We finish this little hunting party with a few of the ideas 'we are working on/thinking about/ wondering if. • Community projects: self·building; community workshops (see Vision No 5); community gardening (see Vision No 1); patient·controlled medical centres; zeroprofit enterprises; self·organised projects by unemployed people; swap·shops and recycling depots; tool·sharing schemes; food conspiracies; consumer takeovers of established co·ops. • Industry: workers' co·operative takeovers in existing firms; alternative product possibilities; campaigns for the right to do socially useful work; community and consumer consultation; special retraining schemes; support for strikes and sit·ins. • Alternatives for scientists and technologists: a network of 'free range' technologists engaged in community work, repairs, evening classes, and research; science·based living collectives; wandering technical tinkers; new courses in technical colleges; universities, polytechnics, and schools; directories of alternative work for scientists and technologists. • Land reform: campaigns for measures to break up large holdings; forms of collective ownership, community land trusts; repopulation of _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 34

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 35

countryside; national self·sufficiency. in food; city allotments. • Rural communities: conversion of conventional farms and derelict land to intensive husbandry; new rural villages (see Vision No 3); clearing house for information on available land; small industrial projects; directories of part time work; exchanges between city and country; courses in new techniques. • Legal and economic changes: campaign for guaranteed annual income; flexible work times; new laws concerning communal groups and collective ownership; alternative finance, credit unions, community levies. • Analysis: economic analysis of , particular alternatives; radical Technology Assessment; 'mal·employment analysis' what work is actually useless? Planning for transition to a low·energy society; encouragement of radical technology and radical economics thesis topics for students. That's all. There is a lot of work to do, but one of the nicest discoveries one can make is to realise that work is the biggest turn·on of all if you think it's worthwhile and you control it yourself. Kropotkin said something nice about this: "Struggle that all may live this rich, overflowing life, and be sure that in doing so you will find a happiness that nothing else can give."

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 35

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 36

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Jeavons How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine A system of agriculture which could make it possible to grow an entire balanced diet on between one quarter and one twentieth of the land required by present agribusiness techniques sounds almost too good to be true. Yet Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula, a non·profit environmental education group based in California, believes that such yields are possible using the 'Biodynamic/French Intensive' system which they have been researching for four years. Compared with present commercial agricultural techniques, the system, they claim, uses only one half to one sixteenth of the nitrogen fertiliser, one half to one sixteenth of the water, and just one hundredth of the energy, per pound of food produced. You still don't believe it? See if John Jeavons can convince you . THE BIODYNAMIC/French intensive method of horticulture is a quiet, vitally alive art of organic gardening which relinks man with the whole universe around him · a universe in which each of us is an interwoven part of the who Ie. Man finds his place by relating and co·operat·ing in harmony with the sun, air J rain, soil, moon, insects, plants and animals rather than by attempting to dominate them. All these elements will teach us their lessons and do the gardening for us if we will only watch and listen. We each become gentle shepherds providing the conditions for plant growth. The method is a combination of two forms of horticulture begun in Europe during the late 1800s and early 19005. French intensive techniques were developed in the 1890s outside Paris on two acres of land. Crops were grown in an 18·inch depth of horse manure, a fertilizer which was readily available. The crops were grown so close to each other that when the plants were mature their leaves would barely touch. The close spacing provided a mini..climate and a living mulch which reduced weed growth and helped hold moisture in the soil. During the winter, glass jars were placed over seedlings to give them an early start The gardeners grew nine crops each year and even grew melon plants during the winter. Rudolf Steiner _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 36

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 37

The biodynamic techniques were developed by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian genius, philosopher and educator in the early 1920s. Noting a decline in the nutritive value and yields of crops in Europe, Steiner traced the cause to the use of the newly introduced inorganic, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. An increase was also noticed in the number of crops affected by disease and insect problems. The inorganic, chemical fertilizers were not complete and vital meals for the plants, but single physical nutrients in a salt form. Initially, only nitrogen fertilizers were used to stimulate growth. Later phosphorous and potash were added to strengthen the plants and to minimize disease and insect problems. Eventually, trace minerals were added to the chemical larder to round out the plants' diet. After breaking down nutrients into their component parts for plant food, man found it necessary to recombine them in mixtures to approximate a balanced diet. This attempt might have been more successful if the fertilizers had not caused chemical changes in the soil which eventually destroyed its texture, killed its beneficial microbiotic life and ruined its ability to make nutriments in the air and soil available to plants. Rudolf Steiner returned to the more gentle, diverse and balanced diets of organic fertilizers as a cure for the ills brought on by inorganic, chemical fertilization. He initiated a movement to explore scientifically the relationship which plants have with each other. From centuries of farmer experience and from tests, it has been determined that flowers, herbs and weeds can minimize insect attacks on plants. Many plants like each other. Raised beds The biodynamic method brought back raised planting beds. Two thousand years ago, the Greeks noticed that plant life thrives in landslides. The loose soil allows air, moisture, warmth, nutriments·and roots to properly penetrate the soil. The curved surface area between the two edges, of the landslide bed provides more surface area for the penetration and interaction of the natural elements than a flat surface. The simulated landslides or raised beds used by biodynamic gardeners are usually 3 to 6 feet wide and of varying lengths. In contrast, the planting rows usually made by gardeners and farmers today are only,a few inches wide. The plants have difficulty growing in these rows due to the extreme penetration of air and the greater fluctuations in temperature and moisture content. During irrigation, water floods the rows, immerses the roots in water and washes soil away from the rows and upper roots. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 37

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 38

Consequently. much of the beneficial microbiotic life in the roots and soil, which is so essential to disease prevention and to the transformation of nutriments into forms the plants can use, is exterminated and may even be replaced by harmful organisms. After the water penetrates the soil, the upper layers dry out The rows are then more subject to wide temperature fluctuations and air penetration. Finally, to cultivate and harvest, people and machines trundle down the troughs between the rows, compacting the soil and the roots beneath, roots which eat, drink and breathe · a difficult task with someone or something standing on the equivalent of your mouth and nose! These diffi·culties are also often experienced at the edges of biodynamic/ French intensive method raised beds prepared in clay soils during the first few seasons. Until the soil texture becomes friable (easily crumbled), it is necessary to level the top of the raised bed to minimize erosion and the soil on the sides of the beds is too tight for easy planting. Increased penetration of the elements occurs on the sides and the tighter soil of the paths are nearby. The plants at the edges do not usually grow as vigorously as those further inside the bed. When raised beds are prepared in friable soil, the opposite is usually true. The top of the bed is curved and the soil is loose enough for plants to be sown or transplanted along the sides and the plants thrive at the edges. This is because the mini·climate·effect is added to the sides of the beds and the water that runs off the inside of the bed provides extra water for the sides. Sometime between the 1920s and the 1960s, Alan Chadwick, an Englishman, combined the biodynamic techniques and the French intensive techniques into the biodynamic/French intensive method. *·A nutriment is "something that nourishes or promotes growth and repairs the natural wastage of organic life." It differs from a nutrient which is merely "a nourishing substance or ingredient."

Diet The biodynamic/French intensive method may eventually allow an individual to, raise a complete, nutritively balanced diet for one person in only 15 minutes a day. The diet would require as little as 1,250 square feet in most arable soils and in most climates where food is grown. This would assume a 12·month growing season with the use of inexpensive miniature greenhouses for the planting beds where necessary. The 2,379 'Calorie a day diet used in these calculations is vegetarian with supplemental goat milk and represents a significant upgrading of current nutritional levels. The goat fodder required would also be grown on the _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 38

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 39

1,250 square foot area. Since the use of miniature greenhouses is to some extent capital·intensive and their proper use requires a high level of skill still to be developed, most areas would initially use only a 6·month grow·ing season and no miniature greenhouses. Under these conditions, 2,500 square feet would be required to grow a 2,379 Calorie diet. In figure 1, this diet is compared with the others grown in different parts of the world in 6·month growing seasons, using typical food production methods. Meat diets can·also be grown with the biodynamic/French intensive method with correspondingly high savings in the land area used · though study has only just begun on this subject. Yields: Actual Some actual biodynamic/French intensive method test yields during the 1972 through 1975 period are given in figure 2. Comparison is made with United States national averages for the years cited. In the case of zucchini, the comparison is with the Santa Clara County, California average. Under reasonable test conditions, Ecology Action yields have varied between 2 and 16 times the national, California, or Santa Clara County averages. In some cases, yields have doubled from year to year as the original clay subsoil test area has improved in texture and fertility. An improvement in the skills of the test group has also assisted. Projections Generally, it appears that the bio· dynamic/French intensive method will produce on the average 4·6 times the United States national per acre average of protein source beans, grains, and rice. These yields should be independent of climate and original soil conditions. Once the soil system becomes mature and balanced, vegetable and soft fruit yields will probably average 8 times the national per·acre average and seed yields may be 4·8 times as high. In comparison with world averages the method's expected yields would be 14.5 times higher for beans, grains, and rice, 12.3 times higher for vegetables and soft fruits, and 8.9 times higher for seeds. Because foreign yields, especially in developing nations, are much lower on the average than those in the United States, the method may have its greatest impact in these areas. In fact, the world low in the bean, grain, rice category is 203 times lower than the yield expected with the biodynamic/French intensive method. Testing under natural rainfall conditions still needs to be performed, however, as the method usually _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 39

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 40

uses light daily watering as an essential aspect of the technique · though its very low water use record, leads Ecology Action to believe these tests may prove favourable. At the least, yields 4 times greater than those already being obtained in many developing countries using natural rainfall may be possible. Most of the projected yields are already being obtained somewhere in the world by good farmers in countries where good agricultural techniques are practised and good conditions for a given crop exist. The biodynamic/ French intensive method should make it possible to recreate these conditions in many parts of the world. _________________________________________________________ Figure 1 DIET India United States Japan B/FI·Projected TYPE 2.424 Typical 2,410 Typical 2,432 2,379 Vegetarian meat) Veg. meat Veg. Veg. Square Footage Required 32,280, 21,649 10,114 7,260, 4.842, 2.500 Figure 2 Crop . u.s. Average Biodynamic/French Intensive Method 1972 1973 1974 1975 Beans. Snap 100% 390% 520% · • Cucumbers 100% · 360% 900% • Lettuce. Bibb 100% 230% · 560% • Soybeans 100% · 25% 91% 225% Wheat 100% · · 106% 190% Zucchini 100% 550% 650% 1640% • • Data in preparation _________________________________________________________ Why does it work? Certain biological factors indicate that the projected yields are entirely feasible. They are: • Arithmetic. A simple, 24·inch deep soil preparation allows the plants to be spaced more closely so that their leaves touch or almost touch. Such spacing would not normally be successful since there would not be enough space for the roots to develop adequately. With deep soil preparation, however, the roots find sufficient room for vertical _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 40

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 41

development in the absence of horizontal space. This factor alone would make fourfold yield, possible, because four times as many plants as usual can be planted in a given area. Such fourfold increases can be and have been obtained with vegetables even in the first year of planting. • Root Health. Research performed at the University of California, Berkeley, has indicated that the overall root health level in agricultural soils has declined. A further conclusion of this study has been that even a two to four percent increase in plant health could result in a two to fourfold increase in harvests among field crops. This conclusion has received general support around the world. The biodynamic/French intensive method's soil preparation makes such an improvement Possible by optimally texturising, aerating, fertilising and watering the soil as part of its standard practice. I n one control test performed by Ecology Action, where the only variable was the preparation of the soil, each broccoli plant raised in a 24·inch deep biodynamic/French intensive bed weighted an average of 2.5 times those grown in a 12·inch deep plot with standard row spacing. , • Combination. The combination of the arithmetic spacing and root health factors could make a sixteenfold yield possible. Such a yield has already been experienced in 1974 with zucchini. The zucchini yielded 16.4 times the Santa Clara County average, or 5.5 pounds per square foot · equivalent to about 250,000 pounds per acre. As the soil. our conceptual understanding, and the availability of trained people have improved so have our yields, and the plant health. Whenever one of these variables has been lowered so have yields and plant health. In 1976 Ecology Action hopes to obtain yields which are two thirds of the optimal by using a new soil preparation technique. To date, 62 different crops have been tested with varying degrees of thoroughness. Some failures have been experienced due to non·optimal test conditions, and Ecology Action is looking forward to the day when it can test under optimal conditions. Sustainability Probably the most important element in assessing agricultural systems is whether or not the yields are sustainable in an environmentally balanced way. For hundreds of years the Chinese practised a manual, organic form of intensive farming using only fertilizers grown or produced on the farmstead. It is not yet clear whether or not the biodynamic/ French intensive method with its correspondingly higher yields will eventually exhaust the soil. The yields should be higher than those provided by _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 41

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 42

Chinese agriculture. But the method's sustainable yield level may be lower than the optimal yield level. Research on sustainability and optimum fertilizer types and levels is necessary and will require many years. Fertilizer availability is a question vital to the sustainability of all world farming systems. Indications from the first years of testing show that yields increase and are sustainable as soil quality is improved. Resource use An additional advantage of the biodynamic/French intensive method is its low consumption of water, fertilizer and energy, per pound of food produced. Water Vegetable production by Ecology Action has required only Y, to l/S the water consumed by commercial agriculture per pound 01 food produced \1\s experience has been in comparatively poor soil. The Community Environmental Council in Santa Barbara has experienced approximately 1/10 the water consumption growing vegetables with the biodynamic/ French intensive method in comparatively good soil. These differing consumption figures have led Ecology Action to speculate on lower limits of water use. Research by academic institutions has shown that soil which has active organic matter as 2% of its volume, uses only about ·the rainfall or irrigation required for poor soils. (Poor soil contains about y, of 1 % active organic matter). The biodynamic/French intensive method, with its emphasis on thorough bed preparation and a high level of organic matter in the soil, fulfils this requirement well. Secondly, even under arid conditions, soil which is shaded can decrease water evaporation by as much as 13·63% depending on the soil type. The fact that the plants are so closely spaced in intensive farming provides this kind of shade. The leaves provide a kind of living miniature greenhouse, or microclimate, and this decreases the amount of evaporation significantly. Third, transpiration of water through the plant can be reduced as much as 10·75% in soils which contain large quantities of nutriments in the soil water. The intensive method prepares the soil in a manner which provides such a high level of fertility. It is projected that the method may ultimately consume as little as 1/16 as much water per pound of vegetable pro·duced as current agricultural practices require, when all the above waterconserving factors are working together. Not enough testing has yet been performed to know to what degree this reduced water consumption will apply to grains. although _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 42

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 43

some testing on wheat, soybeans, rice and peanuts has been done. It is this likelihood of significantly reduced water·consumption that leads Ecology Action to believe that the method will perform well under natural rainfall conditions. If yields 4·6 times the United States national average for protein crops are not possible under natural rainfall condition" yields at least 4·6 times as great as those existing should be possible. This efficiency should apply in arid lands such as the African Sahel, as well as in countries with normal rainfall. Fertilizer Vegetable crop production has required only ·to %6 the added nitrogen fertilizer consumed by commercial farmers per pound of food produced. Limited testing on beans, grains and rice still makes it unclear to what degree this reduced fertilizer consumption will apply to these protein·rich crops. Some kind of parallel is expected. The fact that the method is manual and uses less fertilizer makes much of the reduction in energy consumption possible. This reduced energy use will be especially important in countries who cannot afford today's high energy costs. But the savings may also be. critical in the United States. It has been estimated that in the year 2000, 20% of all the energy consumed in the world will be required to produce just nitrogen fertilizer! Natural gas is the main source of energy used for its production and the United States has only a 9·year reserve of this raw material. Mini·farming: a new concept The possibility of using the biodynamic·French intensive method anywhere in the world on a limited acreage with accompanying high yields and low resource consumption has created a new concept: the mini·farm. Widespread mini·farming could eventually allow 3·6% of a population to grow all a country's food. A mini·farmer, working a 6·hour day, 7 days per week, should eventually be able to grow enough food for 24 people on about ·of an acre. A family working eight person·hours per day, 7 days per week, could grow enough food for 32 people on a little less than an acre. For a family of four, this would mean only 2 hours a day work per person. An individual could grow a complete diet in only 15 minutes a day in his or her own backyard. Of course, these stunning efficiencies will not be reached immediately. Improvements must be made in most soils and the skills of most mini·farmers. Much basic information, both conceptual and practical, about the actual workings of the method is still to be discovered and delineated. Moreover, many countries are experiencing such a shortage of _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 43

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 44

firewood that agriculturally·valuable manure is being substituted. In these instances, organic matter for soil improvement will first have to be grown in order for the soil to be properly prepared. Economics It is estimated that a mini·farmer in the United States could earn as much as $8,000 in a 12·month growing season working as little as 20 hours a week on 4,400 square feet growing certain vegetables. This would be up to 10 times the income earned with the same crops by his conventional counterpart. Generally speaking, a diversified vegetable mini·farmer can manage about lis of an acre, or about twice the 4,400 square feet and twice the income. One or more min·farmers working, a total of 56 hours per week on a little less than an acre may be able to grow a complete 2,379 Calorie diet (grains, vegetables, fruit and fodder for dairy products) for 32 people. This would be during a 12·month growing season, using inexpensive miniature greenhouses. The food grown in this manner would be worth $9,600 at wholesale prices (Wholesale prices are about 50% retail costs). Or, in a 6·month growing season. a 4·person mini·farming family would be able to grow the same amount of food and income on twice the area, a little less than 2 acres, without mini·greenhouses. Each individual would have to work only 23 hours per week. The figures for both these kinds of mini·farmer assume that the produce would be grown by skilled farmers work·ing in good soil and marketed by them locally and directly. It would probably take three to five years for a mini·farm to be operative at peak effectiveness, although more research needs to be done in this area. Both income figures are for gross income. However, the expenses for small·scale mini·farming are very low. Not much in the way of land, tools, water, fertilizer, energy and other materials is required. The method is not capital·intensive. The homeowner mini·farmer may be able to grow the $600 worth of vegetables, grains, fruit and milk required for a complete diet for one person on as little as 1,250 or 2,500 square feet in 15 or 30 minutes a day, depending on the length of the growing season. The savings to a family of four growing their entire food supply on 5,000 and 10,000 square feet would be about $2,400 per year. The total time required would be 1 or 2 hours a day and the value of the family's labour would be about $6.50 per hour. These figures also assume a skilled individual and good soil. All the figures used here are based on current food prices. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 44

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 45

World·wide use It is easy to see why the biodynamic/ French intensive method may be appealing to developing countries. The method requires low capital expenses for shovels, hoses and other low·technology tools and needs only minimal fertilizer, water, and energy. Its diversified approach to cropping, which lends itself to the use of local foods and plants; its non·dependence on hybrid varieties (which require ·increased amounts of water and fertilizer) for increased yields; and its emphasis on producing a healthy soil able to create its own fertilizer through nitrogen·fixation; · all these factors make the method worthy of serious research for possible incorporation into these countries. The fact that it uses less water, fertilizer and fuels may even make it possible to open marginal lands to cultivation. Operational limits 1975 yields at Common Ground, Ecology Action's Research Garden, were at about 1/3, the levels necessary to produce a diet on 1,250 or 2,500 square feet, even though this is a 100"10 improvement over 1974. Therefore, it would require approximately 3,750 or 7,500 square feet to grow the complete 2,379 Calorie diet with the present condition of the test garden soil. The difference between the actual and projected yields is due to the following limitations: • Poor soil. The test area was originally subsoil consisting of about 1/) rock arid 1/, stiff clay with almost no plant nutrients. Good agricultural soil is about 5% rock and rich in plant nutrients. Though much improved, most of the test beds are still in below·average condition. This has kept root systems from developing properly. Root crops such as carrots and beets exhibit this most clearly. The best yields of these crops to date are only 2.5 to 3 times the national average. Another example is soybeans. The 1973 yield was only 25% of the national average. By 1975 the best yield climbed to 225% of the national average and is expected to go much higher on a repeatable basis. (This very high soybean yield of 57.3 bushels or 3,B9 pounds per acre was obtained in only partially improved soil. In comparison, 50 bushel soybean yields are among the highest normally obtained by a good US farmer, 60 bushel yields sometimes OCcur and 70 bushel yields are very rare.) Other examples of yields increasing annually, as the method improves the soil quality, are shown in figure 2. It now appears that 2·5 years are necessary to improve the soil texture and life to _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 45

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 46

an optimal point where a mature balanced soil system exists. Work has begun on a new soil preparation tech·nique which may reduce this period to 18 months or less. But.optimal test conditions have still not been reached at the research site. • Scarce Information. Little inform·ation on the method's techniques and concepts exists. Until spring of 1974 there were no detailed written instructions on how to perform its techniques and Ecology Action is only now beginning to understand the scientific principles underlying its success. • Few Trained People. At present there are few thoroughly·trained individuals committed to investigation of the biodynamic/French intensive method, due to its recent development. Also, because of the method's unorthodox techniques (for instance, the use of deep manual soil preparation and light overhead watering) many new mini·farmers have difficulty with the relearning process. The techniques are simple, but the concepts involved go against the grain of many people's experience. Many people modify the techniques with habitual agricultural or gardening responses when something goes awry. This limits the effectiveness of a method that depends on an integrated approach. Insect and disease problems are cases in point. The occurrence of most such problems can usually be traced to inadvertent errors in soil preparation. Use of pesticides and chemicals by some to control insect and disease problems masks faulty techniques and prohibits the overall system from developing to a point where disease and insect difficulties are negligible. Much of Ecology Action's attention to date has been focused on determining the origin of these problems and the identification of the simplest preventive measures. Currently, 2·3 years are needed for an individual to develop the level of understanding and sensitivity necessary to provide for good plant health. Ecology Action plans to develop a manual of intermediate skills, perhaps in 1977, which may enable a mini·farmer to reduce the learning time to one year. • Compost. Limited time and funds have prevented the research project from preparing or purchasing sufficient amounts of compost. Often it has been of poor quality, sometimes there has been none. Compost is essential to the proper functioning of the biodynamic/French intensive method. Only during the fall of 1975 was the first properly composted test bed prepared. The improved health, vigour and yields of the plants in this bed has further demonstrated the importance of quality compost use. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 46

