EARTHED; THE NEW ENERGY REVOLUTION

Back in the early 1990s, the tremors of an ‘industrial revolution’ were beginning to reverberate around the globe. The digital technology tsunami subsequently swept all before it, transforming our world irrevocably.

Within ten short years, we were a society unalterably linked in new ways, connected globally by the internet, by wireless and broadband links, by billions of mobile phones. We are still trying to come in terms with the realities and implications of this seismic occurrence.

Brace yourselves! There’s a new ‘industrial revolution’ which is going to have equally powerful transformative effects on our lives.

The New Energy Revolution is about shifting our societies from our dependence on fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas), on nuclear power, on huge centralised energy generating systems, feeding power down a massive national grid, to a world that runs largely on renewable and sustainable energy sources, where energy is produced, above all, close to where it is needed via a new kind of ‘energy internet’ built up of a huge number of localised and micro-power sources, shaped to local and regional needs.

Computing became personalised and localised in the same way. The age of the centralised mainframes gave way to a distributed network of personal computers. The same is about to happen with energy. We understand the notion of ‘food miles’ so now think ‘energy miles.’

All good industrial revolutions need ‘drivers’: unstoppable forces, great sweeping tides of history coinciding with a wave of fresh technologies coming on-stream at the same time.

The biggest driver of all is climate change. Now David Attenborough says its happening we can all believe in it. No-one knows the full implications; some believe we’re already doomed. Scenarios range from the uncomfortable to the catastrophic. Our human societies are creating this crisis through their profligate use of energy. Even children know that now.

To meet this threat, governments around the world and at every level, have been peering into the energy future – and it looks fairly scary.

Strategically, it is not a good idea to be largely dependent on imported oil and gas and, also, not a good idea to be using it in the first place.

We have to make a shift, in our thinking and our actions. Mayors of the world’s cities know that best of all as cities are at the sharp end of this transformation. This is why they are moving faster than states and states are moving faster than countries towards a new energy future.

The pace and pressure is increasing as more and more legislation – from Kyoto on down – EU, National, Local – comes to bear on the situation.

Business will be forced to conform to some rigid efficiency/low carbon guidelines; this will prove to be cost-effective and introduce a whole new perspective on corporate activities.

At present, the most visible business activity is on large-scale projects but it is on a micropower level that things will really shift dramatically.

All houses and buildings will be forced to do an annual energy rating. Legislation will be streamlined to allow much greater flexibility for home owners to install wind and solar alongside water-saving technology. Insulation, double-glazing, energy efficient light bulbs will all be part of the national make-over. All new build will be required to include a certain percentage of renewable energy in the project.

This will stimulate a huge gadget/DIY market that will be eagerly seized upon by the big chains; in addition, a thousand small-scale entrepreneurial flowers will bloom on the net.

We are all going to have to change or modify our cars: voluntarily or by legislation. There are signs of movement within the global car market towards the concept of green motoring – through the success of the Prius. Oil price rises will stimulate the market. More and more of us will return to the bike.

We’re going to have to fly less. Governments need to pressure the airlines to show some significant movement towards these goals. The public will become more aware than ever of the damage being caused to the atmosphere by human flight.

This is how this new energy revolution is going to express itself in our lives. The major component parts of that future: energy efficiency/carbon control; the development of renewable/sustainable energy industries; the transformation of our buildings and transport.

We are not going to escape our addiction to fossil fuels that easily but through these initiatives, we can imagine how the new energy revolution is going to transform our societies over the next 5-15-year period.

This shift in perspective and reality is going to be driven by the need to save and conserve energy at every level (oil and gas prices are never going to go down again) and the need to transform our buildings and our transport.

Britain is ideally suited to such a shift – an island nation with an important engineering heritage. We have remarkable natural resources which we are not employing. A shift of the kind envisaged means that we can play a major role globally by putting ourselves at the forefront of many of the major industries of the future.

This will, in turn, create immense economic and employment possibilities, and represents a new hope and future for our young people who will be inheriting the planet that the older generation will leave behind them.

Our embrace of this new vision will signal to the rest of the world our willingness and openness to change and offer us immense opportunities to export this experience and these technologies around the world to the benefit of all.

