Just for the Love of It: Riches beyond Cash

It’s about sharing your tools so you all can have access to all the tools under the sun without it costing the earth.
It’s about using any free space you have to either benefit positive, ethical and local projects, or to enable volunteers to keep doing their amazing work for free.
It’s about sharing the land you don’t need in order to facilitate a local food community.
It’s about freeconnecting neighbours.
It’s about learning to help each other again.
It’s about getting ready for a post peak oil world.
It’s about making dinner for a friend who was yesterday a stranger.
It’s about keeping money out of the equation.
It’s about communicating face-to-face and phasing out technological communication.
It’s about putting the soul back into society.
It’s about helping each other not for profit, but just for the love-ofit.
What is a Freeconomy?

A Freeconomy is a moneyless society in which no money changes and there is no duality between giving and receiving; here they are seen as

clipped from www.justfortheloveofit.org Helping each other not for profit, just for the love of it … Welcome to the world’s fastest growing alternative economy! Save money, reduce your carbon footprint and make great new friends! Get jobs done for free while you learn new skills. Share skills, tools, spaces and land. Share tips, information or ask freeconomic questions in our new forum! The aim of the Freeconomy Community is to get people together locally through the simple act of sharing. It’s obviously completely FREE to join and there’s no boring administration – so get sharing! If you want to find out more, read the freeconomy philosofree. clipped from www.justfortheloveofit.org It’s about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society. It’s about helping others and providing an opportunity for others to help you. It’s about sharing the skills you have learnt through your life and learning those you haven’t.

Calgary Herald: The Green Bottom Line

Check this out!

clipped from www.canada.com It’s that time of year again, when dedicated greenies get very wound up about the artificial tree versus real tree debate. Calgary recycling guide Check out the articles in this section to find out how to recycle and reuse in Calgary. Ask a recycling question Recycling 101: Your most common questions answered The real deal on curbside recycling

Flying vs Driving: Which is Better for the Environment

clipped from environment.about.com Flying vs Driving: Which is Better for the�Environment? Driving emits less carbon than flying, but flying costs less on long trips By Larry West, About.com The simple answer is that driving in a relatively fuel-efficient car (25-30 miles per gallon) usually generates fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than flying.

Nov 28: Buy Nothing Day

Great video to watch on “Buy Nothing Day” aka “Black Friday”.

We call it consumerism, but seriously do we really “consume” all the stuff we get. We hoard it and “warehouse” it after a couple of days of use. And then we go out and buy some more…

clipped from www.gwenbell.com You Have Enough, You Have Enough, You Have Enough No, but really. You have enough. Yesterday I read an article on Gawker about a mom featured in the Times. She won’t have enough after buying her daughter a pile of toys to buy herself “this year’s designer jeans.” Gawker expressed my dismay succinctly: “Really not the sort of thing to pump you up to stimulate our wretchedly dysfunctional economy this Black Friday by buying a bunch of useless junk with money you didn’t save from sacrifices that don’t hurt on credit cards you shouldn’t have. So, really: Good call, Times. Well, all except the doom part. I think there’s something we can do about it. How about we all get a better grip on how much we do have. Watch Video

Scavenging as a Virtue

I suspect scavenging will be an emerging thing in light of the world-wide economic slump.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Scavenging as a Virtue Donna Schaper Posted November 22, 2008 | 06:50 AM (EST) Scavenging is a low cost form of personal entertainment. It’s not just consumerism on the cheap. I glean the garbage because it’s fun. I just can’t stand being useful all the time. Women, especially clergywomen, are garbed in utility. We should all the time always be helping someone. That gets more than a little tiring and squeezes the juice out of life. I squeeze the juice into life by my little feasts, frequent scavenges and big frugalities. Call scavenging an underground economy – except that we who scavenge do so in the light of day. Call it compulsive – although it can be done with a great spirit of relaxation. I did throw away, actually recycle, all those shoe boxes I couldn’t really use. Or just call it spiritual fun, an easy participation in death and resurrection. You don’t even have to wait for Easter to do it.

Presto Change-O – James Kunstler

Let’s hope Kunstler is too much of a pessimist. But, he’s looking pretty prophetic right now. 

The FullCircles / reuse / second hand economy will continue to gain momentum as history unfolds.

[275 comments on Kunstler's blog entry since Nov 10th....]

clipped from jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com      Presto Change-o      Comment on current events by the author of “The Long Emergency” (also on www.kunstler.com) In the months just ahead, Mr. Obama will certainly be swamped with straight-ahead cash problems in every area of American life, from the foundering pension funds to the bankrupt state treasuries to the beggaring corporations to the starkly dispossessed and hungry masses of the jobless and re-poed. I wasn’t kidding when I came up with the label, “the long emergency,” to describe the storm that we are heading into, along with Mr. Obama.

Freecycle: The Craigslist of FREE Stuff

Freecycle is great. But if you want to cover all your bases and get quickest results, you need to consider other gifting resources: fullcircles.org, reuseitnetwork.org; kijiji; usedeverywhere.com; etc.

clipped from www.stillhatepickles.com Freecycle: The Craigslist of FREE Stuff I read about Freecycle on Laura’s Blog and have been meaning to post about it ever since. It sounded too good to be true–classifieds for people giving things away. So I joined the mailing list and now receive daily emails listing not only what people are giving away, but what people need. Many cities have them, and you can even join a more localized group within your area. These days, everyone’s talking about going green, but often this means buying stuff that’s expensive. This is not true for everyone, I know, but being green is very trendy these days, and anything trendy becomes an easy target for people selling you things. This great article that I read on Reston Mom a long time ago, really resonated with me. When I read about Freecylce, the article came back to me. If you consider yourself interested in being “green” (or are tired of hearing that term thrown around like I am) I highly recommend reading!