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 47

• Grain spacing information. When testing began, almost no information on spacing for grains and other high·protein plant sources was available. Therefore, much time has been spent determining optimal spacing patterns. For example, wheat yields increased from .9 to 1.9 times the national average when spacing was changed from 1 inch to 2 inches in one test. Much more work remains to be performed in this area. Basic Techniques Some basic techniques of the biodynamic/French intensive method are: • Double·dug, raised beds in which the soil is dug thoroughly the first 12 inches and loosened an additional 12 inches by a simple manual method using a shovel. This loose soil enables roots to penetrate easily and allows a steady stream of nutrients to flow into stems and leaves. Moisture is retained well, erosion is minimized and weeding is simplified because of the looseness of the soil. Also, since yields are about 4 times as high, ,only}4 the area need be prepared, dug, watered and weeded for a ·given yield. • Intensive planting. Seeds or seedlings are planted in raised, 3·5 foot wide beds of varying length using a hexagonal spacing pattern. Grains are often grown in wider areas. Each seed is placed the same distance from all seeds nearest it so that when the plants mature their leaves barely touch. This J:'provides a miniclimate under the leaves which retains moisture, protects the valuable microbiotic life of the soil, retards weed growth, and helps provide high yields. • Companion planting·Many plants grow better when near other kinds of plant. Green beans and strawberries, for instance, thrive better when grown together. Some plants are useful in repelling harmful insects while others attract beneficial ones. Borage, for example, repels tomato worms while its blue flowers attract bees. Also, many wild plants and weeds have a healthy effect on the soil. Their deep roots loosen the subsoil and bring up pre·viously unavailable trace minerals and nutriments. The use of companion planting aids the gardener and farmer·in producing fine quality vegetables and helps create and maintain a healthy, vibrant soil. The placing together of symbiotic companion plants itself does not appear to produce significantly increased yields, but rather promotes the soil life and health necessary to sustain increased yieIds. • Compost. The high yields and lowered water requirements made possible by intensive planting would not be possible without a way of maintaining the health and vigour of the soil. Garbage, vegetation, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 47

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 48

manure and many other forms of readily available organic matter, when properly composted, provide most of the elements necessary to maintain the bio·logical cycles of life that exist in the farm or home garden. The texture and micro·biotic life of the soil is improved by the compost which creates better aeration and water retention. • Promotion of microbiotic life. All biodynamic/French intensive techniques promote healthy microbiotic plant and animal life in the soil. These not only fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, but also produce antibiotics that help enable plants to resist diseases. Standard farming techniques tend to destroy these life forms. It is important to note that the bio·dynamic/French intensive method is a whole system and that the component principles of the method inter mesh in actual use to create complex living units. Farmers in Europe experimenting with only the intensive spacing factor in com·bination with commercial techniques are finding themselves beset with deteriorat·ing soil fertility. nitrate toxicity in plants, soil and water, lower quality produce, diminishing populations of beneficial insects. and lowered plant resistance to disease and pests. Many people have described the bio·dynamic/French intensive method as labour·intensive. More correctly it should be described as skill intensive, because only about 15% of the time expended can be considered moderately hard labour. The initial soil preparation, when a person is changing over to the method, can be more difficult. however. Also. performance of the method is not monotonous since all the varied tasks of soil preparation, compost preparation, fertilization, planting, harvesting, weed ing, watering, and marketing are per·formed by the mini·farmer. Farmers using the method may want to form co·operatives to facilitate the marketing process and to. share experiences. Marketing would probably be best per·formed at a co·operative level, since often it may be difficult for one person to maintain all the contacts necessary for proper crop planning and marketing. A manual on the method's general techniques. How To Grow More Vege·tables Then You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine, is available from Ecology Action, 2225 EI Camino Real, Palo Alto, California 94306. Post·paid in the United States and Canada for $4.00 (surface book rate). $4.24 in California (including state sales tax) or $5.00 airmail. To other countries the cost is $5.00 for surface mail or $6.00 for airmail. Prepayment in US funds is needed for all orders. Memberships in Ecology Action are available for $5.00 per year, or free _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 48

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 49

for working staff and volunteers. Members receive a monthly newsletter on classes and other projects and are entitled to book circulation privileges on many of the library's books. John Jeavons

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 49

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 50

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Roy Wholefoods at Half the Price The price of food has risen alarmingly in the last year. Yet much of the increase in price has nothing to do with the production cost of the food itself. Import costs, packaging costs and distribution costs all get passed on to the consumer. But there are ways of buying and eating more cheaply: a food co·op is just one, as Robin Roy explains .... OUR FOOD CO·OP, in the new city of Milton Keynes, is composed of about 25 households, representing nearly 70 adults and children. About once every two months one or two members of the co·op drive to a wholesaler in London and buy between £75 and £120 worth of whole·foods which they then divide up and distribute to the other households according to written orders received during the previous week or two. Doing it this way we can expect to get at least some of our food at between two·thirds and a half of the shop or supermarket price. Belonging to the co·op also means that we can get a constant supply of foods that are not available locally and share the experience of working together with others to provide ourselves with a basic necessity. We happen to deal in whole· foods, (including nuts, wholemeal flour, rice, oats, dried fruits, beans, lentils and honey), because many of us are interested not only in cutting our food bills but also in eating food that is economical and . healthy. Whole foods also are non·perishable and fairly easy to handle · a distinct advantage when it comes to storing and dividing up. However, there are food co·ops which deal in everything from fresh vegetables to wine, buying their supplies not only from wholesalers but also from local farmers, markets cash·and·carry warehouses · indeed from any cheap supplier. So the first thing any group wanting to start a co·op has to decide is what foods they want to deal in and where they will obtain them. In general, the greatest savings can be made on perishables, especially fresh vegetables, and on the more unusual types of food, such as wholefoods. The organisation of our food co·op works like this. There are three stages: ordering, buying and distribution. Responsibility for co·ordinating a 'buy' rotates informally amongst member households according to who is willing and able to do it. Ordering Since we take orders in advance it is necessary to find out beforehand _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 50

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 51

from a supplier what foods are available and at what prices. With the aid of the supplier's price·list the co·ordinator draws up an order form and circulates it to the other members. The members are expected to return their order together with their payment (rounded up to the nearest pound) by a specified date. After gelling back the order forms the co·ordinator makes up a large chart of food items against the amounts ordered by various members. Part of the chart might look as shown in the diagram. The chart helps the co·ordinator to decide what to buy and how the orders may have to be juggled to make up the total amounts in which the food is sold. For example, rice is sold in either 28lb. or 1101b. sacks. If the total order is, say, 941bs. the co·ordinator would have to decide whether to bump up a few orders to buy the 110lb. sack or reduce a few and buy three 281b. sacks. The adjusted orders are then entered onto the chart The co·ordinator can then make his or her shopping list to take to the wholesaler. Buying There is not much to say about buying except that it's hard work, but quite fun. Of course you'll need enough money and some form of transport, preferably a van. It"s worth bearing in mind that family cars have a limited carrying capacity. Our Morris 1100 estate, I've discovered can, with the roof·rack on, carry 5001b. of food plus three people · just. Distributing This is perhaps the trickiest part of the whole operation. Food takes up a lot of space, so you'll need somewhere to store it, at least temporarily. Some co·ops call a meeting to divide up the goodies. We have found it easier (although perhaps less sociable) for the coordinators, plus any volunteers they can persuade, to weigh, bag up and deliver the food themselves. Accounting We don't need to keep accounts or have a bank account because everyone pays in advance and any settlements are made at the time a member gets their order. The disadvantages of this simple system is that it is necessary for a member to be able to afford to pay at the time the order is made. A better system might be to collect subscriptions on a regular basis, but this of course would require accounts. Being co·ordinator is undoubtedly hard work and quite time·consuming. But, if the co·op is working properly, it should be at least another year before our house·hold has to do it again, and in the mean·time we should _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 51

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 52

be gelling a regular supply of cheap food. Other types of co·op Our co·op, being based in a new city, draws its members from a wide area, i.e. it forms a 'network' of friends and acquaintances. However, in an established community a more locally·based 'street' co·op is possible, with obvious advantages for easy communications and social co·operation. Not all co·ops depend on orders made in advance. Some with suitable premises for storing food operate more like a co·operative shop. buying supplies from the cheapest sources (wholesalers, markets, cash·and·carry warehouses, farmers, even supermarkets) and selling to members only . Perhaps the.main problem with any type of co·op is keeping the level of membership right. If a co·op gets too big, (say more than 15 to 20 households), then a minority of members tend to find themselves doing an unmanageable amount of work. If too small, (say below 4 to 5 households), then the co·op can't take full advantage of bulk·buying. Some suppliers of wholefoods Community Wholesale, S Prince of Wales . Crescent, Camden Town, london NWt (01 2615845) Uhuru, 3S Cowley Road, Oxford (086548249) Arjuna Wholefoods, 12 Mill Road, Cambridge (0223 6484S) Earth Exchange, 213 Archway Road, london N6 58N

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 52

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 53

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Boyle New Charger For Light Brigade At long last, we've some real progress to report on the evolving design of the Undercurrents·LID Wind Generator, described originally in Undercurrents 11 and 12. The problem with the original 'Mark I' design, as we discovered, was that the dynamo would not begin to charge the battery except in pretty high winds over 20 mph; and that, when the dynamo did begin to charge, the current was too small (2·3 amps) to 'cut in' the relay in the standard car 'control box' which we were using. The difficulties, in short, were entirely electrical: the mechanics of the design worked very well. We soon realised that to solve the electrical problems, we would either have to buy a specially·wound dynamo or alternator (or rewind an existing one) which would give a significant charging current at relatively low 'revs' · say between 300 and 500 RPM; or we would have to gear the propeller to increase the effective number of 'revs' and use a conventional car alternator or dynamo. Originally, we were worried about using gearing because we feared it would increase the overall friction in the system and make the propeller difficult to start in low winds: and there was already a considerable amount of friction in the bearings of the 'Mark I' dynamo. Gearing increases the 'starting' problem not only because of the friction in the gearing system itself, but because the frictional resistance to starting is effec·tively multiplied by the ratio of the gearing. We've overcome both these difficulties, however, in two ways. Firstly, we're using toothed, rubber 'gear·belts' (otherwise known as 'timing belts') which!> transmit power between notched pulleys rather like a chain, without relying on friction (as do Vee·belts, for example) and which work very efficiently with hardly any losses. They also, unlike chains, require virtually no greasing, adjustment or maintenance. Secondly, we're using a car alternator, rather than a dynamo, because alterna·tors exhibit less inherent friction than dynamos (they have slip rings instead of carbon brushes). Using an alternator also solves the other main problem of the original design · the 'cutting·in' problem. Modern alternators have built·in electronic voltage sensing circuits which automatically 'cut in' in the field when the rotor is rotating fast enough to charge the battery. No 'control box' with its insensitive relays, is needed: _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 53

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 54

the alternator is just wired up to the battery via a small 2w bulb (which imposes only a negligible drain on the battery) which, like the dashboard warning light on a car, goes out as soon as the alternator begins to 'charge.' The big snag with using fancy alternators, gear belts and toothed pulleys is, of course, cost. Such components are virtually unobtainable as scrap, so we've had to abandon our original 'scrap technology' ideal, reluctantly (though other viable scrap technology designs for cheap windmills are probably still quite feasible). The cost of the alternator, belts, pulleys, pillow blocks, shafts and so on has added about £45 to the original price. A working version of the new, Mark II, Undercurrents·LID Wind Generator design was built recently by Gerry Metcalf, John Willoughby and their students at the Architecture Department of the Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Art. Here's their own account of how they did it. 'A group of Architecture students, without much knowledge of the subject, were presented with the problem of making a wind generator in two weeks. They were offered the Undercurrents·LID Generator (Mark I) as a prototype, but were initially critical of its design. However, after looking at some of the alternatives, and accepting the basic criteria of cheapness, scrap materials, simplicity etc, they found it difficult to improve on the basic concept and its related com·ponents · scaffolding pole, half·shaft bearings, car dynamo directly driving a two·bladed prop, and so on. Some developments did emerge as the thing began to be put together: * The braking system was improved by gluing, with Araldite, a length of car fan belt to the inside of the pulley (instead of just a ring of rubber). This increased the braking friction and seemed to work well without causing the brake to 'stick' in the 'on' position as might have been feared. * The propeller, instead of being carved from a cedar plank, was built up with laminations of 2mm 3·ply wood, to produce a more sophisticated aerofoil section (see photograph). This technique resulted in a nice shape, with improved starting characteristics · but with, if anything, a lower tip·speed ratio (ratio of blade tip velocity to wind velocity) than that of the original design. Also, the metal plates used to .form the joint at the centre increased the propeller weight considerably; * Instead of sliding the end of the car half·shaft into the top of the scaffold tube, as was done in the original design, we used a standard scaffold tube 'internal connector' which clamped on to the inside of the casing of the _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 54

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 55

half shaft (the half shaft itself was then not needed). One system is as good as the other: your choice depends mostly on the design of scrap half·shaft you have available. * The mast itself was made by welding two 10ft scaffolding poles together. This provided a reasonable height for the propeller, but meant recruiting about 10 people every time we wanted toerect or dismantle the mill. The original 15ft prototype mast (see UC 11) could be erected by 3 people · an important consideration during the development stage when constant attention is required. The structure, and the guying system, seem very sound, however. It weathered the recent freak gales with virtually no damage. * One idea · substituting a counterweight, on the end of a rope passing over a pulley mounted on the main member, for the original tail spring, wasn't fully developed, but might well prove worthwhile. As an educational exercise, the Mark I machine was very successful · but it probably generated more interest than electricity. Also it cost rather more than we anticipated (see cost breakdown), mainly because we didn't have the time to do enough scrounging. Developing the mill to the Mark II design has virtually doubled the cost. In the new prototype, the alternator is driven by a toothed belt and pulleys which give an 8:3 gear ratio. The main propeller shaft is located in two pillow block bearings, mounted on a rectangular angle iron frame, bolted underneath the main member, to which the alternator is in the same way as the dynamo bolted in the earlier design. Most of the details are clear from the photographs. The alternator is a Lucas 17·ACR type, which, according to Lucas graphs, has the lowest 'cut·in' speed of all the standard alternators made by the company (theoretically 800 to 900 rpm). This alternator is the one Lucas are upgrading (and rewinding to cut in at 500 rpm) for their own small wind generator design (see UC 14). When available to the public, the special version will cost about £60, however, compared to about £26 retail or £22 wholesale for a standard 17 ACR. We kept the gear ratio fairly low because we were worried that the propellor would not start easily if the ratio was too high: but in practice the system works so smoothly and friction·lessly that we feel sure the ratio could be increased to, say 5:1. This would make the 'cut·in' speed of the system much lower. These modifications took about three working days to complete. But we still haven't got round to constructing a suitable housing to weather·proof _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 55

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 56

the alternator and gearing; this task is be·coming urgent since the main shaft is already starting to rust. We also haven't developed a suitable braking system for the new arrangement.' Test results Infuriatingly, the Mark II machine has been up aloft now for more than 2 weeks, (mid·March), but at no time have there been winds of more than 10 mph for long enough to enable tests to be made (honest!). Occasionally, the charging light has flicked out during a 'gust', indicating that all is well, but so far that's all we can report. Assuming a propeller tip·speed ratio of 8 (as in the Mark I machine) and an alternator cut·in speed of 1,000 rpm, the cut·in windspeed, at which the system begins to charge the batteries, should be about 10 mph · corresponding to a propeller speed of just under 400 rpm. The propeller on the test machine at the moment is the somewhat slower laminated ply·version described above, so cut·in windspeed might be as high as 15 mph. We hope to test the original, faster, propeller as soon as we've devised a suitable method of fixing it to the new shaft. In the next issue, we'll be giving test reports of how the new machine actually performs · assuming there's going to be some wind in the next 2 months. We also hope to try a higher gear ratio, and to have adapted the braking systems from the Mk I design to the new Mk II version. One additional braking system we're considering is based on mounting one side of a centrifugal clutch (hopefully, from an old moped) on the end of the propeller shaft, and fixing the other end to a stationary point on the framework. At the clutch's cut·in speed (which we're hoping ,,!i11 be about 1,000 rpm: otherwise, another set of gears would be needed) it should engage, and act like a brake to stop the shaft from spinning any faster than the maximum rated speed in high winds. Pulley & gear system specifications. We got our pulleys, belt, and pillow blocks from J H Fenner & Co of Barton Manor Trading Estate, Bedminster, Bristol·Phone (0272) 558454. (Ask for their comprehensive catalogue). Fenners have branches all over the country: see your local Yellow Pages. We bought one 48·toothed, 14 inch wide (about 6 in.·diameter) cast iron pulley, and one IS·toothed, 14 in.·pulley (about 2 in.·diameter), plus the associated taper·lock bushes' with keyways, to attach the pulleys to a 5/8 in. shaft. The pulley and belt 'pitch' we chose was 'light' since the belt does not have to transmit much power, by industrial standards. The pillow blocks _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 56

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 57

were standard, self·aligning types to fit a 5/8 inch keyed shaft, and the belt was chosen to suit the other characteristic of the system (see catalogue). The shaft and keyway were made up by a local engineering firm. In retrospect, we probably overdid things a little. The pillow blocks and shaft could be of the type supplied more cheaply by Picador Engineering (who have a shop in Euston Rd, London NW1) for use with Vee belts. The pulleys and belts could just as easily have been }1 in. wide, which would have been cheaper, and the pulleys could have been of the cheaper, aluminium variety supplied by, among others, Anderson Power Drives of Bedminster, Bristol· phone (0272) 668141, or see your Yellow Pages. One trouble with the cheaper pulleys, however, is that you may have to have the hole in the centre specially drilled for you · especially if you want to use a large pulley with lots of teeth in conjunction with a small pulley with few teeth, as you would if you want to increase the gear ratio. A local engineering firm will probably be able to do a job like this for a small charge, however. Another intriguing possibility is using the timing pulleys from a crashed, fairly recent Vauxhall or Opel (General Motors) car; but we haven't taken this notion much further than a furtive peer under the bonnet of a Alternator Note Alternators come in two different types: one to fit on the right hand side of a car engine, the other on the left. They also come in two versions suited to clockwise and anti·clockwise rotation, respectively. Make sure the alternator you buy suits your structural configuration and the rotational sense of your propeller. Scrapped alternatorsJ unless you're sure they work and they're cheap, are probably not a good buy_ That's all for now. For more information, just keep takin' the magazine ..... Godfrey Boyle ______________________________________________________ List of Parts. and costs: Dynamo, from scrap yard £2.70 Scaffold tubes free Three pieces of angle iron & 2 x 3/8 in flat plate £2.70 Cable, collar for tower, guy tensioners & hook belts £8.16 Half shaft (scrap) SOp Bolts 62p Concrete £2.04 _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 57

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 58

Diode (used experimentally instead of control box: not very successful) Plywood, resin and paint £2.50 Brake £1.90 Scaffold Connector 80p Evo Stik 72p Bolts 21p Angle Iron 54p Rope £1.40 Cable £2.00 12 volt battery (exchange) £12.00 Pulleys, belts, shaft, pillow blocks etc. £25.00 Alternator I Lucas 17 ACR) wholesale £22.00 Total cost so far about £87.00

42p

______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 58

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 59

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Graham DC·AC? Step Right Up! An Invertor of some kind is an essential accompaniment to any wind generator which provides a 12·volt D.C. output, to enable conventional mains·powered appliances to be energised. Dave Graham now describes a relatively simple, medium·powered, low·cost design, capable of being built by anyone with a little knowledge of electronics · though complete novices should seek the advice of their local electronics fiend before attempting construction. The energy input to a home powered by renewable energy sources is usually discontinuous. Both wind and solar energy, for example, are subject to short and long term interruptions and hence a form of long·term storage is required if the house is to have a continuous supply of energy. This implies the use of some form of rechargeable battery J and battery storage in turn implies the use of direct current (D.C.). However the need for a normal 50hz 240v supply in the home is almost selfevident. Most electrical equipment is designed to run from such a supply and although lighting and other equipment is available for operation from 12v or 24v D.C., it would be difficult, for example, to obtain a deep freeze that would operate on D.C. Also, a high voltage dis·tribution system is more efficient and simpler to implement than a low voltage system as a higher voltage V implies a lower current I for a given load W (W=V.I) and hence thinner and cheaper cables (because the power dissipated in a cable is W=I'.R, where R is the cable resistance. So for a given cable resistance the lower the current I the lower the loss). The most probable uses of a 240v source are (1) Power for audio and communications equipment which requires a pure 50hz sine wave·and a high degree of·frequency stability (for example, record decks) and (2) a high power (say, SOOw) source whose waveform and frequency stability are relatively unimportant, for driving power drills, pumps and similar equip·ment. Since the only way to increase a voltage is by using some form of transformer, transformers work only with alternating current, some way of changing the D.C. supply from a storage battery into A.C. is required. A system that performs this function is known as an invertor. Dilemma _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 59