[This document was written as a proposal to a major mainstream supplement on the 31st June 2006. I have been thinking about this issue ever since I met Amory Lovins in 1996, have presented it in various forms over the intervening years to publishers, financiers, entrepeneurs - and the back bar of the Lewes Arms. Its now kicking off.]

Previous Postings:

Earthed: Amory Lovins
Earthed: Amory Lovins 2
Earthed: The New Industrial Revolution

EARTHED: THE RETAIL REVOLUTION

This is Sharp's first solar module manufacturing plant in Europe, opened in 2004 and based in Wrexham, North Wales. The facility assembles monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar modules for residential and commercial installations. Sharp claim to be the global leader in solar cell production, with more than 45 years' experience in the industry. With installations as diverse as satellites, commercial, public and residential buildings, over a quarter of solar modules installed worldwide are manufactured by Sharp. In 2005, Sharp’s annual production capacity increased to 428 megawatts. With a current market share of 26 per cent, Sharp has been the worldwide leader in production of solar cells for six years. [Information from company press release: Sharp Electronics (UK) Ltd]

Micropower generation by home owners is set to take off in a major way - and the High Street is gearing up for it.

One month ago, Curry's became the first major retailer on the British high street to offer a range of solar panels to the home customer. The panels, produced by Sharp Electronics – who claim to be the world’s leading solar panel manufacturer - are now on sale in just three Currys stores (West Thurrock, Fulham and Croydon) but are also available on-line. Currys is Britain’s biggest electrical retailer with a network of more than 550 stores nationwide.

According to the Sharp press release: ‘After a detailed in-store consultation with a trained adviser, customers with suitable houses will be offered a home assessment free of charge. Should the house be capable of supporting the technology – and most are – installation of the solar panels on the property roof takes just one or two days and requires a minimum of equipment to be installed, usually in the roof space.’

They claim the cost for an installation of nine solar panels (enough to cover approximately half of a household’s electricity requirements on an average three bedroom house) is approximately £9,000. ‘Customers opting for solar power can expect to reduce their electricity bill by up to 50% and could cut down their home’s carbon dioxide emissions by up to two tons per year. Panels come with a performance warranty of 25 years, and minimum maintenance is required by the customer.’

Sharp claim that customers who install their panels can expect a potential increase to the value of their property and poaint out that grants are available through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/home/ and www.est.org.uk/myhome/generating/application/

Then, on 28th September, the DIY chain B&Q announced that, from October, they will be selling wind turbines and solar panels in every one of their 320 UK stores.

According to The Guardian, the turbines will cost £1,498 - a price that includes a home survey, help with applying for planning permission and installation. Its staff will also help customers apply for grants from the Energy Saving Trust - which can cover 30% of the cost of the turbine.

The turbine are 1.75m wide and 2m tall and will generate 1kw of electricity directly into a ring main. They may not suit every home. Home owners will also get advice as to whether their property is structurally suitable and/or whether it is located in an area too sheltered from the wind to make wind power economical.

Unlike the Curry's solar panels - designed to generate electricity - the one's sold by B&Q will heat water using daylight, providing enough for half the average family's needs. They are priced as follows: Single unit (£1,798); two-panel unit (£1,498); three-panel unit (£2,498).

EARTHED: BIOFUELS & BRANSON

Richard Branson has recently been doing what he does best - capturing world headlines - with his very public committment to pledge all his profits from Virgin's rail and air businesses - an estimated $3bn (1.6bn) - to combat climate change. What seems on the surface a magnanimous gesture is, in fact, just another business opportunity for Branson - all the money will go into Virgin Fuels, his new renewable energy business.

Virgin Fuels business will invest up to 400 million US dollars (£214 million) in renewable energy initiatives over the next three years. Their first investment came this September - $60m into Cilion, a California-based venture that plans to make bioethanol from corn and to construct seven refineries by 2009. Virgin Trains are switching their diesel-power trains to run on biodiesel.

According to a BBC report 'Branson's Grand Power Strategy' (22nd Sept 2006), Virgin Fuels' ambitions stretch across the entire power-generation sector. 'The company talks of investing in more ventures like Californian firm Cilion...Wave power and wind farms are on the agenda, so is nuclear power. Virgin Group director Will Whitehorn said that 'Virgin Fuels has been carefully positioned to bridge the gap between environmental rhetoric and commercial reality.'

