Affluenza
Clinical psychologist Oliver James claims in his new book "The Selfish Capitalist: Origins of Affluenza", that "selfish capitalism" (the kind of capitalism we have in Britain) is making us ill.
He says the emergence of selfish capitalism, first under Margaret Thatcher and later Tony Blair, has led to a "startling increase in the incidence of mental illness".
We might live more comfortable lives, with far more possessions than our grandparents, but James believes the rise of materialism has come with a high price tag attached - widespread anxiety and depression.
Most of us own our homes, drive cars, and have TVs, DVDs and MP3s.
Can it really be the case that as we've become more comfortable, we've also become mentally ill?
According to a study carried out by marketing and information group CACI, the average UK home has a staggering 4.7 television sets. A study by Lloyds TSB found that seven out of 10 children have a TV in their rooms and half of them have a DVD player too.
We have stacks of gadgets, individually aimed at making life more pleasant. In the past families were lucky if they owned a gramophone and a few dusty records to play on it. Today 17% of web users in Britain own an iPod.
"The citizens of selfish capitalist countries are twice as likely to suffer from a mental illness as the citizens of countries in mainland western Europe, which practise 'unselfish capitalism'," argues James. So cutting back on unnecessary gadgets may not only be green: it could actually make your family healthier and happier!
Smart directions for green ideas
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Cities may soon be full of electro-cars
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Electro-car public transport and a scheme to track the proper disposal of waste are two of smartest ideas for using satellite-navigation technology.
The applications have just triumphed in an international competition seeking novel ways to employ Galileo, Europe's soon-to-launch sat-nav system.
The multi-billion-euro space venture will transform the quality of location and timing data available on Earth.
And entrepreneurs are being urged to develop innovative ways to exploit it.
The transport application devised by the Vu Log company in Sophia Antipolis, France, envisages a fleet of "green" vehicles on city roads. |
Each electrically powered mini-car would be equipped with instant and highly precise positioning equipment.
Commuters could use the internet or their mobile phone to find the nearest vehicle, jump in and start it with a smartcard, and then drive it to their destination.
"There would be no constraint - you could leave the car where you wanted," explained Vu Log's George Gallais.
"The service provider would come and charge the cars up every two or three days. Being used just for short distances, they wouldn't need charging every day," he told the BBC News website.
Future skies
The electro-car concept was deemed to be the best in over 200 entries to this year's Galileo Masters competition.
The contest pushes small and medium-sized enterprises to start thinking now about how they could get the best out of Europe's satellite-navigation system, due to be operational by the decade's end.
At the moment, Vu Log's car scheme would have difficulty working because the American Global Positioning System (GPS) does not give sufficiently accurate and reliable location data to precisely pin-point a vehicle in a heavily built-up area.
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THE GALILEO FUTURE 
Expected to be more than 400 million sat-nav users by 2015 European aerospace and electronics firms say it will create more than 100,000 jobs. Rescue services will be able to pinpoint the exact location of a car driver's accident System will allow someone to find their way in an unfamiliar city using their mobile phone. |
But with Galileo operating alongside GPS to "beef-up" the sat-nav signal, there would be less chance of community cars being lost in the steel and glass "canyons" that characterise modern cities.
"This is definitely an application for the future," said Christian Stammel, from the competition organisers.
"But when GPS is enhanced with Galileo, you can envisage all sorts of 'navigation guardian' solutions, which would guide you through a city using a mixture of buses, subway, electric cars and on foot."
Galileo Masters 2005 accepted entries from seven European business regions, including from the UK which put forward the greatest number of ideas.
Richard White, from Melbourn in Cambridgeshire, took the prize for the best of these. He has devised a secure, web-based system he calls "TrackerBack" for keeping tabs on large or valuable loads from pick-up to delivery.
It issues secret numbers to sender, haulier and recipient which, when brought together, confirm the chain has been completed.
"Only when the Pin codes are brought together are you able to track duty of care; you can prove an audit that is legally watertight," explained Mr White.
Green solution
With tighter controls being introduced for the disposal of waste and a growing problem of illegal dumping, the entrepreneur believes his TrackerBack system could play a useful policing role when combined with Galileo.
"With the sub-metre accuracy of Galileo, you'd even know how high off the ground that consignment of tyres was," he said. "You'd know instantly if it had been dumped over a hedge rather being taken to the reprocessing plant."
 The system would track duty of care
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Lyn Dutton, from the Thales Group, which produces sat-nav receivers, was on the UK judging panel. "We liked the environmental aspect to Richard's solution and it addresses a real problem that exists at the moment," he said.
"If you've paid a contractor to properly dispose of waste, you want to be sure they haven't just pocketed your money and dumped the load in some quarry. This has a position record attached to it and a log of what was done."
The 25-nation EU bloc is funding the early development of Galileo to the tune of 1.1 billion euros (£0.7bn).
The deployment of the system - the launch of the satellites and the construction of ground stations - will cost a further 2.1 billion euros (£1.4bn), with two-thirds of the investment borne by the private sector. The latter is also expected to pick up all the running costs in the long term.
The first demonstrator spacecraft are undergoing final testing and one will be launched next month.
A full constellation of 30 spacecraft should be in orbit within the next five years. |