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 60

There is an engineering dilemma associated with invertors · the choice between efficiency and flexibility. If one tries to design a stable. high power sine \IW wave invertor to encompass both (1) and (2) then a high level of technical expertise Q is involved in the construction and the cost of components is large. However, by building two invertors most problems are solved. As the output requirement for (1) is likely to be less than lOOW then a simple design may be used and the component cost may be kept low. Also the unit may be made up as a portable assembly and used next to the equipment being powered. Unit (2) could be considered as a semi·portable unit and its output applied to a normal house distribution system for use in powering lights, motors etc. It would conveniently be situated next to the heavy duty batteries supplying its input. To obtain a rated SOOW (2A at 2S0v) output, the power input to the invertor must also be SOOw · assuming 100% efficiency. To draw SOOw of power from a 12v battery means a current of 40A · a large current for a normal car battery to supply. If, however, a 24v input is used then the current required is 20A. Hence, for ease and cheapness of construction, it was decided to use a 24v input to the invertor. This can easily be obtained by connecting two 12v batteries in series. Batteries Redundant car batteries are easy to obtain as they are usually discarded when they can no longer supply the 200·300A required to turn a starter motor. A fair price for car batteries from a scrap dealer is £2/cwt as he gets £I/cwt for them. Batteries can be described by two factors· (I) Their terminal voltage (2) Their storage capacity measured in ampere. hours. Almost all car batteries are of the 12v variety and the important variable is the amp. hour (A.h) rating. If a battery is rated at 50A.h then theoretically it should supply a current of 50A for one hour, or 25A for two hours, etc. So. running at full output. the invertor will draw over 20A from the supply and a 40A ·hour battery would run it for only two hours. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 60

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 61

In order to increase the working time of the system, the capacity of the battery storage must obviously be increased. At first sight, it might appear that this can be achieved simply by placing a number of batteries in parallel. But unfortunately, because each battery has a slightly different terminal voltage, the higher voltage battery will discharge through the lower voltage battery, and the system will gradually 'run down'. A suggested method for connecting batteries in parallel which overcomes this problem is shown in fig 1. The blocking diodes prevent a reverse current into the battery. In order to charge these batteries a further set of diodes is required. The diodes should be of a type capable of withstanding at least the maximum charging or discharging current. Switching An invertor must contain a switching mechanism to apply the D.C. supply alternately in one direction and then the other across the primary of a transformer. Most designs use a form of circuit in · F;g 6 which the switch driving ('oscillator') circuitry is arranged so that when the switch is in one position it is driven into the other position, and vice·versa (fig 2). This approach is somewhat hazardous because if, for some reason, the circuit fails there is effectively a {short circuit' across the battery · which is almost always catastrophic. A safer approach is to separate the switch and oscillator circuitry (fig 3) and hence have the switches being driven into their two positions. I n the even of a failure of the oscillator the circuit fails safe and no short circuit results. Also, the circuit is relatively immune to 'stalling' · which, as the name suggests, is stopping under load. A circuit for a high power invertor is shown in figs 4 and 5. Fig 4 is the oscilla·tor section and consists of an integrated circuit oscillator driving a coupling trans· former through a pair of power transistors. This transformer is the only item not easily available, but it can be constructed readily by dismantling any transformer with a core area larger than one square inch and rewinding it with _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 61

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 62

a 90 turn primary and two 14·turn secondaries. This transformer then supplies the drive to the circuit shown in fig 5, the output section of which consists of a 24v·0·24v to 240v transformer with the switching performed by two sets of three heavy duty power transistors. These transistors should be mounted on large heat·sinks. A suggested layout of components is shown in fig 6. The invertor has been tested to an output of 500w, powering lighting, and will perform quite safely at these loads as long as a few simple rules are observed. (1) The invertor should always be running before a load is connected. (2) The battery supply should not be connected or disconnected whilst the invertor is running. The output is not a sine wave and hence the unit will not drive certain motors quietly, but this can only be checked by experiment. [We hope to carry con·structional details of a low·power, sine wave invertor in the near future.·Ed.] Construction and setting up The oscillator may be constructed on a piece of veroboard and mounted on top of the transformer. After the circuit has been checked for incorrect connections a 24v source is connected and the resistor VR2 adjusted to the correct frequency. This can be checked by connecting the invertor to a record deck and checking for the correct record speed. V R 1 is then adjusted for minimum 'buzz' from the transformer. All components except the driver transformer are available from advertisers in magazines such as Wireless World and the total cost should not exceed £5:00 excluding the output transformer. The cost of this item will be roughly pro·portional to the output required: for a lOA transformer (Le. a maximum output of 250w) it should be in the region of £10. Dave Graham © Dave Graham/Undercurrents 1976. ..

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 62

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 63

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Boyle Let’s Have Some More Radio-Activity WE'VE GOT our foot in the door. In all the major industrial countries of Europe and North America, the nuclear power industry is on the defensive. In Britain, Energy Secretary Tony Benn has 'opened the door', just a little, to a public debate on the country's possible energy options: our aim must now be to force that door wide open. Now is the time for the anti·nuclear protest movement to adopt new and more positive tactics. Instead of pUlling al/ our efforts into whistle·blowing about the dangers inherent in nuclear waste storage. or the high cost and low net energy yield of national nuclear programmes, or the dangers of plutonium hijacking and nuclear weapon proliferation, we must go on the offensive and show the public that not only are there alternatives to nuclear power, but that those alternatives are simply better from every point of view, in both the short and long term. National Domestic Insulation Campaign In this issue of Undercurrents we're concentrating on the simplest and most immediately·obvious of the alternative energy strategies: a national domestic insula·tion campaign. As we hope to show, such a campaign would save more energy than would be generated by Britain's projected Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor (SGHWR) programme over its lifetime, would cost less, would create more jobs, and would carry no risks to the environment. We also touch on the energy and job·creating potential of a major programme of solar council house construction. But there are many other possible energy conserving strategies, ranging from the adoption by the CEGB of the more efficient fluidised·bed coal combustion technique, through the increased use of district heating and waste heat from power stations, to controlled ventilation and heat recovery. The potential for energy conservation outside the Domestic Sector · for example in the Industrial and Transport sectors · is also immense. And as Amory Lovins puts it: 'saving a watt is nearly always cheaper than increasing supply by a wall.' Alternative Sources Having 'cleared the decks' by making a water·tight case for energy conservation, we can then turn to the case for the various 'alternative' energy sources · _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 63

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 64

wind generators, heat pumps, water, tidal and wave power, solar energy, photobiological energy from wood and plants, geothermal power, hydro·thermal power, methane from waste products, the hydrogen economy and so on Recent Government Reports, such as that of the Energy Technology Support Unit at Harwell, have tried to discredit the potential of such sources by a simple but effective device. It works like this: .. Sam Lovejoy On George Washington's Birthday,1974, Samuel Holden Lovejoy toppled a 500·foot·tall weather tower in Montague, Massachusetts. The tower had been erected by the local utility company as part of their project to construct one of the largest nuclear power plants ever planned. Leaving 349 feet of twisted wreckage behind, Lovejoy hitched a ride to the police station, where he turned himself in and submitted a four·page written statement decrying the dangers of nuclear power. Six months later, Lovejoy defended his act of civil disobedience in court as 'self·defense'; he was ultimately acquitted. .. First of all, you extrapolate from the previous rate of increase in demand' (ignoring the fact that energy use in the past couple of years has actually dropped by more than 10%) to show that by the year 2,000 we will be 'needing' two, or even three times as much energy as we use now. Then you take each alternative energy source, one·by..oneJ and show (being careful not to use optimistic assumptions) that on its own it could not hope to meet more than, say, ten per cent of the demand you've just invented. You then look at the present cost of each alternative source, and show how it could not possibly compete with nuclear..generated electricity · ignoring such considerations as the enormous hidden subsidies given to nuclear energy by the atomic weapons programme, and the fact that with a fraction of the Research and Development money spent on atomic power, the cost per kilowatt of the alternative energy sources could be reduced enormously. Rigged Estimates We must work to expose the rigged estimates of the pro·nuclear lobby, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 64

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 65

and to show that the alternatives we are proposing are meaningful in their proper context. For many of us, of course, the ultimate context is (to over·simplify it) a decentralised, equitable, ecologically·conscious, libertarian socialist society, powered mainly by renewable energy sources and having an overall rate of non·renewable resource usage close to zero. But that particular dream won't come true tomorrow·and maybe not even the day after. So we've got to put forward 'transitional strategies' that will keep nuclear·powered totalitarianism at bay while at the same time stimulating people into thinking more deeply about the kind of society they really want, how it should be run, and what power sources are most appropriate to achieving that end. In the articles which follow, Amory Lovins argues eloquently the case that there is, indeed, a non·nuclear future for the world · a future a good deal brighter and a great deal safer than the nuclear one · if only we can make our rulers grasp it. Dave Elliott then looks at Britain's present position and examines in detail the case for a domestic insulation programme as an ideal means of creating jobs quickly, at a time when unemployment is at a scandalously high level. He also looks at the longer·term possibilities · such as the programme for converting' Britain's high·technology armaments industry to socially·desirable production. Tony Emerson, of SERA, the Socialist Environment and Resources Association, then highlights the political implications of such 'conversion' programmes and outlines some reformist strategies for avoiding same of the most obvious pitfalls. But to begin with, here are the results of my own preliminary analysis of the likely yield of Britain's planned SGHWR programme, its estimated cost, and the employment it would be likely to create, compared with the energy savings, cost and job creation potential of a national domestic insulation programme. APART FROM the programme of Advanced Gas·Cooled Reactor construction, which started 10 years ago and has only just begun to feed a few megawatts of un·needed power into the grid, years late and hundreds of millions over budget, Britain is planning to embark on yet another nuclear programme. Energy The Government last year gave the go·ahead to the CEGB to build one _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 65

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 66

large Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor of 2640 Megawatts capacity at Sizewell, Suffolk, and granted the South of Scotland Electricity Board permission to build one 1320 MW station at Torness, not far from Edinburgh. The total planned capacity of these two stations is, therefore, about 4,000 MW. Let's be conventional and say that their lifetime would be about 30 years. If the stations operated at full output for all 8760 hours each year for all 30 years, their output would be 1.05 x 1012 kilowatt hours · but of course no station can operate flat out all the time. Let's be optimistic and assume that the stations achieve a load factor' (the fraction of the potential energy that is actually delivered) equal to that achieved by all the nuclear power stations in England and Wales during 1974·5·namely 76.6%. Then they would produce, over their 30 year lifetime, about 0.8 x 1012 kilowatt hours of energy (ignoring, for simplicity, transmission and distribution losses, which would in practice reduce this figure by about 10%). Costs What would the two stations at Sizewell and Torness cost? The CEGB in its recent publications has quoted a capital cost for nuclear power of £230{kw, which would imply a cost of £920 million for 4,000 MW of capacity. But anyone who has watched the incredible escalation of nuclear costs in Britain's AG R programme, or the similar increas·es in US nuclear costs, will view such an optimistic figure with extreme reserve. Friends of the Earth suggest that the actual cost of Sizewell Band T Torness is more likely to be £1500 million · but to give the CEGB the benefit of the doubt, let us assume that the cost will just be £920 million. The capital cost element in each kilowatt·hour of energy generated by these two stations will, therefore, be £920 million divided by 0.8 x 1012 kWh · namely 0.115 pence per kWh. The cost to the consumer, of course, would be much higher than this. How many jobs created by these nuclear plants? Well, according to CEGB statistics, the number of employees working its eight nuclear power stations in 1974·5 was 3,565. That works out at 445 employees per station. We would therefore expect the two stations, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 66

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 67

Sizewell Band Torness, to employ some 890 people · let's say a round 1000, including ancilliary staff. These people would be employed permanently during the entire 30 year life of the station, so 30,000 'job·years' would be created. As for the jobs created by the building work on·site during construction, FOE has estimated that, optimistically, the peak on·site employment for Sizewell B would be 4,000 jobs, and for Torness 2,000 job. These jobs would last, at most, 4 to 5 years. Let us be very optimistic, then. and say that there would be 5,000 jobs for 5 years · a job creation effect of 30,000 job·years. The total direct employment likely to be created by the planned S(;HWR programme, therefore, is 60,000 job years. Of course there would be the so·called 'multiplier effect', whereby the creation of one job leads to the creation of others (when a worker spends his money, for example, he indirectly creates jobs for others by increasing demand). An analysis of the detailed multiplier effects likely to be generated by the nuclear programme would take several years of research and is unnecessary if we are comparing the direct employment generated by the SGHWR programme with the direct employment generated by an energy conservation programme. Moreover, there is every reason to suppose that the multiplier effect of a large energy conservation programme would be greater than that of the nuclear power programme. Just as the latter would lead to increased employment in the heavy electrical industry· the building materials industry and local service industries, so also would an energy conservation programme lead to increased jobs in the manufacture of insulating materials, foam injection equipment, double glazing, local service trades, and so on. These jobs, further·more, would be far more evenly dispersed around the country than the jobs created by the nuclear programme, and would help to alleviate unemployment in the worst·hit regions. In the case of the SGHWR programme, the capital cost per job·year of work created is £920 x 106 divided by 60,000 · i.e. over £15,000 per job·year created. Let me turn now to the energy savings possible given an enthusiastic programme of energy conservation. The Building Research Establishment's recent report on energy conservation in buildings gives some idea of the enormous magnitude of the savings that could be made _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 67

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 68

by a fully·fledged conservation campaign in buildings alone. The report concluded that: 'by undertaking the technically feasible options it should be possible to achieve an ultimate saving of over 15 per cent of annual consumption of primary energy, by measures in building services which would not impair environmental standards.' The measures envisaged by the BRE include cavity wall and roof insulation, double glazing, controlled ventilation and heat recovery, improved heating controls, replacement of electric space and water heating by more efficient methods, replacement of electric cookers by gas, and the use·of heat pumps, waste heat from electricity generation, solar collectors for water heating, and aerogenerators in special circumstances. A saving of 15% of the nation's primary energy consumption would amount to 15% of 2!?00 x 109 kWh a year, or 11.25 x 10' kWh· over 30 years · about fourteen times the energy generated by the SGHWR programme. But even if we don't have such a fullyfledged programme and limit the energy conservation measures to simple cavity wall and roof insulation, the savings are still very large indeed. As the BRE Report puts it: 'If the existing housing stock had been cavity filled where possible, if the loft insulation had been improved, and windows double·glazed, the UK energy consumption would have been 3 to 4 per cent less, taking account of the past evidence that some of the potential fuel savings in older properties with only partial heating would have been taken up in increased comfort If we subtract, for simplicity, the savings possible through double glazing which the BRE estimates to be about 0,8% of national consumption, the savings attainable by cavity and loft insulation work out at about 3% of primary energy consumption, or 2.25 x 1012 kWh over 30 years·nearly three times the energy generated by the SGHWR program,."e. Costs of Insulation What would such a programme cost? The BRE Report estimates that cavity filling and loft insulation in an existing house would cost, on average, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 68

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 69

around f120; and loft insulation in an old house in which there are no cavity walls would cost £45. According to Tyneside Environ· Undercurrents 15 mental Concern's recent Waste·Not, Want·Not Report, there are some 5.5 million houses without cavity walls in the country. Loft insulation in these dwellings at £45 would therefore cost £247 million. The remaining 13 million houses would cost, at £120 each, some £1560 million. So the total cost comes to just over £1800 million. The capital cost per kilowatt hour saved is, therefore, £1800 million divided by the energy saved, 2.25 x 1012 kWh = 0.08p/kWh, or 30% less than the capital cost of SGHWR power. And if we remember that insulation carries no running costs, whereas nuclear power carries fuel, handling, operation, administration, distribution, metering and sales costs, there's no doubt about which is the better buy. Job Creation Finally, let's look at the manpower (sorry, person·power) of a national energy con·servation programme: The National Cavity Insulation Association says that it usually takes one to two people between half and one day to cavity fill a typical house · let's say one·person·day per house, on average. As for loft insulation, Durham FOE reckon it takes two of their people about half a day to install loft insulation · say one day person·per house. So to cavity fill and loft insulate the 13 million suitable houses would require 26 million person·days · ignoring, again for simplicity, the jobs directly created among the administrative staff required to back up the workers actually carrying out the insulation. In addition, the job of loft insulating the remaining 5.5 million houses without cavity walls would require a further 5.5 million person·days. The total effort required, then, would amount to 31.5 million person·days. A person can work, say, 48 weeks of five days each in a year · say 250 persondays a year. So 31.5 million person·days amounts to 120,000 job·years. This is twice the direct employment created by the SGHWR _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 69

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 70

programme. If we spread the insulation effort out over 30 years (implying a rate of 600,000 houses a year) the direct employment generated would be 4,000 jobs a year for 30 years. A crash programme to do the same thing in 10 years would create 12,000 direct ten·year jobs. In summary then, a modest programme aimed at insulating the cavity walls and lofts of Britain's housing stock would, in direct contrast to the SGHWR programme: *have a 30 per cent lower capital cost, per kilowatt of energy *incur virtually no running costs *make available nearly three times as much energy *generate twice as much direct employment 'imply virtually no risks to the populace and *have a negligible · or even positive effect on the environment. Who Needs Nukes? Godfrey Boyle ..

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 70

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 71

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Lovins Towards A Non·Nuclear Future THE ISSUES at stake in the debate about nuclear power cannot be considered in isolation from a complex tangle of broader issues of energy and social policy · any more than automobiles can be considered in isolation from the wider patterns and values of human settlements and mobility . To do so would be a common but serious error. The most impor.tant and difficult questions of energy policy are not primarily technical or economic but rather social and ethical, and cannot be properly framed by people whose vision is purely technical. Which energy policy makes sense for a given society depends on what sort of society it is to be, what values are important in it. where people want to live, what they want to eat, and what they want to get out of their lives and to leave behind for their children. All these things can to a large extent be chosen through the political and economic pro·cess. But people cannot choose options that they do not perceive, and often cannot perceive options that they have not experienced. One job of the energy strategist is thus to present and assess some alternatives, as carefully and credibly as possible, with enough imagination to see how wide the range of choices really is. People suffering from a three·day week in Britain, or going without hot water in Stockholm, or deprived of their accustomed air·conditioning in sealed New York buildings, may believe (or be led to believe) that they are having a taste of life in a low·energy society; and this may be true. But it may equally be true that it would not be like that at all · that disruption and privation are instead a taste of life in a vulnerable high·energy society. The energy strategist must not only develop tools to help the political process to explore such choices; he must also encourage a fundamental re·examination of the social role of energy, of the difference between demand and need, and of the possibility of achieving liberal social goals without rapid, or even any, growth in the rate of consumption of primary energy stocks. Self·fulfilling prophecies Our energy choices have traditionally rested on a series of self·fulfilling prophecies · forecasts based on correlation, not causality. OUf forecasters have assumed that rapid energy growth is essential for a healthy economy and full employment. Yet there is no evidence that this assumption is true; indeed, in the only country (USA) where it has been carefully studied, it appears to be untrue. So entrenched is the _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 71

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 72

dogma nevertheless that most people in the countries with the grossest national products find it hard to imagine what li·c would be like with more efficient use of energy but with the levels of primary energy use that prevailed only a few years ago. For example, some Danish economists say that a civilisation in Denmark using only half as much electricity as now would be impossible; but one existed in 1965, when Danes were at least half as civilised as now. What would 1965 have been like with greater efficiency and more equitable distribu·tion for more rational ends? Surely it could have been more agreeable than life in Denmark today. Likewise, what would life in the United States be like at percapita energy levels vaguely comparable to those of, say, 1910 (half the present US value, or about the same as the present UK value), but with much better distribution with our best modern technologies of energy use, and with some important but not very energy·intensive amenities such as modern medicine and telecommunications? These are the sorts of question we should be asking now. No energy future, least of all a future deriving from 'business as usual', will be free of social change, but we have to ask what kinds of social change we want. Low·energy futures can (but need not) be normative and pluralistic, whereas high·energy futures are bound to be coercive and to offer less scope for social diversity and individual freedom. Fundamental to any discussion of energy alternatives is a choice · usually tacit but nonetheless real · of personal Nuclear reactors burn money values. The values that make a high·energy society work are all too apparent today. The values that could make a lower·energy society work are not new; they are in the societal attic, and could be dusted off and recycled. They include thrift, simplicity, diversity, neighbourliness, craftsmanship, and humility. They also include the clear thinking needed to avoid a prevalent confusion between growth and distribution (the 'let them eat growth' theory), between movement and progress, and between costs and benefits. For example, many people today count personal mobility as a benefit even when mobility is reduced to the involuntary traffic made necessary by the existence of cars and by the settlement patterns which cars create. If, in order to live in the utopian slurbia, we work in order to buy a car without which we cannot get to work. the net benefit of the transaction may be insubstantial. Ivan Illich has calculated an illustrative number, and whether or not the number is correct, the idea is undoubtedly important: that the average American man drives about 7500 miles a year in his car, but to do this and to earn the money to _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 72