The article concludes: 'After the fuel bill for his Virgin Atlantic airline grew by £300m over two years [Branson] spoke of wanting to build a new oil refinery to reduce world prices. At that time, in late 2005, the fuel bill for both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Express airlines was running to £750m a year, Sir Richard said. It seems there is a compelling commercial logic behind Sir Richard's drive for new fuels.'

According to 'Green virgins in outer space' byJean Mahony (New Statesman 15th May 2006): 'Virgin's four airlines consume more than 2.6 billion litres of standard jet fuel every year; naturally, the Group thinks the government should "urgently address" the possibility of a biofuel mix for commercial flights. At present, the aviation industry generates almost as much carbon dioxide every year as all human activities in Africa. However, Virgin's public commitment to the environment is only part of the story: ethanol, unlike oil, is relatively cheap to produce, and is not subject to the whims of Russia or Opec.

'In November 2005, Richard Branson told reporters that he hoped "some or all" of Virgin's jet fuel would be replaced with ethanol "over the next five to six years". To date the European Aviation Safety Agency has not received any requests to certify the technology that would allow for a biofuel blend on commercial flights, and aircraft coming on-stream now have lifespans of up to 50 years. Even if the technology were widely available, regulatory authorities would have to be satisfied that the characteristics which make pure ethanol an unsatisfactory choice for jet engines - its propensity to thicken at low temperatures, its low flashpoint, its low energy density and its release of dangerous gases at low power settings - are adequately addressed.

'It seems that even Branson's enthusiasm for the fuel has been tempered: in January 2006 he told Fortune magazine that he was not sure if ethanol "will ever do it" for jet aeroplanes. However, habitual confidence undimmed, he went on to predict that if we could run all land-based transport on cellulosic ethanol and leave aeroplanes to burn petroleum-based fuel, "issues like global warming will be fixed".'

UPDATE: 'Support for Branson plea to clean up skies is slow to get off the ground' - Dan Milmo [The Guardian 28 Sep 2006]

There's an interesting discussion on biodiesel airplanes at Treehugger

According to an Associated Press story 'Researchers Seek Alternative Jet Fuel' (June 20, 2006): 'Government and corporate researchers are looking into ways to power commercial jet engines with alternative fuels, although many caution that widespread use could be years or even decades away. Scientists face myriad obstacles, including the difficulty of producing, transporting and using massive amounts of these fuels under harsh conditions such as extreme cold. And for now at least, experts say many alternative jet fuels are more expensive than traditional ones. "It's just so much easier to develop a fuel for automobile applications than for airplane applications," said Billy Glover, director of environmental performance for Boeing Co.'


In his essay 'Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper?' Jeffrey A McNeely, chief scientist of IUCN, the World Conservation Union, explains why many people are calling biofuels - made by producing ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from maize, sugar cane, or other plant matter - 'deforestation diesel'. Consider the following:

* The grain required to fill the petrol tank of a Range Rover with ethanol is sufficient to feed one person per year. Assuming the petrol tank is refilled every two weeks, the amount of grain required would feed a hungry African village for a year

* Much of the fuel that Europeans use will be imported from Brazil, where the Amazon is being burned to plant more sugar and soybeans, and Southeast Asia, where oil palm plantations are destroying the rainforest habitat of orangutans and many other species.

* If ethanol is imported from the US, it will likely come from maize, which uses fossil fuels at every stage in the production process, from cultivation using fertilisers and tractors to processing and transportation. Growing maize appears to use 30% more energy than the finished fuel produces, and leaves eroded soils and polluted waters behind

* To meet the EU's proposed biofuel target of 5.75% would require, according to one authoritative study, a quarter of the EU's arable land

* Using ethanol rather than petrol reduces total emissions of carbon dioxide by only about 13% because of the pollution caused by the production process, and because ethanol gets only about 70% of the mileage of petrol.

McNeely concludes: 'The bottom line is that biofuels can contribute to energy and environmental goals only as part of an overall strategy that includes energy conservation, a diversity of sustainable energy sources, greater efficiency in production and transport, and careful management of ethanol production.'

According to Thomas L. Friedman in an Op-Ed piece entitled 'Dumb as we wanna be' in the New York Times (20th Sept 2006), the US has imposed a 54-cents-a-gallon tariff to prevent Americans from importing sugar ethanaol from Brazil, due to pressure from Midwest farmers and agribusinesses. Brazilian sugar ethanol provides eight times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it; American corn ethanol provides only 1.3 times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it. He claims that sugar cane can't be grown in much of the Amazon because it is too wet but that Brazil's planned expansion of sugar cane acreage from 15 to 25 million acres over the next few years will threaten the cerrado, the species-rich Brazilian savannah.

