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So, you want to start fixing your bike?

14 May 13

MadeGood.orgWe've teamed up with MadeGood.org to bring you these tips. Visit their site for loads more like this.

It's a great time to get into bike fixing. The rise of the online how-to video means you can get expert walkthroughs of almost any specific problem, but if you're just getting started, following these five basic groundrules will make everything else easier.

Climate change: the very big picture (and what you can do about it)

13 May 13

Power station chimneys and streetlamps

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams describes the ultimate torture device:

When you are put into the Total Perspective Vortex, you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, 'You are here.'"

I imagine Duncan Clark has a good idea of how this feels. Along with his co-author Mike Berners-Lee, he's spent the last few years studying international politics, the workings of the fossil fuel industry, and the latest research to take stock of where we are with climate change – and it's not pretty.

Solar School of the Week: Christow primary

9 May 13

Look how happy being a Solar School makes you!

For a small school on the edge of Dartmoor, like Christow Primary, every penny counts. So why become a Solar School and fundraise for solar panels? Well, as one of their governors, Gavin Bloomfield says, "free electricity, a long-term income and reducing our carbon footprint - the question is why isn't everyone else?"

For Christow Primary solar panels are not just a great investment, but also a way to bring their community together to do something amazing. And everyone really has been getting involved, from an alumnus of a local school running their Facebook and Twitter publicity, to environmental group Greener Teign giving lots of their time to help out with the fundraising! Their mission for solar has also won the support of a local councillor, Jerry Brooks, who donated £5000 from his Invest in Devon fund. 

For all of this fantastic fundraising we have decided that they deserve their moment to shine as our Solar School of the Week!

How tiny Pendock primary became a solar success story

8 May 13

Pendock school's brand new solar roof

You couldn't have picked a better day to go solar. Under an impeccably blue bank holiday sky, Mechteld Blake watched a team of builders bolt the last glinting PV panel to the roof of her son's primary school.

Pendock primary in Worcestershire is among the first of this year's Solar Schools to turn its virtual panels – sponsored by parents, former pupils, local businesses and others from the community – into real ones.

But it's been quite a journey. Here's how Pendock's solar success story unfolded...