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 73

finance it requires his spending about 1600 hours a year, which works out to about 4Y2 miles an hour, and we know another way to go 4Y2 miles an hour. Growth in things that count We are learning, increasingly and irreversibly, that many of the things we had been counting as the benefits of affluence are really remedial costs) incurred in the pursuit of unstated intangible benefits which might be obtainable in other ways without those costs. This perception seems to be gaining ground in many industrial societies where consumer ephemerals are losing their allure and more people are wishing that advertising copywriters would go back to being poets. Conspicuous consumption including its ultimate form, war · is not our only or necessarily our best path to happiness. We need instead to have, as Herman Daly puts it, growth in things that count, rather than in things that are merely countable. Such discussion of values and goals may seem fuzzy and unscientific; but it is the beginning and end of any energy policy, and must be explicitly considered if policy is to do what is expected of it. No matter what patterns of energy use are considered desirable, the best energy sourCe is that energy which is spared by not being wasted on inefficiency or nonessentials. Increasing energy supply in the usual ways tends to be slow, costly, risky, and of temporary benefit, whereas decreasing demand tends to be comparatively fast, cheap, safe, and of permanent benefit (but unpopular with energy·mongers)_ It is hard to find a method of saving energy that does not also save money. For example, from the work of the Energy Policy Project (EPP) of the Ford Foundation it can be shown under conservative economic assumptions that the US could afford to spend, on 'technical fixes' to save energy, about $200,000 million initially plus $200 million per day · and that would still cost less than increasing supply by the amount which would otherwise be projected. What is more, one would still have the fuel but not the environmental and political problems of extracting and using it. In short, saving a watt is nearly always cheaper than increasing supply by a watt. Energy shrinkage feasible Three simple facts from Britain suggest useful questions for all countries, and suggest too why energy shrinkage · not just energy stability · may be quite feasible. First, the energy needed to produce a unit of value in the British economy varies at least 600·fold depending on what good or service is being produced; so how much energy it takes to run the _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 73

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 74

country depends very much on the shape of the economy. Second, since 1900 the gross UK energy consumption has doubled (it has grown so little because a lot of coal used to be inefficiently burned in open grates), but in those 7S years the energy at the point of end use has only gone up by half (or by a third per capita); the rest has been swallowed up by the energy industry itself and never reached the consumer. Gross energy consumption for heating houses grew rapidly, but the heat grew scarcely at all. (In the US, analogously, half the energy saved by the EPP 'technical fixes' would have gone to fuel the fuel industries.) The largest energy consumer in Britain · the energy industry · could consume far less if its technologies were more appropriate. Finally, if British end·use energy is classified not by economic sector but by physical type, the very approximate result is: SS percent low·temperature heat, 2S percent high·temperature heat, 15 percent mechanical work, and only about 5 percent requiring special forms such as electricity. These rough estimates might be S to 10 percent off either way, but they cannot possibly bear any sensible relation to the thermodynamics of the energy systems we are now building, where for 'convenience' we use our highest·grade energy resources · often in the upgraded form of extremely high·quality electricity · to perform low·grade functions such as space heating, thus guaranteeing that most of the original primary energy will be thrown away. Once we decide how much energy we really need, want, and can afford to have, we must consider the supply patterns that various constraints · environmental, geopolitical, sociotechnical, economic, and so on · will allow us. Instead of blindly following incremental ad·hocracy in the hope that it will lead in the right direction, we need to ask where we want to be a long time hence, and then to ask what we must avoid now in order to get there. This approach immediately · eliminates many short·term policies that might otherwise seem attractive within politicians' limited time horizons_ Moreover, we are now entering an era when discontinuities and instabilities probably matter more than the fragments of trend in between them; yet our forecasters still cling to extrapolation of a surprise·free world. We are therefore foreclosing certain valuable options by committing scarce money, skills, and time, which is not recyclable, to other options. Two policy paths The implications of these ideas for our future energy supplies can be stated concisely: two main policy paths for the rich countries are now _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 74

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 75

rapidly diverging, and we must jump for one or the other. The first is high·energy, nuclear, centralised, electric; the second is lower·energy, fission·free, decentralised, less electrified, softer·technology based on energy income. If we choose the first of these paths, we shall have to continue spending on fast breeder reactors money and skills that could instead develop all the non·nuclear energy options, especially the soft ones, to commercial usefulness, so they will not get developed. They are really an option only if we recognise them now. It is true that the soft energy technologies take much time and money to develop and deploy. But nuclear power requires so much time and money that the softer policy path leads to the same place (or rather a nicer place) at similar or better rates and costs. The more modest scale and lesser technical complexity of the soft energy options makes them much quicker in principle to demonstrate and Undercurrents 15 build than the huge high·technology devices on which we now rely: for example, scaling up a fast breeder reactor to commercial size requires several stages, each of which is likely to take the best part of a decade and billions of dollars, whereas if the basic building·block is an assembly of selective·black solar panels perhaps the size of a house roof, the corresponding requirements are likelier to be a few months and thousands of dollars. Land of Rising Sun? To illustrate the danger of not realising how wide our range of choices really is, consider Japan, widely regarded as the industrial country most desperately short. of energy and land. A line of technically sound reasoning suggests that Japan can attain an economy of energy income (as opposed to energy capital, or fuels) directly · without an intervening stage of reliance on nuclear fission · merely by devoting her resources to the former rather than the latter. There is probably less scope for energy conservation in Japanese industry than in d that of many other countries; for d example, the remarkable savings made in the Japanese steel industry can only be _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 75

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 76

made there once. There is, however, much scope for redeployment of Japanese economic activity towards light and service industry, with some existing and nearly all future heavy industry being exported to countries that want it. Efficiency can also be much increased in the residential, commercial, and IP electricity·generating sectors. Japanese s, policy is now moving in these directions S; (as well as towards hidden energy imports d in the form of materials rather than overt d' energy imports in the form of fuels). But s' what of energy sources? With respect to almost all the unconventional sources, Japan is the best situated of any major industrial country · and doesn't even know it. Japan is at low latitude, and receives much energy from the sun at all seasons. Japan has exceptional on· and offshore wind resources. Japan is in an excellent geothermal (and, if these t, technologies prove attractive, sea thermal T and wave) zone. And Japanese settlement patterns are peculiarly well suited to converting domestiC, agricultural, and industrial wastes to clean fuels. It is not hard to calculate the sort of energy economy that might be constructed from a diverse mix of presently available soft technologies of these types, taking due account of land·use and other constraints and assuming that most of the present coal and hydroelectric production can be maintained. Conservative calculations of this sort, paying special attention to the thermodynamic matching of energy sources with energy uses, suggest that unconventional sources of the types now available, together with wide·ranging energy conservation, can then give Japan a sustainable energy future within a few decades. Meanwhile,·of course, Japan must rely on Persian Gulf oil, Indonesian and Australian coal, Indonesian and South China Sea oil, and belt·tightening; but nuclear power could not improve this medium·term outlook significantly faster than could the programme suggested here, and nuclear power would probably even make it worse. Those who believe that traditional Japanese patterns of rapid energy _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 76

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 77

growth must be extrapolated decades hence. and hat Japan must, in the next three to five decades, find a new long·term source of large blocks of industrial energy, may say that only nuclear power can then suffice. This, too, is incorrect. For example, at rates and costs comparable or superior to those of nuclear power, Japan could lease some of the Aleutian Islands, build there some high·velocity aero·turbines, and ship hydrogen to Japan. We are not formally advocating this idea; but it suggests that if Japan wants to stay energy·intensive in the long run, there is a way to do it (and we can think of others) that is technically feasible, that I on present knowledge looks economically acceptable, and that the Japanese Government has not studied. There is a manifestly unsound alternative: installing·. in a densely populated and politically volatile earthquake lone, an unforgiving technology with enormous capacity for devastating accidents and for the deliberate or inadvertent spread of nuclear weapons. Scandinavia Similar calculations could be done for, say, the Scandinavian countries, where the large installed hydroelectric capacity of Norway and Sweden could meet all the region's electrical needs if there were modest conservation efforts and if heat pumps were substituted for resistive space·heating in some areas. Even in the Scandinavian climate and latitudes, diffuse solar collection by sophisticated devices already developed could i supplement conventional space·heating with surprising speed and could take up nearly all the space·heating load (roughly half of total energy demand) by early in the next century. Wind power offers a significant decentralised, and probably non·electrical, resource throughout the region, particularly with the new vertical·axis designs: there has been much technical progress since the decline of the Danish wind·power economy. The many wastes from agriculture, forestry, and cities could be readily and efficiently converted to methanol and methane. Scandinavian industry, including the auto industry, provides the technical resources needed for complete self·sufficiency in designing, mass·producing, and even exporting energy hardware, including transitional technologies such as fluidised bed combustors and gas turbines (especially those that offer neighbourhood·<:centred district _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 77

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 78

heating) and heat pumps. Excellent research in these areas is seeping into official consciousness and will soon be reflected in policy. Fission economy can be bypassed Two common) threads run through all these examples. The first is that by prompt redirection of national resources, the fission economy can generally be not merely superseded promptly but bypassed altogether. The second is that in order to realise in time that this is possible, one must imagine where one wants to be in fifty years or 50 and then work backwards to see what must be done when and what must not be done at all. This method reveals the existence of radically different policy options which would be completely invisible to anyone working forward in time: such a person could only see in hindsight, say thirty years from now, that he might have implemented certain policies if he had thought of them twenty years earlier before it was too late. Too often the present method of energy planning consists of regretting opportunities missed, options foreclosed, necessary steps not seen soon enough to take them. This approach is not likely to yield sustainable energy systems that will fulfil our social goals. It is, however, the method implicitly relied upon by many proponents of nuclear power who follow a fallacious argument similar to that of Hans Bethe and Alvin Weinberg: that since (1) coal, fission, and solar technologies are the only obviously feasible longterm sources of large amounts of energy, but (2) the solar technologies can allegedly play no significant role during this century, therefore (3) we must now undertake a huge commitment to fission and coal. This argument ignores the obvious possibility that the more intelligent and sophisticated use of fossil fuels, particularly coal, can form a fission·free bridge well into the next century, by which time the solar technologies can be fully developed and deployed. How fast? Modern thinking about energy strategy requires us to examine 'rate·and·magnitude problems', the practical constraints on how fast we can do how much. Rate and·magnitude arithmetic can be done (but too seldom is) on the back of an envelope. On a global scale, for example, if energy use increases 5 percent a year and if we commission one" large reactor (1000 electrical megawatts) per day, starting now, then in 2000 we shall have spent approximately 10 current US GNP·years on reactors · and we must still get most of our primary energy from fossil fuels and must burn them more than twice as fast as now. The same is true on a national scale: after thirty years and many billions _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 78

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 79

of dollars worth of research and development, nuclear power in the US has probably just passed firewood as a national energy source, for national energy use is so prodigious that we can scarcely catch up, especially if it keeps growing. likewise, if Danish energy use and electricity use grow by 3 percent a year and 4 percent a year respectively (both far slower than historical rates), and if a major nuclear programme (one large reactor every other year} is begun now, then in 2000 nearly as much fossil fuel will be burned in power stations as is now used for this purpose, and Denmark · the Japan of the West · will still be more than 90 percent dependent on imported fuels, burned at nearly twice the present rate, for her national energy supplies. Here is another way to look at rate·and·magnitude problems. In any industrial country (except a few unusual ones like Norway) the exponential growth of energy supply has been made up of successively added curves, each initially exponential, and each introduced as the previous one · representing the previous 'new' energy source · matures or begins to falter. In such a system, each source must be capable of faster growth than the preceding one. The traditional succession of sources · wood, coal, oil, gas · permits this because of its trend towards increasing technical simplicity per unit of output, culminating in gas, whose relative simplicity at large scale has let it account for about'!, of US energy growth in the past few decades. What, then, is the next big source, simpler than gas and therefore capable of even faster sustained growth? It certainly isn't nuclear fission, which is far too complex. Both rate·and·magnitude constraints and the other side of that logistical coin · the net·energy constraints discussed in the second part of this book · lead one irresistibly to conclude that the comparatively simple, low·technology, decentralised, non·electrical energy technologies make the most sense. Every assistance short of actual help These technologies are small·scale. What matters, though, is not aggregate or even unit energy production, but ability to meet the energy needs of people in particular circumstances. Indeed, the energy technologies that most people in the world need are those which perform basic end·uses such as·heating, cooking, lighting, and pumping; and these can be done admirably by simple devices using sun, wind, and organic conversion. These are not glamorous technologies, are ideal for poor as well as rich countries, and have no military applications, so people seriously interested in developing them tend to receive every _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 79

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 80

assistance short of actual help. Moreover, so long as the main industrial countries remain officially committed to the equally exciting·to·develop and far more difficult fission technologies (which are also not so useful to poor countries), many first·rate technologists will be reluctant to commit their careers to developing the soft options. Of the criteria mentioned above for practical energy systems · small·scale," simple, low·technology (which does not mean unsophisticated), decentralised, non·electrical · the last is perhaps the most controversial and, to thoughtful analysts, the most obvious, because electricity is the costliest form of energy to make, store, or transport in bulk. Electrification of most end·uses in an industrial economy is simply too expensive for any major country outside the Persian Gulf to afford it. Building the capacity needed to deliver a unit of energy to the consumer now requires approximately twenty times as much capital investment with a typical nuclear·electric system as with, say, a North Sea oil system (including pipelines, refineries, distribution, etc), and this in turn is several times as capital·intensive as most traditional oil and coal systems. The social implications of centralised electrification, too, are as disquieting as its capital intensity: it is the most complex and slowest kind of technology to deploy, is remotely administered by a highly bureaucratised technical elite with little personal commitment to their clients, is vulnerable to large·scale and extremely expensive technical mistakes and failures, and is entirely at the mercy of a few people. (A handful of power engineers can turn off a country, and a single rifleman can black out most cities_) Finally, very few end·uses of energy in modern societies actually require electricity, and they. require little of it at that. There is no accounting for what some people think Some people have a remarkable facility for ignoring these obvious features of centralised electrification. Some people still think that nuclear capacity in, say, the United States will increase about 20·fold by the year 2000 and that the equivalent of the total present US generating capacity will then be built every 29 months. (The USAEC was still predicting in December 1974 that US electricity demand would increase 15·fold by 2020.) Some people think that only the most complex, costly, unforgiving, and vulnerable major energy technology known is capable of doing this. There is no accounting for what some people think. The special environmental and social risks of fission technology need not be previewed here. These risks include not only the obvious hazards of _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 80

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 81

accident and sabotage, or of failure to contain radioactive wastes, but also the hazards of nuclear violence and coercion through misuse of toxic or explosive materials in the nuclear fuel cycle. Proposed safeguards are likely to be repressive or ineffective or (probably) both. The profound and permanent social commitments and controls that adoption of nuclear power requires deserve special note: persistent nuclear materials may damage social diversity and personal freedom as much, if not for so long, as they damage the wider biological environment. Moreover, in our increasingly inter·dependent and unstable world, the mere creation of atomic·bomb materials endangers every·one. Robert Heilbroner thinks that some poor countries may resort to nuclear blackmail or 'wars of redistribution'; and it is conceivable that some poor countries which have great economic needs and no other assets might be tempted to sell bomb materials or designs to other countries with great assets and military ambitions. Obviously, a decisions by any one country to forego and discourage nuclear power will marginally diminish, not solve outright, a worldwide problem of this sort. Exceptionally, such a decision by the United States in the next few years could virtually eliminate the problem everywhere, while technological dependence is still great and technological metastasis small. Yet such a principled decision by even the smallest country could have a profound political impact everywhere. Social and political innovation is unfortunately a less obvious element of energy policy than is technological innovation. But what is most often lacking in the latter is a sense of why one wants a particular technology. Is it con·sidered a stopgap, a mainstay, or a permanent solution? Part of a diverse mix or a single panacea? Transitional or final? Something to do while we look for something better, make·work for a powerful industry, or a result of institutional momentum and political sloth? Is it capable of doing what we wan t, when we want it? Can we afford to pay for it? Have we hedged our bets in case it doesn't work? Is it a worthy way to invest the fossil fuels needed to build it? Does it supply energy in the forms and patterns in which people need it? These crucial questions are seldom asked. Forget fusion Consider, for example, the two main classes of energy technologies (other than nuclear fission) which are generally regarded as permanent or semipermanent supply options: terrestrial nuclear fusion, and its extensively tested, remotely sited sister · solar conversion in its numerous direct and indirect forms. Terrestrial nuclear fusion has the same problems _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 81

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 82

as fission except that the risks are smaller by perhaps tens or thousands of times and are somewhat different in kind. The radioactive inventories and leftovers may well be too big for fusion to be an attractive energy source, though they, like the potential fuel supply, would be more attractive than for fission. Fusion technology is probably (not certainly) feasible, is bound to be complex and costly, will place heavy demands on some scarce resources, can be used to make atomic·bomb materials, is several decades behind fission in its development·and once available could be demonstrated and deployed at similar rates. More to the point, though · and one that is often overlooked in purely technical discussions · is that fusion is probably a very ingenious way to do something that we don't really want to do, namely to find yet another slow·to·deploy, complex, costly, centralised, high·technology way to generate electricity. Directors of two national fusion programmes have recently told me that if fusion turns out to be a rather dirty energy source. as they half·expect, then knowing us we'll have put all our eggs in that basket and we'll use it anyway; whereas if it turns out to be a marvellous clean source as advertised, we'll lack the discipline to use it with restraint and the resulting release of heat will change global climate unfavourably and irreversibly; so, they conclude, on a pragmatic view of the wisdom of future decisionmakers, we should forget fusion and go straight to solar technology, because we know it works and because it limits the amount of mischief we can get into. Solar technologies ... could meet virtually all our energy needs These are only two of the many advantages of diverse and decentralised solar technologies. Some others are that solar technology is reliable, not easy to disrupt, sufficient for our needs, simple, low·technology, transferable, flexible with respect to cultural and settlement patterns, safe, with· minimal environmental and climatic impacts, has free fuel, tends to resist commercial monopoly, has a high thermodynamic source potential (5500·K), is well matched to common energy end·u,es, reduces international tensions arising from uneven distribution of fuels and of high technologies, is a spur to decentralisation and local self·sufficiency, and helps to redress the severe energy imbalance between temperate and tropical regions. And these benefits are not impossibly remote. Technical assessments by expert panels of the US National Science Foundation/ National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1972, of the USAEC in 1973, and of the Federal Energy Administration in 1974 broadly agreed that a significant fraction of, say, US energy supply could be taken up by _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 82

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 83

diverse solar technologies (including wind and organic conversion) within this century. For example, the FEA estimate, which was regarded as realistic, would have direct and indirect solar collection supplying about 5 percent of all US primary energy needs in 1990 and 31 percent in 2000 if the US followed the 'Technical Fix' scenario of the Energy Policy Project; and with the EPP 'Zero Energy Growth' scenario (which, despite its name, would entail about 33 percent energy growth to 2000 with steadily increasing efficiency as well), the solar fraction would be about 39 percent in 2000.* Starting in the 1990s, these solar supply estimates considerably exceed the USAEC's most sanguine projections of the contributions of nuclear fission: these presume 1400 thousand electrical megawatts of installed nuclear capacity in 2000, but even if the reactors sent out 70 percent of their theoretical capacity as projected instead of the 55 percent observed so far, they would produce only three·quarters as much energy as the FEA's solar projection for 2000. Indeed, the USAEC's WASH·1535 (December 1974) conceded that in 2020 new non·fission technologies could supply five times as much electricity as the US now uses. In short, relatively simple and small·scale solar technologies, starting decades after fission, could quickly overtake it, and within a few decades could meet virtually all our energy needs. Think twice as hard and waste half as much Whether these soft supply options are made available or not, traditional energy growth cannot continue. People in countries like the US, Japan, and the Netherlands will learn, in David Brower's phrase, to think twice as hard and waste half.as much, whether they want to or not; they can only decide whether to do this by deliberate normative choice now or by frantic improvisation later in the face of imminent shortage. Alwyn Rhys says that when you have come to the edge of an abyss. the only progressive move you can make is to step backward: he might equally have said that you can turn around and then step forward. Planners whose thoughts revolve around econometric extrapolation, economies of scale, centralised electrification, and marginal mills per kilowatt·hour are not the planners who can most constructively address the problems of turning around. That process, too, will require the thoughtful intervention of concerned citizens in order to ensure that technical experts do not lose touch with more widely held social goals. How we, as citizens and as nations, meet the challenges of energy strategy is a crucial test of our ethical values. our political institutions, and even our conception of ourselves. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 83

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 84

We can per.haps see the ethical issues more clearly if we imagine, as Hugh Nash has done, some of the questions we might ask our grand·children about our nuclear decisions: for example, we might ask them, "As a by·product of nuclear power we may generate more radioactive waste than we actually need; would you like us to set some aside for you?" Or we might ask our grand·children, "Isn't it a bit selfish of you to want some of our oil?" Or perhaps "How can we better show our faith in your boundless technological ingenuity than to make sure you need it?" To questions like these, I think we know what kinds of answer we would get. But in the technicalities of abstract debate about acceptable risks, economic growth, and the like, it is too easy to lose sight of such simple moral issues; too easy to forget that energy problems offer a useful integrating principle for thinking about the whole range of values and goals fundamental to the sustainable society that our descendants would be glad to inherit. At the root of the issues we consider here is a difference in perspective about man and his works. Some people, impressed and fascinated by the glittering achievements of technology, say that if we will only have faith in human ingenuity (theirs), we shall witness the Second Coming of Prometheus, bringing us undreamed·<>f freedom and plenty. Other people think that we should plan on something more modest, lest we find instead undreamed·of tyrannies and perils; and that even if we had an unlimited energy source, we would lack the discipline to use it wisely. Such people are really saying, firstly. that energy is not enough to solve the ancient problems of the human spirit, and secondly, that the technologists who claim they can satisfy Alfven's condition that "no acts of God can be permitted" are guilty of hubris, the human sin of divine arrogance. We have today an opportunity · perhaps our last · to exercise our responsibility to foster in our society a greater humility, one that springs from an appreciation of the essential frailty of the human ·design. Amory B. Lovins Copyright © 1975 by Amory B. Lovins. * Since most of the soft energy systems would. meet principal end·use energy needs directly at high efficiency. whereas roughly half the gross input to conventional energy systems is lost before it reaches the consumer. the real impact of the soft sources in meeting national energy needs would be substantially larger than these percentages suggest.