EARTHED: GREEN CAR GUIDE

The new BMW Hydrogen 7, the world’s first hydrogen-powered luxury performance car. Destined to make its first public appearance at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November, the Hydrogen 7 is a production-ready car to be built in limited numbers – just 100 initially - and offered to select users in 2007.


Carbon dioxide emissions from cars account for less than 13 per cent of man-made CO2 in Britain, compared to 36.9 per cent for the energy industry and 15.7 per cent from residential sites, according to DEFRA.

The UK motor industry's seventh annual sustainability report (see www.smmt.co.uk), published on 18th September, claims that, in the period 2001-2005, UK vehicle makers have cut energy use, waste and CO2 emissions by half in four years.

End of the SUV?: Ford has finally predicted the fall of the SUV, a vehicle that has supported the company’s finances for decades. SUV sales have been falling month by month with a speed that Ford’s chief sales analyst describes as “pretty eye-popping”. As consumers abandon SUVs and light trucks in favour of smaller cars, the big three US automakers, General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler, are having to take a hard look at their own product lines. Ford announced in early June that it would produce 58,000 fewer trucks in the next quarter than it had in the same period last year – but 40,000 more cars. Meanwhile Chrysler’s senior vice-president of sales, Gary Dilts, has told the Washington Post that his company plans to ‘dial up’ the fuel-efficiency message, with TV ads highlighting how many miles per gallon you can get in its more compact cars.
As Detroit hits problems, the main beneficiaries of the new trend are the Japanese. Toyota and Honda are seeing their pioneering investments in fuel-efficient compact cars and petrol-electric hybrids start to pay big dividends. Toyota is on the verge of overtaking GM as the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer.

This information and much more can be found on an excellent new website: http://www.green-car-guide.com

For a special report in What Car? the magazine hired Britain's foremost fuel economy expert, Peter de Nayer, to carry out independent tests on 85 best-selling cars. He found that the average discrepancy between economy claims and real-world driving was 8%.The worst offender was the Toyota Prius. On paper, it is supposed to average 65.7mpg, but when tested, it averaged 52.0mpg - 13.7mpg less.

According to: 'This new breed of car is electrifying' The Guardian/September 23, 2006:
'Fully electric models are starting to have an impact - from city runarounds like the G-Wiz (www. goingreen.co.uk) and new Sakura Maranello4 (www.sbsbsb.com) to the dashing Tesla Roadster (www. teslamotors.com), with its eyebrow-raising 130mph top speed and 0-60 in four seconds. Aside from the need to recharge, which can take some time, critics say electric cars are difficult because they just shift the source of pollution back to the electricity generating plant. But Tesla plans to deal with this by selling solar panels for your house with its cars, so you can offset your consumption that way. An ideal solution would be if the electric car itself could be recharged via a solar-powered fuelling station. A study by the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment has determined that a car powered this way would be far and away the cleanest of all current possibilities.


Car Plus is a charity promoting car clubs and car sharing in the UK

Britain's road-building bill has spiralled out of control and could be £1bn more than predicted because the Highways Agency has lost its grip on the rising costs, according to a report from the Commons Transport Committee. It says: 'The Highways Agency has lost budgetary control of the Targeted Programme of Improvements (TPI). If overruns continue at the current rate, the cost of yet-to-be-completed TPI road projects would be 50 per cent higher than originally estimated. Such an increase would be an irresponsible and unacceptable waste of public money. This is a very serious matter, and Mr Robertson, as Agency Chief Executive, must take personal responsibility for ensuring that an increase of this magnitude does not occur. We wish to know how that will be achieved.' According to Road Block: 'In the recently published Highways Agency Business Plan it was revealed that their road building budget had been increased from £589 million in 2005-6 to £1046 million in 2006-7 - almost doubling. They have stolen the money from the Managing Traffic and Improving Technology budgets.'