This article is an edited extract from Amory Lovins' introduction to the book Non Nuclear Futures by Amory Lovins and John Price. published last Autumn in the USA by Ballinger and Friends of the Earth and available in the UK from John Wiley. Paperback price should be about £4.00.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 84

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 85

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Elliott Job Creation: How Saving Energy Could Save Jobs ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY enthusiasts usually justify their concern for the development of alternatives to existing forms of technology and social organisation on long·term social and environmental grounds. AT, they say, is ecologically sound, and socially beneficial; it can help provide the technical base for a sustainable decentralised society organised on co·operative principles. Existing forms of technology, they argue, have exactly the opposite characteristic · they are polluting, resource·extravagant, humanly degrading and alienating, cannot easily be controlled by society, and help to underwrite a basically·undesirable materialist society. However, important though these longer term environmental and social concerns are, for many people there are more urgent and immediate problems related to their existence in society as it is, and their experience of shortages and failings in both public and private services · housing, education, medical care underlain by continuing uncertainty and insecurity in employment. These everyday problems, obviously, are ramifications of the underlying social and economic problems which the long·term view seeks to tackle. For some, the only hope is to focus on these longer·term issues, and they seek to 'politicise' the masses by polemic, exhortation and so on. But political 'consciousness' can only grow out of concrete experience · combined with exposure to new ideas. What seems to be needed is a process of 'ideological' development that helps to expand awareness of the implications of these immediate problems and crises, with the long·term aim of generating more radical proposals and commitments. Technology is one of the cornerstones of the status quo · it helps underpin the economic system and, with science, helps legitimise and reinforce the dominant pattern of social relations. Consequently a vital area of change must be in people's attitudes to technology and in the general pattern of development and use of technology in the future. There are already some signs of this kind of change · produced by experience of changed circumstances. Pollution, impending resource scarcity, increases in energy costs and so _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 85

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 86

on, have made many individuals consider the case for alternative technologies and energy and resource conservation. And the current economic crisis has forced some workers ·those at Lucas Aerospace·to campaign for the adoption of alternative technologies as a way of saving jobs. Of course, these demands might be seen as no more than reformist 'technical fixes' designed by self·interested groups to head off immediate problems without tackling the underlying causes, and contributing not to radical social change, but to the reassertion ·and strengthening of the status quo. For example, many AT enthusiasts are not moved by the demand for the 'right to work', preferring rather the demand for the 'right not to work' or at least the right to seek a new society in which work and play are fused. Although the 'right not to work' and similar ideals may be the long·term goal, we have to think in terms of practical strategies which are likely to be effective now, After all, being made redundant by the hidden hand of the market is not the same as choosing to 'drop out' yourself and many people do nOt see the latter as attractive in any case. While the in·built structural inequalities and irrational forces at work in capitalist society persist, to demand the right to work is still radical. And although demands of this sort are to some extent reformist, they can, in some circumstances, lead to the development of a wider consciousness and more radical demands, whereas utopian 'maximalist' demands, while they have a vital educational and polemical role, can alienate people. Transitional strategies What is needed is a range of intermediate 'transitional' strategies and developments, based on the existing problems, conflicts and contradictions thrown up by the existing socio·economic system, which will enable people to transcend the current, limited consciousness and engage in a process of radical transformation. Given this perspective, the demand for the right to work (for example) can have radical implications, as the Lucas Aerospace Combines campaign illustrates. Faced with possible unemployment these workers have found it necessary to challenge not only management's unilateral control over the deployment of labour and the means of production, but also their right to choose what should be produced. Many other workers currently faced with unemployment may follow the Lucas workers' initiative and demand the right to work on socially·desirable alternative technologies_ At the same _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 86

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 87

time, the Government needs some way to reduce the redundancy figures. With this background in mind it is worth considering the potential for job creation of a programme aimed at developing AT products. Job·creation and retraining So far, Westminster has come up with a number of relatively trivial short·term 'job creation' programmes, via the Manpower Services Commission. These have involved beach·clearing, tree·felling and similar activities, employing out·of·work youths. Th,e retraining component is usually small · although at the same time the government is embarking on a number of longer·term retraining schemes designed to relocate unemployed workers in new industries; for example, some car workers are being offered training in forestry work. The state also provides mobility grants to individuals to contribute to the cost of moving location. All in all, a considerable amount of government money has been allocated to retraining. And in theory the National Enterprise Board should now be beginning to provide funds to stimulate industrial growth and the creation of jobs_ An alternative energy technology programme However, most of these developments are concerned with conventional industry. Little attention has been paid to the development of new ideas · such as small community·controlled co·operative enterprises, for example. These are mainly the preserve of non·government philanthropic institutions, self·help groups and volunteers. But this need not be so. There is a wide range of possible alternative forms of employment which could · in both the short and longer term · make a substantial contribution to reducing unemployment. Rather than throw good money after bad in another round of nuclear power station construction, the government could beneficially invest it in an energy conservation programme, for example, creating jobs and training people in the building insulation and alternative energy system fields. A national alternative energy technology development and energy conservation programme would not only generate jobs but could also make the nuclear power programme unnecessary. The current investment figure for the nuclear power programme" is something like £400,000 per job compared with about _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 87

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 88

£25,000 per job even in modern, capital·intensive industries, and about £5,000 or less in low·capital industries. If turned to other types of programme this investment could surely lead to the creation of many more jobs than the few thousand envisaged for the nuclear power programme. What would this mean in practice? It could mean the setting up with state help, but under worker control, of a number of small firms in the construction, cavity·wall filling, and insulation industries, organised on co·operative principles. It could mean the conversion of some existing firms to AT production, following the lines of the Lucas workers campaign, overseen by the workforce and with state cash aid. It could mean the provision of funds to local authorities and local community groups to develop programmes of house insulation together with local·heating and power techniques for new housing developments using heat pumps, windmills, solar collectors and fuel cells. Already several local authorities are interested in this idea · for example, Wandsworth and Essex Councils, and the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, are experimenting with solar houses. There would also be considerable markets in the private, domestic and commercial sectors · although there are dangers in exploiting these markets. For if the development of AT is to have any radical implications it cannot be used as just a 'technical fix', enabling a few well·off individuals or organisations to buy themselves energy 'self·sufficiency'. The aim should rather be to explore the idea of collective autonomy · through the development of medium·sized systems suitable for whole council estates, small communities and so on. As Peter Harper argues in Radical Technology, it makes sense in economic and technical terms, as well as in terms of social desirability, to operate at this medium·scale level. A national programme of AT development aimed at providing the hardware for such schemes would obviously create many new jobs. Equally obviously, it would imply a major problem in terms of retraining, mobility and manpower planning. Britain's efforts in the retraining area generally have so far been relatively minimal compared, say, to those of Sweden. However, faced with a possible 1.5 million unemployed it seems likely that government efforts will be expanded even further than the recent £60 million programme. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 88

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 89

Whether a joint job·creation and retraining programme of the type proposed here will materialise will depend on the extent to which the trade unionist, the tax·payer and the environmental activist can work together and oppose the plans supported by those with vested interests in the existing pattern of labour deployment and technological development. This implies grass roots organisation in industry and the community; careful exposure of the counter·productiveness in terms of job creation · or even prosperity · of programmes such as that being planned by the nuclear power .lobby; and the development, dissemination and implementation of technically·viable, environmentally·sound and socially liberating alternatives. A short·term job·creation programme Unemployment is with us now · and we need immediate answers. In the longer term, programmes of alternative energy technology production and installation · solar panels, heat pumps for local heating and similar devices · may provide a basis for a diversified industry, but for the present we need a crash programme which can have rapid impact. The Durham Friends of the Earth group have illustrated one possible element of such a programme in their Insulate a Pensioner project which, as its name implies, has provided cheap insulation for pensioners, using voluntary labour and donations from local organizations. The total cost to the recipient is £12 'and the Group expects to have completed 50 homes by the end of March. The Manpower Services Commissions Job Creation Programme is one possible source of finance for such projects. The MSC will finance short·term projects and provide for labour and training costs, and has awarded a £6,200 grant to the Durham group to create five paid jobs as part of a Home Insulation Programme'. A small start, maybe, but it looks like spreading. The National Right to Fuel Campaign is another promising development. Organised by the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres, the Campaign has provided 'Action Kits' advising activists on how to help the elderly, young families, and others on low incomes to keep warm by avoiding disconnection of their electricity and gas supplies. The Campaign's aims include: _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 89

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 90

A warm home for every family Fairer tariffs No disconnections (arrears should be collected through the courts, like other debts) No deposits Pay·as·you·go schemes which really work Token meters for those who want them · at no extra charge Realistic heating allowances for pensioners, the disabled and other claimants An urgent look at insulation and cheap alternative fuels. In Edinburgh, the Heating Campaign for the Elderly is currently examining ways in which MSC funds might be used to boost its activities. And the 'Springboard' neighbourhood group in lewisham, in association with Task Force, applied In November 1975 to the MSC for funding for 24 insulation jobs · though so far the go·ahead has not been given. Other sources of funds are hard to find. In view of the public outcry about hypothermia deaths and the 'Save It' propaganda from the Energy Department, one would have thought that the Department of Health and Social Services would be only too willing to meet the cost of loft·insulation · through 'Exceptional Needs' payment, for example. However, after lengthy wrangling, the Department still appears only to accept 'draught·proofing' as important; loft·insulation, while 'desirable' is not considered 'essential'. And in one test case which would be amusing were it not so appall ing, the DHSS assessed that a house required 99p worth of draught proofing but refused to meet the cost on the grounds that DHSS Rules prohibit payments under £2! local Authorities might be another source of money · except for the fact that their funds are being savagely cut at present. Hopefully, public pressure will free up some of these bureaucratic log jams. But the recent Government move to simply postpone electricity and gas disconnec·tions for pensioners who cannot pay indicates that it is not interested in dealing with root causes · just in ameliorating effects. In case this sounds too pessimistic, however, it's important to realise that the Government has recently provided an extra £30m for job creation · in _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 90

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 91

addition to the £4Dm allocated last June · plus £SSm for retraining, and an extension of the 'Temporary Employment Subsidy Scheme' to twelve months duration. The aim of this massive transfusion of public funds is to create 140,000 jobs or training places. At least some of this money must surely be available for socially useful projects ... Longer·term programmes Government cash has also been allocated to a number of relevant projects with medium and longer·term implica·tions · notably the building construction industry. £50m has been allocated for the improvement of public sector housing over the next year. Hopefully, some of this money will find its way into some of the solar house projects being considered around the country · following the lines of the Milton Keynes house, and the Essex county council project. Another promising·development is that involving the boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, lewisham, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth, who.have set up an 'Energy Conservation Working Party', to study solar heating possibilities. Approval has already been given by Wandsworth for a solar·assisted hot water system project. The appointed architects · the South london Consortium · estimate that for an investment of £400·500, the individual householder could save 2,230Kw per annum · which at current prices means about a £53 cash saving, comparing with electricity. "At a national level," as the Consortium points out, "if only one million of the 19m dwellings in this country were to be equipped with such a system, the total amount of energy saved per annum could be as high as 160,000 tons of oil." Of course, it will be several years (3·5 say) before such projects can be extended to national scale, but even so they must have some impact on employment in the interim. Certainly the various solar collector manufacturers are confident of a promising future, and although their concern is obviously profit, employment is another outcome. Insulation I f we turn to domestic insulation cavity wall·filling, loft·insulation, double glazing · the situation looks even more attractive, even in the short term. As the recent report by Tyneside Environmental Concern makes clear, "almost the entire housing stock (19 million homes) could be _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 91

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 92

upgraded by 40%·50% · that is, the energy consumption required to give currently acceptable comfort conditions almost halved." Of course at present the home insulation field is inhabited by many 'cowboy' outfits · but the possibility exists of creating new enterprises, ideally small·scale community·related co·ops using state funds. Double glazing, loft·and cavity wall·insulation all have implications for the industries which supply materials · glass, aluminium, plastics insulation, etc. Peter Chapman estimates (in Fuels Paradise) that a major programme aiming to provide double glazing for all new houses, offices and shops, plus some existing buildings, would require at the very least a doubling in output of the sheet glass industry. Although such a programme might take some years to accomplish (it would take thirty years at a conversion rate of 600,000 houses per year; the current rate of new house·construction is only 300,000 per year) the employment implications are clear. large·scale roof·insulation and cavity wall·insulation programmes would require similar expansions in the relevant industries ..... Solar collectors Turning back to solar collectors, the implications for industry are even more startling. In fact, as Chapman points out, if we wanted to provide domestic space and water·heating by solar units for 18 million houses this would absorb one third of the annual world production of aluminium. At a conversion rate of 700,000 houses/year, "the material demands would use up half the UK·produced aluminium, almost threequarters of the UK sheet glass production and more than twice the UK copper production. " Although Chapman has not taken into account the fact that some new varieties of solar collector do not use aluminium, copper or steel but plastic, the implications are clear: it will be some while before such a programme could be completed · but at the same time it could create many new jobs. CREATING CO·OPS There have been, and are, a number of job creation projects around the country based on the idea of setting up workers' cooperatives · building cooperatives in particular. Groups like COMTEK and the Swindon Centre for Alternatives in Urban Development proVide technical aid to people in _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 92

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 93

the local community Wishing to modify their own houses, and there are many self·help building co·ops constructing their own dwellings. Setting up a formal cooperative enterprise is not easy · there are legal, financIal and organisational problems. Some advice can be obtained from the Industrial Common Ownership MOvement (ICOM). In theory, the National Enterprise Board could help support a co·operative venture, although the relevant legislation seems not to have survived in the post·Benn era: tI,e 'Co·operative Development Agency' that Benn was trying to set up as part of the NEB seems to have foundered · at least for the moment. However, a private members Bill is currently struggling through its second reading in Parliament, piloted by David Watkins and backed by ICOM. This would provide £60,000 in grants and £1m in loans to pump prime new co·ops. A recent report by Arthur D. Little Inc. estimated a $1.3b market for solar conversions systems in the US alone by 1985. Apart from creating new jobs in the primary and supply industries, the production sector would obviously expand. The $lOrn being spent in the US on programmes of solar power demonstration and development is another indication of the likely scale of this industry. Current interest in the UK in windmills and heat pumps (including the £5m windmill development programme) will similarly have implications for the engineering and production industries · a point not lost on groups of workers like thOse represented by the Lucas Aerospace com·bine, who are trying to defend their jobs by forcing their management to diversify the product range and to link with the various projects being considered by local authorities and government departments. Fuel cell and heat pump units for domestic use are already under intense development in various firms and research institutes: several local authorities have expressed interest, including the Milton Keynes Development Corporation .... Lockheed have estimated that if windmills were used for only 10% of the US power expansion planned for 198(}'90, this would represent an £8 billion market ... and although UK projects are somewhat less ambitious than the US NASAl ERDA programme, the exploitation of windpower could generate significant numbers of jobs for those with aerodynamics and engineering skills. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 93

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 94

Other job creation possibilities include the whole field of environmental protection and pollution control. This is already big business in the USA amounting to a $2Sb market · with a 20% annual growth rate being predicted for the next five years. (Again, to propose the creation of jobs in environmental protection and pollution control is very much a transitional demand'. In the fairer and more ecologically·conscious society towards which we are aiming, industries which make serious assaults on the environment would be few and far between). Although the boom in US government and industrial spending on environmental protection and pollution control programmes has been affected by the current economic recession, it has nevertheless led to the creation of many new jobs. The US Bureau of Labour statistics recently estimated that each $1 million spent on . pollution control created 66.9 jobs. It has also been estimated that 240,000 jobs could be generated in water pollution control if the federal government moved swiftly to implement the $18 billion clean water programme currently being dis·cussed. · Waste recycling is another potential growth area. In the UK, there are signs of interest by several local authorities in various types of waste separation and recycling projects; the government has set up a national Waste Management Advisory Council and has put £1.1 million towards two mechanised waste·sorting plants in the North East. Of course these developments are perhaps too 'high technology'·oriented for most AT enthusiasts. Furthermore, this type of large·scale high technology is usually capital· rather than labour·intensive and therefore is unlikely to generate many jobs. But there are signs that smaller scale recycling units may become popular. One suitable area is paper. The main trade union involved in the paper industry, SOGAT, is understandably perturbed by the fact that 20,000 jobs have been lost over the past few years, and they are currently campaigning for the development of extensive recycling plants · using government funds under the current special re·equipment scheme. (The Government is currently planning _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 94

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 95

to provide £25m for investment in the paper industry, including £3m for deinking processes and other waste·recycling techniques). The Intermediate Technology Development Group, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Strathclyde University, and Friends of the Earth are all currently working up plans for small·scale low·cost·units costing £40,000 or so, producing 5·6 tons of recycled paper per day and providing work for about ten workers each. Some local authorities, inCluding Oxford County Council, have been showing interest in the idea · for example to provide paper for the masses of exercise books used in schools. It might even be possible to involve school children themselves in the recycling work .... Of course there is some consumer resistance to recycled paper: white paper · like white bread, sugar and clear glass · has come to indicate a high standard of living. But whether this will remain so is open to debate: preferences are changing. ITDG are also developing a small·scale glass·making plant · costing around £30,OO(}'£40,OOO. If this employed say, ten people, the cost per workplace would be about £4,000 · compared with the £5,000· £25,000 job typical of modern large·scale plants. In general, it seems that jobs can be A 3 inch jacket can be bought for under ii and will save you money as soon as you wrap your tank up. Even a I inch jacket means you are losing £8 every year in wasted heat. If you rent your house, or flat, it is still worth buying a 3 inch jacket, because after all you have to pay the hot·water bill. It is also worth insulating hot·water pipes · particularly the ones that are in the roof. A cheaper jacket can be made by wrapping the tank up with some 3 inch glass fibre insulation which wasn't used up in the roof, and tying string around it to hold it in place. Then wrap a polythene sheet around the glass fibre in a similar manner. Total cost is under £ 1. created at a capital (hardware) outlay of say £2,000·£4,000 per workplace: interestingly, this is about the same as the untaxed income of the operator. Compare this with the vast sums invested by the nuclear power programme and the meagre number of jobs so created .... Production and distribution of these _ less complex alternative technologies obviously has immense implications for the third world · there is potentially _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 95

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 96

a vast market for cheap agricultural aids, glass·and paper·making plants, small power units, small solar furnaces and collectors, wind plants and the like. (Eventually, of course, third world countries would wish to manufacture such plants themselves, but in the short term they could act as vital 'pump·priming' devices to revitalise ailing rural economies.) Swords into ploughshares Among the firms that could well diversify to meet these needs, making use of government financial 'adjustment assistance', are, of course, those currently involved in arms production. The Armaments industry, like the nuclear industry and advanced technology industries in general, is capital·intensive, absorbing vast sums of money (5.5% of GNP in the UK) and producing items of dubious social use. Arms production creates many hundreds of thousand of jobs, and provides the major driving force in the economy. As a US government report put it: "Heavy defence expenditure has provided additional protection against depressions, since this factor is not responsive to contraction in the private sector and provides a sort of buffer or flywheel in the economy." Essential to manning this buffer is the arms race. As one commentator has put it: , 'The cold war increases the demand for goods helps sustain a high level of employ·ment, accelerates technical progress and this helps the country to raise its standard of living ... ". Indeed it has often been suggested that the nature of the 'Russian threat' has been played up or down over the years according to the needs of industry and the economy: "Government planners figure they have found the magic formula for almost endless good times .... 'Cold War' is the catalyst. Cold War is an automatic pump·primer. Turn a spigot: the public clamours for more arms·spend ing. Turn another: the clamour ceases ..... Cold War demands, if fully exploited, are almost limitless ... • We seem to be facing just such a situation at present, with dubious statistics as to the balance of military power between NATO and the Warsaw Pact being bandied around to justify increases in military spending and cuts in the (non· _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 96

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 97

profitable) public and social services. (It should be pointed out that in fact the West already has a much larger more efficient, more up·to·date, more widely developed and deployed military machine than the Eastern Block and that the recent cuts announced by the Labour Government are cutbacks in the rate of growth, not absolute cuts.) A Tory MP is quoted as saying in a 1945 election address: "We will maintain full employment after the war. If necessary we will build battle·ships, tow them out to sea to sink them, come back and build some more." If we want to shift from this insane form of production, diversify and convert ·Quoted in F. Cook's 'Juggernaut: the Warfare State' in The Notion 20 Oct. 1961, p300. industry to socially useful and job·creating products, then we need to win over the work forces involved. And as Roy Hutchinson of AUEW/TASS puts it: "To convince workers they should change their jobs there has got to be realism in what they are going to take part in afterwards. You can get convincing arguments to say that arms are bad, but when you say you have got to allow for a year on your redundancy pay, you haven't got a job but we'll sort you one out in the future, we think we can diversify into X·rays or whatever it may be · it doesn't work. Because he has still got his kids and . his wife to feed. So you have got to get the firms that are doing the work to change the actual jobs that they are doing before they finally get rid of their arms programmes." This is of course exactly what the Lucas Aerospace Combine campaign is all about ..... but it can only be spread if other workers can sec that the alternatives are not only socially desirable, but guarantee them employment. It is not enough to talk vaguely about shifting resources from armaments or nuclear power. These resources are not just financial · it is people's livelihoods and skills you are talking about. And you can't convert a nuclear engineer or weapons systems designer overnight to working in hospitals, education systems, alternative transport or energy systems, or whatever. A common argument against diversification/conversion is that the technology limits the possibility for change. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 97

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 98

A modern car plant · it is argued · is designed to mass·produce cars, and cannot easily be modified. And yet, during the war, production lines switched rapidly to producing tanks, and even aircraft and back again at the close of hostilities. The major problem is rather manpower·planning and retraining. But a major recession, like the one we are in at present, provides an excellent opportunity to undertake just this necessary retraining: investment in education is the classic Keynesian economic solution to recession. Which makes the current savage cuts in education · and particularly in Further Education · all the more ludicrous. All in all, you cannot simply argue for the conversion of the armaments industry, the nuclear business and the other high technology industries to socially useful alternative activities without considering the manpower implications and the wider social and economic issues · and this implies some form of planning and protection for displaced workers. But as 1 have, I hope, illustrated, there are viable alternatives both in the short and long term. The task now is to organise to implement them. Dave Elliott ..

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 98

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 99

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Emerson The Politics of Production For Need Production for need the socialist alternative THE TIME IS absolutely right to build on the initiative of the Lucas Aerospace workers' campaign and spread the demand for the right to work on socially useful products to other industries. If it can be shown that alternative or intermediate technology projects can not only create jobs but also meet real and dire social needs, .then People in the 'mainstream' labour and community movements will be willing to listen. And if the numerical and organisation strength of these movements is harnessed to the demand for alternative technology, then an enormous potential will be unleashed. But if we are to sell ' AT' to the labour movement, we have to do our homework: not only on the practical or physical details, but also on the economic and political implications of this new technology. Otherwise, the people who live in the world dominated by the ICls and the GECs, the people forced into demanding reflation of the economy in order to protect lobs, are likely to tell us to go back up the mountains and milk our goats. Of course the institutionalised bureaucrats of our movement are not showing interest. Neither are the dogmatic sectarians · the 'revolutionary vanguard' parties, as usual, are not in the van. But aside from those whose minds have been irreversibly closed by training, by adherence to 'the line', there are enormous numbers who see the potential of Lucas·type developments · as witnessed by the response to SERA·inspired publicity about Lucas in the Guardian, Tribune, Morning Star, Voice of the Unions and elsewhere. Support has come from the most unlikely places old·style Communist Party activists, civil service trade unionists and 'straight' media journalists, as well as Co·operators, a local Labour councillor, a paper trade unionist, and the representatives of a community organisation and a claimants' union. Alternatives to the Dole Queue To build on this interest and enthusiasm, South East London SERA are organising a conference 'Alternatives to the Dole Queue · Socially·useful Work', on May 8. At the conference we hope to demonstrate various possible technologies to trade unionists, local councillors, sympathetic public officials and general activists, and to discuss the social and economic implications. We shall be discussing small·scale recycling _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 99

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 100

technologies, alternative (i.e. to the CEGB and hypothermia) energy technology, urban farming, and similar topics. If you have ideas you want to tell us about, get in touch. For instance, we hope to show that small·scale paper·recycling can (a) create needed industrial jobs in the London area; (b) make feasible the ideal of 'worker ·and community control' thus ensuring a decent working environment; (c) do all this without harmful ecological impact; and (d) at the same time save, say, the Inner London Education Authority substantial sums if it decides to use this recycled paper for school exercise books. We shall be asking trade unionists, local councillors, and other labour movement people: "what about campaigning for some government 'job·creation' money or better still, nuclear energy research money · to set up such enterprises say, as small co·operatives?" It sounds beautifully simple and sensible_ But, of course opposition will arise from the vested interests. The above ·example, for instance, threatens the interests of Reed International. (In the long term that is: in the shorter term they have not the capacity to handle all the waste paper available). Even more fundamentally, such ideas and projects run counter to the ground rules of the existing political and economic system: this conflict I shall now attempt to discuss. How can we produce for social need if the 'socially·needy' don't have the money? This dilemma can be exemplified by the Lucas workers' proposals for artificial limbs and other aids for the handicapped. ,he handicapped, as a rule, have little money. No matter how many want and need these aids, there is little 'demand' for them. 'Demand', in terms of capitalist economics, means money (not people) chasing after goods: and as the moneymaking incentive is essential to keep the wheels of capitalist enterprise in motion, money will always accumulate in few hands, creating the 'demand' for goods superfluous to need for the successful few in this rat race · rather than for necessary or useful products for the many. Alternative technologists can only avoid this problem by making ecologically·sound toys for the rich (in which case we in SERA are just not interested). The contrast at the international level is most striking. On the one hand, Tanzania cannot afford some of the most basic agricultural appliances for its decentralised, 'low technology' development programme. On the other " ... what's exciting for Air France is the fact that a large number of Brazilians want to come to Paris, and they have enough money and to spare to pay for the Concorde trip ..... Most rich Latin Americans, indeed, reckon to come to _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 100

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 101

Europe at least once a year ..... These, the pampered offsprings of the leisured classes, the sons and daughters of the landowner, industrialist and banker; these will fill fleets of Concordes for months to come and dine out for a year on the story." (Richard Gott, Guardian, 21.1.76). Endless such examples arise in the sick world in which we live. Hence it is necessary (though not sufficient) to redistribute income and wealth in order to level out market control over the production system, thereby creating more 'demand' for the socially·useful products we are talking about. Less extravagant top salaries, a more biting wealth tax and a more aggressive income tax, with the loopholes in tax legislation tightened up · these are possible means of achieving this end in Britain. But, you may ask, would not the cart of capitalist enterprise stall, if the leading donkeys no longer viewed the dangling financial carrots as worth their efforts? On the other hand, maybe this is a good idea? If you so cut earnings for a market·ing manager of a detergent firm. say. detergent sales · and therefore production · would drop. And alternative uses for these resources could be investigated. In other words, redistribu·tion can be a revolutionary measure in that it stops the system functioning and opens up the way to alternative develop·ments. Here are two other possible redistributive measures, both of which are likely to have a favourable environmental impact: • cut out the incentive to the well·to·do to hog as much housing space as possible by abolishing the mortgage interest tax relief (except for. say, the first £5,000 over the first few years). • increase petrol tax, to get the rich guy who use's his (speedy) Jag a lot, and thereby imposes severe social and environmental costs on the community. (If you do not believe this is a revolutionary measure, wait for the Road Lobby to react!) Having deprived the rich of their excess demand on the production system, however, is it sufficient just to raise the incomes of the less·welt·off? No: apart from the fact that there may not be much to redistribute (incentive having been reduced), all we have done is to increase the consumer spend ing power of the less well·off individuals in the 'market·place'. Such measures are inefficient firstly because the market responds poorly, if at all, to collective needs · for communal heating systems, for instance. Secondly, consumer 'choice' or 'preferences' can easily be manipulated by the large and powerful firms who now dominate the 'market'. A consumer cannot exercise real choice unless he has adequate information about all aspects of the product in question. But the producing firms control this supply of information. They play down or suppress unfavourable information (e.g. the health impact of pharmaceuticals or food additives, the environmental impact of detergents, _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 101

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 102

the facts of 'built·in obsolescence'): instead they supply a multi·billion pound barrage of emotional, one·sided 'information' aimed at increasing consumption of whatever they are trying to sell, through the medium of advertising, pushy selling, 'seductive' packaging, etc. In other words, I don't see much of the increased income of the less·well·off going to buy the products or services of small AT co·ops producing for either collective or individual real needs. Reed International, for instance. would persuade all and sundry that they 'needed' the pure white paper that cannot be produced by small ... scale recycling technology. Imperial Tobacco would step up advertising to take advantage of new potential demand. But given that we are likely to have a large market element for some while. one 'alternative service' suggests itself: a pub I it consumer information service to do all the things that advertising does not · a poor man's Which. with wider horizons. The alternative to simply raising the incomes of the less·well·off is to use this money to run the alternative industries! services as a 'Public Service' and/or increase public subsidies for need·related economic activity. In this way we could move towards satisfying need directly and collectively. For example, the AT co·op could be partially or wholly funded by the local council. accountable to the community it serves, and could distribute its produce free or at subsidised prices, according to need. But: who decides 'need' and how? And how would the public in question control this form of 'public service'? Existing public authorities are not exactly noteworthy for either their responsiveness to human need or for their amenability to democratic control. And the unaccountable bureaucrat is a dangerous animal. Ultimately, of course, economic activity would hopefully be dominated by a large number of small·scale enterprises, where 'need' would be decided directly and collectively, with all having equal say, by the enterprises workers and its client' community; where, because of the small size and lack of complexity, the enterprise could be readily controlled; where, because of the increased direct control over resources, the importance of wages or money (i.e. indirect market control) would diminish · for example, the electricity bill is made largely unnecessary if you have a communal heating system using a renewable fuel source. (Although of course job·sharing rotas for initial construction, subsequent maintenance, and so on, would have to be negotiated.) But, back to the world of money, multinationals and bureaucrats; back to work·ing out a transitional strategy to facilitate the development of AT. Given that public money and public institutions will be involved in this development (for the reasons outlined above), what can be done to make these _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 102

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 103

institutions more accountable? Certain campaigns suggest themselves: to demand that such institutions 'open the books' and bury the 'confidential' stamp (except for personal matters): for example, those concerned with an urban farming co·op might like to know how much food the school meals service buys, from whom, at what price, and so on, and demand that this information is presented in an easily digestible, easily·accessible, form. to demand a reversal of the trend to 'bigness' in public authorities · size and complexity are barriers to understanding and control. to encourage the development of tenants/ neighbourhood/community associations, through which people can collectively articulate their needs and views. Producing 'ecologically·sound' products An AT enterprise aims to be 'ecologically·sound', that is, in harmony with the laws of nature. But here again the odds are stacked against such an enterprise under the laws of capitalist competition: the firm which maximises its output, or minimises its (internal) costs, by maximising its external costs is likely to be successful (as pointed out by Commoner in The Closing Circle and by K.W. Kapp in The Social Costs of Private Enterprise. For example, if Bloodsuckers Ltd. transport their goods on the largest possible lorry, driven through built·up areas if that is the shortest route, spending the minimum on vehicle·maintenance and driver training, they will be more com·petitive than if they transport goods by rail. They have reduced internal costs by externalising or dumping costs (in the form of pollution, noise, congestion. accidents) onto the community. Similarly, a firm in a competitive business cannot afford to spend the time and money on research into the long·term or side effects of a new technology. Otherwise, a com·petitor would beat it to the market. Hence, DDT, thalidomide and other tragedies. Without changes in the political and economic structure, AT enterprises must go the same sorry way. (Some of the worst polluters are small firms). Better policing of industry is an obvious immediate demand. So is the demand that the clause concerning "acting in the interests of the consumer and the community" be written back into the 'Planning Agreement' legislation going through Parliament (it has been dropped). But if a public agency is to police industry effectively (and it is doubtful if it is at all possible to control institutions as large and powerful as ICI or General Motors) then the public agency must be subject to public scrutiny and control. So we are back to the transitional questions raised in the previous section. Of course this problem (the incentive to externalise com) would be greatly reduced if we moved away from the production of commodities for sale in the competitive market, to producing directly for need under the control of an informed community_ But how do we get there? Action on all fronts _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 103

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 104

You may not agree with my particular suggestions. But what is clear is that all these problems need to be tackled simultaneously and urgently: we need to develop alternative job·creating. socially useful technologies; to create the demand for them among trade unionists and community groups; to create popular support for the initiatives taken; to work out the political and economic changes needed to facilitate these developments; to link up with the labour and other (potentially) progressive movements in the fight for these changes, in the fight to fend off the inevitable reaction from vested interests. And we need to believe we will win · in the end. Tony Emerson SERA exists to do all the things just mentioned. It is open to all who regard themselves as socialists. Details of SERA and of the 'Alternatives to the Dole Queue · Socially Useful Work' conference, (on May 8 in Greenwich) can be obtained from Ann Hutchinson, 147 Langton Way, London 5E3 (858 7414). Amongst those attending the conference apart from SERA members and the Undercurrents group · will be members of the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee, John Davis of ITOG, several local government officers, planners, councillors, members of the group involved with the Milton Keynes Solar House project, people involved with the Hull Regional College of Art community technology project, and friends of the Earth. If you want to follow up the implications of the conversion of the armaments industry you can't do better than buy a copy of CND's Arms, jobs and the crisis 1 5p, from eND. Eastbourne House, Dullards Place, London E2. A plan of AT ·based housing for an area of Hull is currently being drawn up at Hull Regional College of Art. Undercurrents hopes to carry a full report on this project and on the SERA conference in the next issue.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 104

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 105

• • • • • • • • FoE If you don't dig it, share it!

•

•

•

•

FRIENDS OF THE Earth have launched a new 'Crops and Shares' scheme, the aim of which is to put people who want to grow their own food, but have no access to suitable land, in contact with those who find it difficult to cultivate their own gardens, but would be glad to have them used. The desire to grow food is evident from the fact that the allotment waiting list has lengthened from about 27,000 in 1973 to around 57,000 in 1974. There are about 15.million gardens in Britain and no·one knows how many of them are under·used. What·is certain is that there are a large number of disabled or infirm people who cannot garden, and many more without the knowledge, inclination or time to cultivate their gardens. Twenty Friends of the Earth groups, from such places as Stoke, Horsham, Birmingham, Lambeth and Milton Keynes, have already started operating such schemes. FOE has published a Crops and Shares manual which will be used both to extend the campaign to the other 140 FOE groups and to involve other com·munity organisations · tenants associa·tions, old people's clubs, Task Force. women's institutes, community service volunteers, and so on. FOE aims eventually to persuade local authorities to take over the running of their own schemes, following the recent example of the London Borough of Camden. Growing food, they point out, is one of the few defences against rapidly rising food prices. Government figures show that food prices doubled between 1970 and 1975. Since then, the increase has been even more rapid: one estimate of the weekly bill for basic foods for a family of four is that it rose from £8.45 in January 1975 to £11.l2·p in January 1976. With last year's food import bill approaching £4 billion there is every incentive for Britain as a nation, and for individuals in particular, to produce more of their own food. The Garden Sharing Scheme is the second phase of Friends of the Earth's campaign for greater self·sufficiency in food. Their first step was last year's allot·ments campaign, aimed at turning derelict land into allotments. Crops and Shares by Colin Hines, a compre·hensive guide to organising a garden sharing scheme. 25p from Friends of the Earth limited. 9 Poland Street, Wl V 30G. (Tele·phone: 01·4341684).

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 105

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 106

• • • Reviews

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Slowboat to Persia Supership, Noel Mostert. Macmillan. £3.95 (Hardback). In 'Supership' Mostert has rolled several themes into one. His basic objective of showing the urgent dangers to the crew. to the environment and to society as a whole, of transporting crude oil by huge modern supertankers from the Middle East to feed the greed of the industrialised nations, is watered down by the narrative of an actual journey and unnecessarily long digressions into nostalgia over ships and seafarers now long past. His facts on the tankers are compelling and frightening, but tend to get lost and forgotten in a book of this length. Mostert shows the rapid post·war growth of tankers from ships of a mere 18,000 tons to the superships of 250,000 tons or more, huge ships over a quarter mile long and as wide as a football pitch. Half the shipping tonnage now afloat is in tankers, and yet they continue to grow. The Japanese have a million tonner on the drawing board. The ruthless economics and politics of the oil business. mixed with that of the Middle East itself and the Suez Canal, have resulted in these metal monsters of the seas being cheap in design and construction, and often crewed to appallingly low standards by unqualified officers, who are alienated from the traditions and standards of good seamanship. These tankers, often built with only one propellor and one boiler. are difficult to manoeuvre and prone to failure on their long journeys. With his ship in trouble a Captain under pressure will dump oil to lighten his load, or the hull may rupture and oil spill. Mostert leaves out no detail of the horrors of oil pollution in the seas. now permanently covering some 10% of the ocean surface. It is curious to note that despite the advanced technology in the automation of these ships, they can be left helpless to the mercies of the seas as a result of penny·pinching economics in design·and construction. One of the worst·polluted areas of the globe is the Southern Ocean (Antarctic), . and Mostert takes us there, on board the 200,000 ton P.O. tanker 'Ardshiel', on its 11,500 mile, 6·week journey from Rotterdam to the Persian (or Arabian as it is now politic to call it) Gulf. We meet Captain Basil Thompson and his crew. examine their personalities and the effect the isolation of this type of ship has on them. We share their daily lives, their leisure, their duties, their worries. and their boredom as the ship progresses, not stopping once at any port. The ships life is one of long _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 106

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 107

weeks of monotonous uneventfulness, separated by brief periods of intense pressure. On its outward journey, the ship's tanks are empty apart from ballast water. and the possibility of explosion is very real. We share the fear of the tank·cleaning operation and especially the fear of fatal 'gassing', from noxious fumes, during inspection of the tanks. On average there are 14 tanker explosions a year, which Mostert tells us are simply accepted as a matter of course. The ship passes dramatically from summer to winter as it rounds Africa, passing twice through the tropics. Off the Cape of Good Hope, Mostert tells of many superships that have floundered in the huge 'Cape Rollers', spilling millions of tons of oil. It is in these far distant seas that the worst spills occur, and worse still it is in these waters that many ordinary ships discharge their oily bilge water, posing an even greater threat to the whole of marine ecological stability, and to the whole of life. By good seafaring practice, a ship normally carries less cargo in rough wintry seas than in calmer summers, yet fully·laden tankers, loaded in the intense heat of the Arabian summer, pass through the treacherous seas of the southern winter. Tales like the Torrey Canyon disaster may make the headlines at home. but as Mostert says, they are only a small part of the problem. The Southern Ocean has known more wrecks, dumps, spills and slopping than any other sea area. 500·600 tankers pass the Cape each month and slicks are forever present. Mostert shows the total inadequacy of international maritime law to bring pollution under control by standardisation and the application of a severe code of practice. The impotence of the LM.CO. (International Governmental Marine Consultative Organisation) in its slow bureaucratic set·up within the U.N., subject to world politics and economics. is pathetic and totally irresponsible to the environment. For various reasons, mainly financial, a lot of the tankers sail under 'flags of convenience', such as those of Liberia and Panama, and with the laws as useless as they are, (a ship can only be prosecuted in its country of ownership), owners and Captains can get away with murder. And murder the seas they will, especially as chemical and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) carriers grow bigger with each new ship. Mostert could. however, have improved the impact and urgency of his book had he kept it a lot shorter and to the basic point, leaving out a lot of the repetition. At half the price the book would reach a much wider audience. and thus, one hopes, help raise sufficient public awareness, concern and outrage at the atrocities of these vessels, that the seas, and we who use the oil, may be saved from a death by pollution. As Mostert's _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 107

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 108

final comment says, the oil is replaceable, we will find a substitute; for the seas we cannot. Shipwrite Who Needs Managers? The Feasibility of Worker Self Management, Mike Hill. Smoothie Publications. 1974; Workers' Councils and the economics of Self Management. Solidarity NoAO. 1973;Self Management: economic liberation of man, Jaroslav Vanek. Penguin. 1975; Workers' Control, K. Coates and A. Topham. Panther 1970; On Democratic Administration and Socialist Self·Management, G.O. Garson. Sage 1974; Industrial Democracy, P. Blumberg. Constable. 1968. At a time when workers co·operatives are in the news it's well worth considering the problems as well as the potential of self·management within the capitalist system. Mike Hill's pamphlet, The Feasibility of Worker Self Management, which is derived from an MSc thesis, gives a good short account of the theory and practice of self·management, focussing mainly on forms of organisation through which both 'democratic control' and 'efficiency' can be obtained. The conclusions are that firms must be small and must adopt appropriate, easy·to·manage technology. so that decision making can be relAtively direct and simple. Both ownership and expertise. must be distributed throughout the firm. However, the market will, as the pamphlet makes clear, still constrain the firm: many decisions will be forces upon it by the need to compete with nondemocratically organised firms who may opt for ruthlessly exploitative forms of production. There are thus no final solutions at the level of the individual firm; however, it is possible to imagine the gradual decentralisation of the macro·economy into semi·autonomous units; but then how would they be linked together into a regional or national interactive non·capitalist economy? These crucial problems are not discussed: the reader would therefore do well to look at the excellent (if utopian) Workers' Councils and the economics of Self Management which develops an ambitious blueprint for a decentrally·<:controlled socialist society. If you want to go further into the theory and practice of self·management and workers' control, then Self·management (Penguin 1975). edited by Jaroslav Vanek, is a good start ·although it's fairly heavy going. The focus still tends to be on the 'micro·economic theory of the firm' rather than of the problem of co·ordinating autonomous units at the macro·level, but there are some fine polemical pieces by radical writers ·ranging from G.D.H. Cole to Ken Coates. However, the main emphasis is on an assessment of 'economic performance' and 'efficiency' rather than on wider social benefits and desirability, which Vanek says are "only rarely _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 108