The Commission for Global Road Safety claims that more than 3,000 people die daily in road crashes worldwide. There are 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries on the roads every year. Experts forecast a 65% surge in fatalities by 2020. Road accidents claim more lives in the world's poorest countries than malaria and tuberculosis. Africa has the highest road mortality rate of any continent, with 28 deaths for every 100,000 people. (Britain's rate is 5 per 100,000). The Commission believe road deaths should be treated as a global disease and are calling on the G8 to support a $300m plan to tackle the problem.

And finally: Check out the story of the ENV - the world's first purpose-built fuel cell motorcycle.

EARTHED: E-WASTE

A huge pile of computer keyboards at a waste dump in China. It is cheaper for companies to dump hazardous e-waste in China than implementing a proper product recycling network.

* Some 20-50 million tonnes of electronic waste are generated globally every year; Asia alone discards an estimated 12 million tonnes each year

* E-waste now makes up five percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide, nearly the same amount as all plastic packaging. E-waste is much more hazardous.

* E-waste is now the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste stream because people are upgrading their mobile phones, computers, televisions, audio equipment and printers more frequently than ever before. Mobile phones and computers are causing the biggest problem because they are replaced most often.

* In Europe e-waste is increasing at three to five percent a year, almost three times faster than the total waste stream. Developing countries are also expected to triple their e-waste production over the next five years.

* The average lifespan of computers in developed countries has dropped from six years in 1997 to just two years in 2005. Mobile phones have a lifecycle of less than two years in developed countries.

* 183 million computers were sold worldwide in 2004 - 11.6 percent more than in 2003. 674 million mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2004 - 30 percent more than in 2003.

* By 2010, there will be 716 million new computers in use. There will be 178 million new computer users in China, 80 million new users in India.

These facts and figures come from a detailed study by Greenpeace International, who are running a toxic campaign against e-waste. Check out their Green Electronics Guide, which ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practice on eliminating harmful chemicals and on taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers. Companies are ranked solely on information that is publicly available.

9/11 REVISITED

Ever since my previous post, have been thinking and reading about 9/11. Having trawled and cogitated at length, here is what I recommend:

Wikipedia has come into it own on this. It has its critics but the following make extremely good starting points for understanding why there is a substantial number of people in the US who disagree with the official version of events.

Sept11, 2001 Attacks
An account of the official sequence of events and subsequent aftermath

9/11 Commission Report
This provides a brief summary of the official report and provides a download link to get a pdf of the whole thing. It highlights key facts, carries a summary of major articles and lists substantial criticisms on the report.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories
This examines the subject in exhaustive detail and lists the major topics/questions put forward
by networks of different groups and individuals who do not believe the 'oficial truth.' Includes extensive links.

The conspiracy theorist community broadly divides itself between people who believe that Bush's government Let it Happen On Purpose (LHOPs) and those who believe that Bush's government Made it Happen on Purpose (MHOPs).

Researchers Questioning the Official account of 9/11
Short profiles of some of the most prominent members of this community

Much coverage has been given to Scholars for 9/11 Truth
Wikipedia entry lists every member and really explains who they are - and their credentials.

Books

I recomend 'The 5 Unanswered Questions About 9/11' by James Ridgeway [Seven Stories Press]. Ridgeway, Washington correspondent for the Village Voice, does not believe the government or the conspiracy but he does believe that someone, somewhere should be held accountable. His unanswered questions are:

1. Why Couldn't We Stop an Atttack from the Skies: How the Airlines and the FAA Resisted Air Security Measures That Might Have saved Lives.

2. Why Didn't the Government Protect Us?: How the United States Government Failed Its Citizens Before, During, and After 9/11.

3. Why Didn't We Know What Was Coming?: How Business as usual at the FBI and the CIA Helped Leave the Way Clear for the Attacks

4. Did US Allies Help Make the Attacks Possible?: How Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and US Foreign Policy Contributed to the Events of 9/11

5. Why Couldn't the 9/11 Comission Get to the Truth?: How the Report protects the System at the Expense of the Public.

There's a lot of good journalistic research here, original interviews, and a clear writing style. One is left with a deeper appreciation of the whole - and a lot of questions, many of them quite disturbing. The spirit of Tom Paine is in his writing and in his passion for the truth.

Being a sucker for graphic novels, I also bought 'The Illustrated 9/11 Commission Report: A Graphic Adaptation' by Sid Jacobsen & Ernie Colon. Interesting to look at after reading Ridgway. The book as a whole has a weird feeling about, like it came out of a Phillip K. Dick novel.