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 109

disputed". Ken Coates has, over the years, put together a number of anthologies on Workers' Control, of which Workers' Control, Ken Coates, Tony Topham, Panther 1970, is the most accessible; it's essentially a collection of articles by British activists and commentators over the past hundred years or so. Personally I've found a pamphlet entitled On Democratic Administration and Socialist Self·Management: A Com·parative Survey Emphasizing the Yugoslav Experience by G. David Garson, quite rewarding ·although it is by no means an easy or comforting analysis. Finally there's Paul Blumber's classic Industrial Democracy: the Sociology of Participation Constable 1968, which still gives the best introduction to the ideas of workers' control. If there is one message that emerges from all these books it is that 'workers' control' is not just a matter of employee participation initiated by management so as to ensure the smoother running of an unchanged capitalist society ·rather it represents part of a fundamental challenge to the goals and organisation of that society and as such cannot be constrained within the boundary of individual factories, whether they be cooperatively owned and managed, nationalised or privately controlled. Dave Elliott Masterless Men The World Turned UpSide Down: radical ideas during the English revolution, Christopher Hill. 431pp. Penguin. 1975. £1.00. The Law of Freedom, and other writings, Gerard Winstanley, edited Christopher Hill. 395pp. Penguin . .1975. 75p. The 16th century had been a time of stability in England; it had also seen the opening up of the Americas and new trade routes to the Far East, with a growth of population and monetary inflation throughout Europe. Small capitalist enterprises had sprung up and proliferated: there was easy money to be made. These new social relations naturally gave rise to tensions, which found their expression in the upheavals of the middle of the 17th century. Here two forces were in opposition: conservative, as seen in absolute monarchy, and progressive, as seen in the Dutch republic. In England the clash came to a head over control of taxation and foreign policy. History, as it moves between archaeological inference and sociological hypothesis, is the record of a gradually increasing proportion of the population. For most of the time the majority is sunk in shadow, only _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 109

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 110

stepping into the light at times of upheaval. The 17th century is perhaps unique in the evidence it provides. In the 1640s parliament had to enlist popular radical support in its struggle against the monarchy. Censorship was relaxed. The fluidity of social relations gave rise to the wildest conjectures. These factors, together with the fact that the owners of the printing presses themselves belonged as like as not to the radical fringe, gave rise to a great flood of pamphlets embodying the ideas of the submerged half of the population. Christopher Hill's book The World Turned Upside Down seeks to document these ideas. He asserts that there were two revolutions in the 17th century. The first was successful, establishing the 'sacred rights of property', giving political power to the men of property, and paving the way for the protestant ethic ·the ideology of the propertied. The second never happened because it was never organised. Yet movements for wider democracy in legal and political institutions and freedom of religion were active during the two decades 1640·1660. It was very difficult to separate religious and political ideas at this time. It was the same groups Hill calls 'masterless men' that provided both political and religious radicals. Feudal society was a static agricultural society where social and geographical mobility were extremely limited. But as new manufacturing industries grew, as agriculture became more efficient, moving towards more capital·intensive enterprises using wage labourers, the bonds of feudal society were loosened. People began to move round more. There were vagabonds and itinerant traders; the rural poor squatting on commons and in forests; sects who had seceded from the church. Many of these gravitated to London to form a casual labour force. The most important of all in the 1640s and 1650s was the New Model Army, which probably drew on the other groups. It produced a spontaneous outbreak of democracy, with units electing their own 'agitators', in response to parliament's proposal to disband it. This was the most dangerous moment for the bourgeois revolution, because it seemed that its leaders would be called upon to fulfil their promises to their soldiers or enter into a conflict which would pave the way for a royalist victory. It was only the threat posed by Charles's escape that allowed Cromwell to restore order. Two years later demands were made to restore the agitators and the General Council of the Army, for people both within and outside the army had realised they had exchanged one kind of subjection for another. The mutinous regiments were beaten at Burford, and from that moment _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 110

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 111

the revolution was safe and the 'Leveller' movement was at an end. The rising population of the 16th and 17th centuries led to the need for more efficient agriculture. To make agriculture more efficient large areas of common land and forest were claimed for agriculture. Land·holdings were made larger, calling for greater capital investments. These measures plus the introduction of root crops led in the long term to greater agricultural production, sufficient to feed the growing urban population. In the short term they meant hardship for those unfortunate enough to rely on smallholdings for subsistence or on the grazing of the now enclosed commons to supplement their diet. On April 1 , 1649, a Sunday, a small group of men began cultivating the waste land on St. George's Hill. The cultivation of waste land by those who were starving was the poor man's answer to the food problem. But it was not allowed to work. The leader of this group of Diggers was Gerard Winstanley, an able pamphleteer. His writings present some difficulty to the modern reader because his imagery and language are very biblical, but the effort to understand is well worthwhile. The True Levellers' Standard Advanced must rank as one of the classics of socialism, while The Law of Freedom puts him in competition with Godwin for the title of father of anarchism. He is the antithesis to Hobbes, the high·priest of competitive individualism, the bright boy of nascent capitalism, who holds that, in a society of competing individuals, there must be an ultimate authority_ But he opposes Hobbes not on his reasoning but on his assumption of man's innate com·petitiveness: he holds that "the inward bond ages of the mind, as covetousness, pride, hypocrisy .... are all occasioned by the outward bondage that one sort of people lay upon another." As a remedy Winstanley calls upon all the poor, oppressed and starving people to cultivate the waste land, which he holds to be more than large enough to support the population. Here they are to set up their own communities, where no man is to employ another, and all property is held in common. He gives us an extended picture of his utopia in The Law of Freedom where he has worked out a whole framework of laws and elected officers to sec they are carried out. These laws are to be such that they are intelligible to all men, thus doing away with lawyers and judges (for lawyers love money as dearly as a poor man's do his breakfast in a cold morning",. In fact the whole movement is away from specialisation for Winstanley saw such elites as scholars, lawyers and churchmen as a burden, as an alienating force upon working people. This is the keynote of Winstanley's writings. He is essentially a humanist and a rationalist who sees each individual as the seat of reason. capable _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 111

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 112

of obtaining knowledge by the use of his five senses. His utopia is founded on the rights of the individual and his duties to his fellows and the community. He is able to offer a shrewd analysis of how his society had arisen, but his solution is for isolated groups to occupy waste land and cultivate it. He is a pacifist who wants to convert by example and who was bound to fail. My criticisms of these two books are slight. The limited scope of 'The World Turned Upside Down' means that one needs an adequate knowledge of the historical background ·probably more than can be provided in an introduction. while the variety of subjects touched on is bound to arouse the reader's continuing interest in certain areas. But all the sources and references are hidden away in footnotes ·often in anonymous 'op. cits.' that one has to chase back for several pages. Surely compiling a short bibliography would have been little effort compared with these laborious footnotes. But for all that, Christopher Hill is a historian who manages to convey facts in a lucid and interesting way, while Gerard Winstanley is an iconoclast whose thunderings reverberate powerfully in our own time. David Ball The Cream Of Society Backyard Dairy Book, Len Street and Andrew Singer. Prism Press. E 1. The Backyard Dairy Book declares its aim to be to persuade people to become independent of the system in dairy products, and the reasons put forward make the idea seem most attractive. However, in the economic persuasion, al though home·produced milk products may save Mr and Mrs Average Family (3 to £4 a week in bought·in dairy products. the initial capital expenditure needed to achieve this has been overlooked and this of course is much larger for a cow than for a goat_ The chapters dealing with goat management are most convincing, with the authors readily giving references which go into the subject in greater depth. A goat is an ideal animal for home milk production requiring less land than a cow, and the quantity of milk produced is best suited to the needs of an average family. Once a cow appears, it is a huge jump from a pint per person per day to 4 gals which is 32 pints daily, so either more stock must be kept to consume the surplus milk, or butter, cheese, and creammaking activities will become quite largescale and time·consuming. Before any dairy produce can be sold, lengthy Min. of Ag. regulations for the buildings have to be complied with, thus involving greater capital outlay. Either way a pleasurable money·saving pastime can get a bit out of hand, so there is much to be said for the advice given in the book to the beginner, to start _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 112

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 113

off modestly with one goat The various milk products and the various methods of their manufacture are comprehensively dealt with, and a list of useful addresses is given to assist in obtaining the elusive additives required. Yogurt·making gets good coverage, even to describing the Dahi which you can make from the milk from your backyard. buffalo. The book gives a long list of references ,and addresses which unfortunately omits any mention of the active breed societies of both Jersey and Guernsey cattle. If contacted, these Societies would readily provide a wealth of information for a would·be cow owner, and more importantly the addresses of farmers and smallholders who could offer practical advice which is worth far more than any textbook. Although the book stresses the enjoyment aspect of backyard dairying there is no getting away from the fact that dedication is needed too, as milking is a twice daily task for 365 days a year in all weathers. J hope that Len Street and Andrew Singer will succeed in encouraging more backyard dairying: they have some good arguments but put forward a more convincing case for goat·keeping. May I end on a warning note. We started off with one Jersey house cow four years ago and r have just staggered in from milking our Jersey herd which now numbers 31. So beware. because things can easily escalate where backyard dairying is concerned. Angela Blackburn Soggy Compost Solved! Fertility Without Fertilisers and Down to Earth Gardening, Lawrence D Hills, Henry Doubleday Research Association, Convent Lane, Backing, Braintree, Essex. £1 and £2 respectively. Organic gardeners will be pleased to hear that Lawrence Hills has now published a new version of his earlier bestseller Fertility Without Fertilisers. Sharing only the title and some analysis figures with the earlier work, this book contains much new information resulting from the research of the HDRA. Although written for practising organic farmers and gardeners Hills starts with the theory behind fertility and goes on to . outline the long·term dangers of using artificial fertilisers. He brings home the point that not only are we on the brink of exhausting the world's resources of fossil fertilisers but much of what is so laboriously extracted is wasted. Due to overspreading, surplus phosphates and nitrates are being washed into watercourses resulting in the eutrophication of rivers and the loss of fertility in vast tracts of land. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 113

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 114

The main part of the book deals with building and using a compost heap. As important as the container is the type of activator and with the rocketing price of all shop·sold items it is comforting to discover that the cheapest and probably the best activator is that produced by every household ·for details read the book! Linked with this is a chapter on municipal compost and sewage sludge. The author outlines the dangers of using this too liberally ·the long·term effects of the build·up of metals, particularly lead and cadmium, in the ground are unknown. In most areas, but not all, the farm use of sludge is monitored; garden use is not, and until more work is done on the subject the organic gardener is advised to use sewage sludge only as a compost activator. Perhaps the most important section is that dealing with the Trace Elements which are often locked up' by inorganic gardeners who use too many chemical fertilisers. Most deficiencies can be cured by feeding with compost or a foliar spray of seaweed. Other chapters deal with I .. mould, peat and manure, green manuring comfrey and weed·control crops. The book's main message is that we as guardians of the soil must look after the long·term future of our land if we are to survive. "A week is a lone. time in Politics next year is the foreseeable future to a businessman, but good farmers farm as if they would live forever." The challenge of the seventies is not space but sewage. If ways can be found to remove the toxic: metals from sewage sludge not only will Britain's import·bill for fertilisers be drastically reduced but we stand a chance of surviving in a shrinking, hungry world. For £1 the book is excellent value. It is unfortunate that it is only obtainable direct from the HDRA and not from general bookshops as I feel that it would sell well to the gardening world as a whole rather than to the organic world in detail. At long last a solution to the soggy compost heap! For the flower·gardener Lawrence Hills has just published a new edition of his book Down to Earth Gardening. Written in his original lucid style the book is aimed not only at all those who garden and have a love of the soil, but particularly at those who are taking up gardening for the first time. In it, the novice gardener will find all he wants to convert a builder's rubble·strewn plot into a flourishing garden; the more experienced gardener will find much that is new, particularly in the chapters on fertility and pest control. Although not an 'organic' book in the strictest sense it will go a long way in persuading people that the organic way of gardening is by far the best. The book is written as a companion volume to the author's other general gardening book Down to Earth Fruit and Vegetable Growing. The two provide a basic source of reference and advice and are available from most good bookshops. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 114

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 115

Charles Harries Person, heal thyself Health is for People, Michael Wilson Darton, Longman & Todd £1.95. In this book Michael Wilson describes his misgivings about the concept of health in Western society: "It has been claimed exclusively for the medical professions f. too long, and it is time it was spread around more widely." In Britain our understanding of health is based on our experience of illness. and institutions in the national health service are founded c the same idea, that health is obtained by getting rid of disease. But health is not just a question of eliminating disease: it possible to feel well and happy while approaching physical death, so what is health? Margaret Mead describes the Navaho concept of health in this way: "Health is symptomatic of a correct relationship between man and his environment, his supernatural environment. his world around him and his fellow man. Health is associated with good, blessing and beauty, aI/ that is positively valued in life ... In the west we are concerned with the quantity of life, not the quality. We seem unable to come to terms with the fear of death, being constantly preoccupied with such problems as heart·transplants and when to allow the aged and severely injured to die. Instead we should examine the alternative choices. whether to spend money and resources maintaining the biological life of one person, or making life possible for thousands. Enough hygiene, food, clothing and·shelter are pre·requirements for health. Man may not live by bread alone, but he certainly won't live without it. Can we really consider ourselves to be healthy when we know that a vast proportion of the world's population is denied the basic materials to maintain life? Health is not isolated in one person or one nation; the is no such place as the third world ·this, is one world, the resources of which must! be shared. People are interdependent upon each other for health; one race",,, cannot be healthy without the others. Western society excludes. either by its attitudes. by segregation, institutionalization or execution, the bad, the mad. the black, the widow. the leper, the aged, thE underprivileged. the mentally subnormal) the rebel and the dying. This exclusion system of dealing with 'pollution' results in a 'safe' and 'sanitary' society, but not a healthy one. In a healthy society exclusion would b, recognised as instrumental to spiritual death: "Health does not even exclude suffering) health positively include suffering and stress as a creative way of dealing with hostile and _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 115

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 116

destructive feelings. " Community health is dependent upon people being educated to take more responsibility for themselves and their families. Birth and death should not take place in hospitals; they are family events and should be included in our pattern of life. Gradually our method of providing health·care in hospital is giving ground to preventive medicine, and this is giving way to community medicine with local participants making the choices and decisions. This increases social morale and enriches the quality of life. In his concluding remarks the author says he “ . . does not look for some simple solution to a complex crisis In our understanding of health. We require a new sense of direction at many points simultaneously. Whatever situation we are considering, to speak of health always enlarges the context." Sylvia Hyde Leading Astray Pontifex, Theodore Roszak. Faber and Faber This is a very bad book indeed. Very, very bad. Objectively bad. It measure five inches by nearly eight inches, contains 204 pages, and costs £3.25.net. But before I go any further, and indeed, as a condition of my going any further, I must be allowed to repeat that this is a very, very bad book indeed. When I rang up the publishers and asked them what the reactions of reviewers to date had been, they were most evasive. That is, they quoted me the Guardian's review which said it was very nice and would appeal to sympathisers of the counter·culture. The blurb describes it as a morality play and it is written in dialogue form. and often very very boring and very rarely at all funny but the author does try very very hard ·not only to be funny, but also to be ••••• what? I don't know. There doesn't seem to be any meaning in the play at all. It has no development, scarcely any beginning. and certainly no end. It is, naturally, supposed to be about the revolution, that is, it contains a 'liberated woman', a 'military man', a young artist genuinely trying to find the meaning in life and the meaning in art, there are some old socialist sweats, a 'fastidious drug seller', and of course, Mr Pontifex himself, and god knows who he's supposed to be, some sort of cosmic stage manager I guess. Then there's (I almost forgot) a horrendous OLD MAN who roars and farts, belches and bawls his falstaffian, bottomian, panian, piedpipean, totally unactable way throughout the play, which is also plentifully sprinkled with the most appallingly unskilful verse. Indeed, brothers and sisters, the verse if anything is verse than the worst. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 116

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 117

Oh, it really is a terrible book. If Roszak tries to write anything more like this, he'll kill the revolution stone dead. By my hand, Nigel Gowland Whose Folly? The Follies of Conservation, Arthur Thomas. Arthur Stockwell Ltd. £1.75. Despite its promising title this book is not the considered critique of the environmental movement one might hope for. A much better title would be The Prejudices of a Pragmatic Ecologist. Arthur Thomas is an ecologist and agri·cultural consultant of many years experience. He clearly knows a lot about plant botany and land use and he writes sensibly and interestingly about the history of the British landscape and in particular of the chalk downs and the peat moorlands. There is a good chapter on the Cow Green reservoir controversy which aroused such furious passions a few years ago. And he has some trenchant remarks about the ignorance of other ecologists. So far so good. But the rest of the book is rubbish, an incoherent and intemperate parade of prejudice and half·truth, not worth cutting down trees for. Dr. Thomas compares conservationists to Karl Marx: like him they are doctrinaire, totalitarian, and misanthropic. And, like Marx, they've got it wrong: . "Why do conservationists continue to preach doom and destruction by the reiteration of fallacies which have been disproved time and time again? Do they know that they are lying? Can it be that the wish is father to the thought and that in their subconscious they have a grudge against their fellow men? ... Why do they not call themselves 'The Enemies of the Earth'?" Poor old FOE: I never guessed your critics hated you so! None, of these charges is pursued in any depth. Though the blurb, tongue in cheek no doubt, describes the book as a 'long clear look at the Conservationists', evidently in all his years as a consultant Dr. Thomas never learned to set out compIicated ideas in a logical and orderly manner. Instead we are offered what appears to be an unedited transcript of his stream of consciousness that flits like a butterfly from topic to topic. The environmental movement is indeed beset by contradictions ·between rich and poor, ourselves and our posterity, wild life and food production, and so on. But this book does nothing to resolve them. Dr. Thomas obviously wrote it to relieve his exasperation at the stupidity, as he sees it, of his fellow men. It does not seem to have occurred to him to doubt his own common sense. One can only agree with the remark of Fraser Darling, quoted (with scorn) iii this book: 'Pragmatic man ...... has his world of illusion of his own making'. It is a pity that having got it off his chest, as it were, he didn't throw. it in the dustbin and set·about writing a more considered and tolerant book about the problems of land use in _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 117

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 118

Britain. Chris Hutton Squire Energy Choices There are quite a few books around at present dealing with Energy Options for the Future and suchlike topics. I looked first at 'Energy Options in the United Kingdom' (Latimer 1975) which is an edited version of the Energy Options symposium held in London on March 1st 1975 and reviewed in UC 10. The editor, Simon Cardoc Evans. seems to have chopped out the contribution by Walt Paterson, of Friends of the Earth, on district heating, but otherwise this is a fairly interesting book ·assuming you want to know what happened at this meeting. Personally it was all rather too familiar for me. with the usual stern warnings about our rakish use of energy, messia.nic enthusiasm for wind power, solar power and so on. In the stern warnings department comes the remark "Democracy, as we know it. may well be an early casualty" of the "drastic changes in men's habits" that may soon become necessary. I would also include some of the proposals in the (otherwise interesting) paper on geothermal sources and techniques by Chris Armstead, in the 'grim warnings' category ·for example the prediction that " ... by the mid·1980s nuclear melt drilling will enable us to penetrate the Earth's crust and enter the outer mantle." (How about that for a bit of male chauvinist faustian arrogance raping mother earth again!) Historic Necessity Most of the contributors spent considerable (presumably renewable) energy bewailing the lack of government support for their pet ideas and offered only. "energetic lobbying of the decision makers" as a mode of implementation. However, Hugh Sharman offered a some·what more positive strategy. Conservation Tools and Technology. he said, "are trying to force the right developments a little bit ahead of historic necessity." He also made clear in answer to question·that he was not interested in large·scale windmills ·there were both "technical and social reasons for opting for small to medium sized units. His claim that he had not had any problems obtaining planning permission for 20 wind plants, raised some eyebrows ... perhaps the wind of change is blowing in the bureaucracy? The star turn was of course Peter Chapman who presented a cut·down version of the Future Options part of his book 'Fuels Paradise' (see below), applying his energy·accounting skills to two opposed future scenarios. The first was a 'business as usual' option ·relying on continued growth underpinned tempor·arily by oil and then by nuclear power and/ or increased coal output. The second was a 'low growth·low technology option ·with emphasis on solar domestic power, public transport, 'organic' fertilisers and prohibition of disposable packing. Chapman sees _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 118