Read Martin Amis' lengthy essay in The Guardian: The Age of Horrorism

Also Tariq Ali's review of 'The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda's Road to 9/11' by Lawrence Wright

UPDATE: Thanks to Gordon for link to Project Censored: Unanswered Questions of 9/11

ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY 1970s: BIT by bit

One of the many delights of doing THE GENERALIST is all the connections it enables us to make. Following my previous post on ‘An Index of Possibilities’ [see Nikola Tesla], received the following e-mail from Anthony I.P. Owen who has been living in Casablanca for the last two years.

Excuse me mailing you, but I came across your name (and blog) when googling 'Index of Possibilities' - a copy of which I still refer to and (internet notwithstanding) is still a mine of interesting and accessible information. IoP is still valued and used (it turned me on to Tesla, still an interest), thirty odd years after the event. All your sweat and toil is still appreciated!! I look forward to hearing more about the Index. It really was the concept of the Web before the internet existed....being too soon can be just as frustrating as being too late .

I was googling 'IoP' in the hope of finding any sites referring to the 'BIT' group which was operating around West London around the same time as IoP. I used to hang around their offices as a teenager 'up from the country'. I journeyed to India with one of their travel guides as sole reference and look back on them fondly. Do you know of any websites detailing them (or any of the other myriad of 'alternative' organisations which seemed to flourish then in West London especially, due to the accessibility of IBM typesetting and offset litho - a sort of worldwide paper web.

Thus began our correspondence, whioch has led in many interesting directions. Here is Anthony’s second message

I've done some searching through some boxes which have been following me around the world for a few years unopened and managed to find a 1981 edition of the India Guide (scan of cover enclosed). By this time it was being edited by Geoff Crowther and published by Ian Robb King under the 'Magic Ink Travel Club' imprint, based in Margate (I have a slight memory that Ian was in a wheelchair? I can't remember ever meeting him, so that was maybe from correspondence.). 1981 would have been my second or third trip to India and I imagine that I got the guide mail order - in fact I am sure I did. How I found the address I have no idea!. The first time I headed east - 1975-76 - I remember that I did go up to the BIT office a day or so before I left. They didn't have any finished guides, the pages were printed but not the cover and they had not been bound but they let me have a copy unbound (just a collection of pages) in a plastic bag. That travelled with me for many months, but disappeared many years ago.

Anyway, this is probably more than you ever wanted to know about the BIT travel guides and it shows how relaxed it is here that I have the time to get it together. I guess if I was serious I would edit down the BIT history from the introduction and post it on Wikipedia (a sort of co-operative BIT guide to everything in the world?) and see if there is any response.

As said in my first mail I was very much a 'consumer' of the West London scene, bunking off school in the afternoons, hitching up the M4 and spending the afternoons hanging around squats, underground papers.....all the mayhem - and the memories are dim through the smoke!! Who knows all who passed through BIT's portals and what effect it had on them

In his third mailing Anthony writes:

Another memory: BIT used to give out 'unofficial' international student cards as a 'service to travellers and others' (they were good for getting discounts and visas if your passport said 'student'). They were green and black with a photograph and whichever stamp happened to be on the desk at the time. It fooled everyone from Calais to Katmandu!

I've searched all the UK Free Festival sites I can find but no references to BIT at all, though they were certainly involved. I am just amazed that there seems to be so little information available, especially online as I would have thought that the sort of people who got BIT together, and hung around their offices, would be just the sort of people who would have taken to the Net. This piece of history should be better known!

So as a contribution to this end, here are a number of related posts.

Having hung out in Ladbroke Grove myself during the early 1970s, working on the underground newspaper Frendz, I knew the BIT Information offices well and one of its most energetic activists Nicholas Albery. Also involved was his friend Nicholas Saunders, author of an important publication of the time ‘Alternative London.’ Sadly both died around the turn of the millennium in separate car crashes within two years of each other. Happily their legacy lives on.

What follows is: 1) The introduction to the aforementioned BIT travel Guide (courtesy of Anthony). 2) A piece on another publication, the BIT Arts Lab Newsletter, which I unearthed in the HQINFO Archives. 3) An appreciation of the two Nicholas’s. Hopefully this will trigger other memories and material which we would be grateful to receive.