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 119

problems with both. The first requires a massive increase in nuclear and/ or coal power capacity which may not be feasible, even if desirable. For example, nuclear power may not deliver any usable power in tim·e to support the projected growth. As for coal ·who will be willing to man the coal mines, and would they demand wages that would price coal out of the market? On the other hand, the low growth option implies massive unemployment with consequent social conflict. Furthermore growth provides" ... the only socially acceptable mechanism for increasing equality in our society". Now whether growth does in fact lead to redistribution is, 1 would say, far from clear. There is considerable evidence that relative deprivation and the imbalance in the distribution of wealth and influence have increased during the last few decades of 'affluence'. And it is possible that continued growth within a capitalist socio· economic order will lead to increasing social conflict rather than the reverse. The next book I looked at was a much more straightforward collection of technical papers on specific items of energy and transport technology, entitled 'Energy and Humanity' (Peter Peregrinus 1974). Edited by Meredith Thring and Roy Crookes from. papers given to a conference in September 1972 at QMC, this book contains a fascinating mix of proposals ·varying from Thring's mining robots to plans for a giant nuclear powered bulk fuel transport aircraft. As a guide to the various technical fixes that engineers are considering it can't be beaten. Also included are a historical account of windpower by Roger Tagg, a piece on 'energy and the car' by Gerald leach, a paper on solar power by Peter Glaser (including the infamous solar cell satellite, beaming microwaves back to earth), discussions of the potential of coal gassification, nuclear fission and fusion possibilities ·all in all a mixed bag of high and low technological options, with little by the way of environmental, social or political analysis. In terms of providing an easy introduction to energy technology options, I found two American books very useful. The first 'Energy and the Future' by Allen.L Hammond, William D Metz and Thomas H Maugh II, (AAAS 1973) looks systematically at the whole range of energy options and is written in the standard easy·to·digest way of a US high school text book. It covers nuclear, solar and wind options, fuel from waste, geothermal sources, energy conversion, transmission and storage systems and so on. Obviously it's not a radical book, but it is iil good technical introduction. The second publication is the result of ·the Ford Foundation's Energy Policy Project. Entitled 'Exploring Energy Choices' (Ford Foundation 1974) it's a preliminary report, produced .by a large team of energy analysts, economists and social scientists, using a 'scenario' approach. It's packed full of graphs and tables and is sufficiently open·minded and _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 119

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 120

critical to have raised a minor storm of controversy, including some denials from the sponsoring organisation_ Fuel's Paradise Amory Lovin's 'World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues and Options' (reviewed in UC 12) is obviously vital reading, as is also Peter Chapman's 'Fuels Paradise' (Penguin 1975). This is aimed at the concerned layman ·it provides a fairly easy·to·grasp although closely argued treatment of the complexities of energy analysis, without losing the 'popular' touch so evident in the flippant title and the colourful introductory 'utopia', based on the Island of Erg where an enlightened energy policy reigns supreme_ There are chapters dealing with basic energy needs; methods of energy conversion and the implications of the laws of thermodynamics (as Chapman points out there is no energy conservation problem ·energy is always conserved: it's rather a matter of getting the right grade of energy); the effects of our energy conversion activities on the climate (thermal pollution etc); and finally an extended and critical analysis of three energy options ·the business·asusual, and 'Iow·growth' options mentioned above, and an intermediate 'technical fix' option. in which extensive use is made of conservation and energy saving techniques and policies. Chapman is critical of each. There are technical and political drawbacks in each case. Although he uses his energy accounting technique to good purpose as a tool to expose the long·term implications of each option, I can't help feeling that energy accounting has become very much one with what Marx called "that dismal science" economics. in shooting down cherished dreams .... Nothing much seems to survive its glaring scrutiny ..... except perhaps the low growth option. But then, says Chapman, there are political and technical problems with this ·unemployment, resistance by vested interests, or simply the scarcity of materials to enable the rapid construction of solar power units on a sufficiently wide scale. Although he is basically sympathetic to the low growth/alternative technology option as a long·term goal, he eventually opts for the 'technical fix' option as an interim measure ·arguing that, if nothing else, it will provide a breathing space and does not foreclose other, sub·sequent, options. He seems then to be offering 'gradual reform' as the only realistic prescription. Anything else is too risky. . In a way it's a surprise that, after the relatively surefooted and strident certainty of the energy accounting exercises, the political prescriptions and conclusions are so limited and compromised. But as Chapman is well aware, the socio·economic system does not admit of easy analysis. Neither is there in reality one simple policy option: policies are not _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 120

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 121

chosen once and for all: they change and overlap. Given these political complexities and the often gloomy results of energy·accounting, it's not surprising that Chapman ends on a fairly pessimistic and uncertain note ·calling for 'someone somewhere' to steer us out of trouble. Perhaps if he had addressed himself to assessing the nature of, and alternatives to, the existing mode of decision·making and policy·formulation, he might have been able to come up with a more optimistic and therefore more fitting conclusion to an excellent book. Dave Elliott Veg and Two Veg The Vegetable Passion, A history of the vegetarian state of mind, Janet Barkas. Routledge & Kegan Paul. Paperback £1.95. Not an instant turn·on to vegetarianism. Despite her sympathetic attitude to the subject, and her prophecy that one day meat eating will go the way of cannibal·ism, I still find Janet Barkas confirms my impression that the great vegetarians of the past have been cranks. Fascinating as her history is, I'm not sure that Leonardo's sentimental humanitarianism, Gandhi's masochistic self·denial, or Hitler's hearty hypochondriasis have much to do with the decidedly uncranky motives of most of the people who call themselves vegetarians today. There :s now at last a generation of people who think it is normal not to eat meat, and if the ecological crisis is real, such people will inherit the earth. Janet Barkas writes with wit and fluency, but she reflects the defensive attitudes of vegetarians down the years. She should now write a book about the question that puzzles me more than the 'vegetarian state of mind': what causes the carnivorous state of mind? My own private theory is that meat is a form of jewellery, something the ruling class has always consumed conspicuously as evidence of its superiority. Among the common people, natural class envy and consciousness of injustice became sublimated as an irrational lust for meat, comparable with the lust for gold or, in our own days, for imposing automobiles. That's my marxist theory of meat·eating. Another day I'll let you have my freudian one. Tony Durham Dome Tomes The Dome Builder,'s Handbook, edited by John Prems. Running Press, Philadelphia, Penn. $4. John Prenis of Philadelphia brought out a series of domefreak newsletters _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 121

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 122

starting in May 1971. They consisted of about ten sides of basic rap, duplicated three hundred times. This put him in touch with enough projects to stretch to a hundred·plus sides offset litho printed N thousand times, including short articles from some twenty contributors who have had practical experience with domes. The Handbook aims to be a supplement to Domebook Two which it acknowledges as the classic dome tome. This it does, but along with the recent English Paper Houses it has the ominous honour of introducing dome literature to straight format publishing. The layout is neat and easier reading than the encyclopaedic information jammed into Domebook Two. However, I still prefer the messy Domecookbook by Steve Baer which seems to have been written in a dome that had just gone up. The tangential commentaries scribbled into the margins reveal the excitement of a process not a product. The crossings.out and corrections show knowledge as a living fallible process, not a commodity handed down from us (experts) to them (glorious, masses). The parallel science fiction fantasies show Baer's Zome geometry in the context of a critical vision of better times. He links things together, smashing obsolete categories and continually referring to the whole. 'Straight Format' pretends to be clear and clean but its effect i, ultimately 'stultifying and mysteriously professional. and apart from what most people realise as their immediate capability. There seem to be two reasons for the esteem in which dome .. are held by people who are trying to find a better way of living. One is the pleasant reappearance of curved space using a simple construction which does not require sophisticated level, of ,kill. The other derives from the geometrical triangulation of the surface which gives a crisply faceted style that is impersonal and may be claimed communally. This patterning suggests cosmic connections through its mathematical striving after basic structural principles and is beholden to the 'new man'. However, the dome, as with any form lacking content, is putty in the hands of commerce. As soon as the lunatic fringe of inventors has discovered its useful aspects it is pirated for profit. Our attention should not be directed at an idealistic technological goal but at our actions in themselves, otherwise the main result of our esoteric experiments will be to provide the petty capitalists with a free ideas pool. What needs to be made clear in this kind of book is that we are engaging ourselves in producing what we want according to the criteria of total lasting satisfaction, and the liberation of space, time and tools from the fiscal fist rather than a differentiation of paraphernalia. Stefan Slippery Round·up _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 122

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 123

One book which h .. been out a few months now i, The Politics Of Physical Resources (Penguin/Open University £1.50). Edited by Peter J. Smith, it h .. case studies of the interplay between industry, government, environmentalists, local people and others in six cases of conflict over natural resources in the UK. These are ironstone in North Oxfordshire, Snowdon Ian Copper, Bedfordshire Brick, Cow Green reservoir in Yorkshire, the Shell ,single·buoy mooring off Angle .. a (for tanker,,) and the Holyhead aluminium ,melter run by RTZ. It i, a very useful .. t of case studies for anyone concerned with this, type of issue; member" of local environment lobbies, for instance. It doesn't hesitate to criticise the environmentalists, especially over the Cow Green scheme, but then it doesn't pull any punches at anyone else, either. Writers and Readers Publishing Co·op have a strong list these days, and their catalogue (SAE to 14 Talacre Road, London NW5 3PE) i, well worth a look. The material is mainly original, but the best thing for me was Cuba for Beginners at 60p by the marvelous, Mexican cartoonist Rius. The man who drew marxism is still turning out the best political demystification around, mocking, exemplifying, explaining and gently ,showing up the colossal Cuba myth, which has been so carefully built up over the years in the West. A useful government service for organisations in small·scale industry is the Waste Materials Exchange at PO Sox 51, Stevenage, Hem, SG1 2DT. There', lots to go at: metals, alkalis, acids, catalysts, minerals, paper, plastics, wood, and anyone with a bit of engineering skill could do worse than think: of ways of getting some use out of it. This month's new mag is Camerawork (20p or £2 for ,subscription of ,Ix i"uf< from 27 Alie Street, London E1. Fold, out but i, equivalent to ,sixteen A4 page .. ). The first issue of a lovely venture in publishing, Camera work is a radical photography magazine. It include .. piece .. on the politics of photography (more interesting than it sounds), photographic alternative technology by Terry Dennett ·who is working on a longer piece on the same lines for Undercurrents, an interview, a fascinating piece analysing the economics and aims of various self·publishing enterprises, and lots of glorious photos. Promises much. We have received a number of titles dealing with technical <subject' which readers with specialist interests might find of ,some value. Keeping Warm For Half The Cost, by Townsend and Colesby (Prism, £1.25) j, a pretty thorough guide to home insulation, a foretaste of which was< published in Undercurrents 14. This book covers in detail the main areas of heat·loss in a house, notably roofs, walls, floors and windows, and is brimming with pictures, instructions and hints. And it rounds off with a few well·chosen remarks about our national energy profligacy _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 123

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 124

which ,should be obvious, to any·one more intelligent than a politician. Methane: Planning a Digester by PeterJohn Meynell (Prism, £2.50) i, a well·researched and up·to·date account of this new and sophisticated technology, picking its way carefully among the many experiments in progress and taking a cautious but optimistic view of their potential. A particular merit of the book is the table .. and diagram, ,showing the chemical and physical characteristics of methane production. This, i, .... essential data difficult to come by, and enables people researching in the area to build on the work of others. Water Treatment And Sanitation by Mann and William,on (Intermediate Technology Publication, £1.50) i, a ,imply written handbook of water supply methods for rural areas in developing countries, and is clearly the product of considerable effort and experience. I t is addressed to problems which hardly occur in industrial countries, taking for granted as we tend to our hot and cold running water and mains drainage systems, not to mention our freedom from tropical diseases. But it will prove invaluable to third world village .. and might well be a useful ",source of ideas for pioneers in the overdeveloped world, too. Self·Sufficient Small Holding (The Soil Association, Walnut Tree Manor, Haughly, Stowmarket, Suffolk, 50p) i, a first·hand account by someone who's actually out there doing it, but prefers to remain anonymous because of a superfluity of spectators. Rather stronger on inspiration than nuts'n:bolts practical assistance, it will provide comfort in times of stress. The author <supplies a li,t of ten facto" essential to small·holding success, faith, luck and long hours being pre·eminent among them. Finally, for times of even greater stress, Bristol Radical Alternative .. to Prison",n have produced a Defendants Handbook (lOp from 70 Novers" Park Road, Bristol 4), which ideally <should be read beforehand and not ruefully, afterwards, while serving time. It consists of a simple description of police and court procedure .. and a defendant', legal right' when arrested,and should be common knowledge to absolutely everyone. You might, of course, be a law·abiding citizen, but that in itself is not normally sufficient to secure an acquittal. Martin Ince/Martyn Partridge

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 124

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 125

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

SMALL ADS 2p per word up to 150 words [not fully corrected] COMMUNITIES WE ARE IN tHe process_ of renovating a farm house on the bleak Pennines 4 miles west of Bowes. The house backs on to • main road but looks south over miles of field and moorland. We have 1/2·acre of .garden. and some &grazing. We have gradually)' been moving towards self ... sufficency)' in food for some time, but the land we now have increases our potential enormously, At the moment we have hens. bees and • cow. The climate is not ideal but is all we can afford I We would like some one (or two) to share this place with us, sharing, lives, work etc., in fact every thin, burin& actual ownership, Up to 2 kids could be accommodated and the scene, which we see IU an extended family rather than • commune, might;ht suit sin&1e parent thou&h there is room for • couple. BOll SG. Undercurrents. WE ARE 20 AND 18 and we are planning& to move from the city to a quieter, peaceful place in the country as far from the smoke as possible. We think along, natural lines. we eat meat. and love each other. If you're similar in that you are a thinking, couple who could possibly live with us, please write to Quinkin, Box No. NW, Under·currents. ANYONE INTERESTED in forming a housing association to buy house, outbuilding, land, to convert into separate dwelling, units? Ideal would be·a com·munity working, to,ether on land. A.T. etc, Phone Ann, Bisley (Gloucs) 558. RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE needed with ,£3,000·10.000 for inde·pendent share of remote 50·acre hill farm, mountainous Wales. Survival through rural industries. sheep, self·sufficiency ... alternative technology. Box PL, under·currents. COMMUNITY near Ipswich seeks new members with at least £5700 capital Very large:e house, 56 acres. Telephone East &Bergholt 294. WINDMILLER required to help run/renovate traditional uindina mWln Bucks. Contact Alan Thomas, Systems Group. Faculty of Technology, Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks. A DIFFERENT KINO OF JOB Inte,..tecl In new ways of working 1000therP Want 10 h.ve mora MY In your own IIteP Don't miss the new Issue (No.3) of In The Maklng, • :Urectory of proposed procluctive proJects, 1975 edition. From 22 Albert Raod. Sheffield e. Price 22p per copy, Including post. Sub5CTlp. lions 60P. PUBLICATIONS SATELLITE NEWS: the weekly news bulletin of space activity. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 125

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 126

Subscriptions £3 per year (52 issues)\sample copy lOp. post free. J ST PUBLISHED: SATELLITES 57·75: a complete e:··t·sf ·lt:.···e·f:5··b··craft 1957 and 31 December 1975. £1 post free. Geoffrey Falworth (U). 12 Barn Croft, Penwortham, Preston PRI OSX. BOOKS ON ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY. seU·ufliciency, or,anic Jardenin" practical skills, food and health. We have a comprehensive selection always in stock. including most of the publications advertised or ···;no·h:rh:'······in order list. GRASS ROOTS BOOKS, 109 Oxford Road, Manchester Ml 7DU. Tel. 061·273 6541. Open Mon·Sat 10·. GAS AND ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS' GUIDE. SOp linc. postage). Topics covered Include overcharging by landlords, meter thefts, cut.offs, meter tinting ..•. (Surplus goes to survey of legal profession ·help wanted for this to prepare a distribution map of lawyers. COU"S and population). Centre for Study of Protectiw Law, 209 Woodstock Roed. Varnton. Odord OX5 lPU. SELF·SUFFICIENCy can become more than a catch·phrase with countryside & Small Stock Journal, the established monthly magazine for all who prOduce thlNr own food. SAE for dnails. or 45p for specimen copy, to B. Gundrey. Alnon. CA9 3LG. ETCETERA AMERICAN WOMAN. 40: currently in urban desis:n, seeks penpals into alternative techno·10lies & communities. Box AW, c/o Undercurrents. RUNNING AN ECO·GROUP in a secondary school? (or trying to). Whether the theme be recycling. ecology, local environment, pollution, or technology for the 3rd World, running an eJl;extra·curricular school environmental group can be a tOuch job, and the. Schools Eco·Action Group wants to help you. tloy r70vtding inform·ation, ideas. advice. and co·ordination as well as our regular newsletter and other ... publications. Whoever you are. pupil, teacher, or parent. contact S.E.A.G., t 5 Kelso Road, Leeds 2. FREAK INTERNATIONAL announces that It has now e...olved a t .. m of Alternative Engineers who are capable of consultlw, design and con·structive work on a wide range of att ... netlve engin..,ing. This team is prepared to undertake selected tasks, including experimental, for a fee which will be decided on en Individual basis. All members of the team, apart from sound experience in various aspects of the alternatives. are qualified and experienced in conventional technology. Potential clients should make contact in writing with Royce Creasey at 31 Gratitude Road, Greenbank, Brinol. POTTER Y SUMMER SCHOOL. Create beautiful things in clay ·Jo & Gerry _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 126

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 127

Harvey invite YOU to the workshop at their 17th century farmhouse in peaceful countryside weekly courses Julyl August. SAE brochure. The Creative Workshops. Middle Piccadilly Farm. Holwell, Sherborne. Dorset. WEST OF IRELAND. Simple holiday accommodation and wholesome food, b.b. and e\·enin, meal £18 per week. Write to Castletown House.. Castleconnor, Ballina, Co. ·mayo, Eire. DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING Architectural Association Two Year course in URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING The course includes urban and regional policy, marxist economics, the historical and political economy of urbanism (internationally), and imperialism. This course responds to chana;in, students needs: opportunities exist to study the situation of women, the welfare state, political ecolOlY, to take TPI exams and to develop other specific intensts individually or collectively, such as invoh'ement in local and other strua&les. The course has SSRC recoa;nition for bursaries. There is a CRECHE. Prospedus and application fonns from: Sharon Kretzmer, Planning Department Architectural Association36 Bedford Square weI. tel. 01·636 0974. Closing date for applications May 1st 976.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 127

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 128

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

RADICAL TECHNOLOGY: THE LONG·AWAITED Undercurrents magnum opus, our book Radical Technology, was published in the United States (a little late) in March. In the UK and Australia it'll be available in May. Copies will be widely available in all good bookshops. You'll also be able to order copies from Undercurrents, after publication, at the cover price. £3.25, plus postage and packing. Here is Peter Harper's summary of the book, for lazy reviewers and prospective purchasers. Radical Technology is a large· format, extensively illustrated collection of original articles concerning the reorganisation of technology along more humane, rational and ecologically sound lines. The many facets of such a reorganisation are r('fleeted in the wide variety of contributions to the book. They cover both the 'hardware' ·the machines and technical methods themselves ·and the 'software' ·the social and political structures, the way people relate to each other and to their environment, and how they feel about it all. The articles in the book range from detailed 'recipes' through general accounts of alternative technical methods, to critiques of current practices, and general proposals for reorganisations. Each author has been encouraged to follow her or his own personal approach, sometimes descriptive, sometimes analytic, sometimes technical, sometimes political. The contributors are all authorities in their fields. The book is divided into seven sections: Food, Energy, Shelter, Autonomy, Materials, Communication, Other Perspectives. Over forty separate articles include items on fish culture, small·scale water supply, biological energy sources, a definitive zoology of the windmill, self·help housing, building with subsoil, making car·tyre shoes, the economics of autonomous houses, what to look for in scrap yards, alternative radio networks, utopian communities, and technology in China. Between the main sections are interviews with prominent practitioners and theorists of Radical Technology, including John Todd of the New Alchemy Institute; Robert Jungk, author of Humanity 2000; the Street Farmers, a group of anarchist architects; Peter van Dresser;·and Sietz Leefland, editor of Small Earth, the Dutch journal of alter·native technology. Also included between the main sections of the book is a series of visionary drawings by the gifted illustrator Clifford Harper, evoking the spirit and practice of Radical Technology: 'how It could be'. These drawings, or 'visions' include a communalised urban garden layout; a household basement workshop; a community workshop; a community media centre; a collectivised terrace of urban houses; and an autonomous rural housing estate. The book ends with a comprehensive directory of the literature and active organisations in Radical Technology. This notes inevitable gaps in the book's coverage, points the reader to where more information can be found, and provides also an overall picture of a growing move·ment. Radical Technology: Food and Shelter, Tools and Materials, Energy and Com·munications, Autonomy and Community. Edited by Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper, and the editors of Undercurrents. Wildwood House, London, £3.25; Pantheon Books, New York, $5.95; 1976, 304pp, A4 illustrated, index. Hardback· ISBN 0704502186; paperback ISBN 0704501597. _______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 128

________________________________________ Undercurrents 15 April·May 1976 Page 129

Vision No 3 from Radical Technology: This scheme is not so much an autonomous as a communalised terrace, in which shared facilities reduce demand for central services. Space inside the houses is reorganised, with groups of them being run together as a single unit. One pair of houses is used for heavy·consumption communal facilities such as the workshop (see Vision No 51. bakery, sauna and laundrette. as shown here, and coffee shop. Gas, electricity and water is supplied from the mains, but the community is set up to use these very economically. It treats its own sewage and uses it as garden, greenhouse and hydroponic fertiliser.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC15: page 129