Hamish McKenzie, 63 lives with his psychologist wife, Sarah, in Shoreham-on-Sea, Sussex. Almost everything he owns is recycled— including his floating home.
“In times of yore, there’d be ringing of the church bells during a national emergency. They should be ringing now. Climate change is the biggest danger we face,” says Hamish McKenzie—a bell-ringer, boatbuilder, extreme recycler and climate change activist.
He’s been living in a community of houseboats for the last 33 years and says “The Greenland ice cap is melting even faster than predicted. My biggest personal fear is that we can’t keep building our way out of what's coming,” he sips his tea and gestures over to the wall defence just feet from his boat.
“In 100 years' time, maybe less, it will be unviable for people to live here because of rising water levels and the likelihood of hurricanes.”
After training in civil engineering and carpentry, Hamish volunteered in Fiji, building community halls from timber. At 48, he enrolled at art school where he learned welding and fibre-glassing skills.
Now 63, he’s turned recycling into an art form and has created eclectic, eccentric houseboats out of old vehicles and bits and pieces he retrieves from junkyards and farms.
He and his wife live on Verda—an amalgam of an old Bedford coach and eight boats, built on the hull of a 1928 Portsmouth-Gosport ferry, which Hamish rescued from the tidal mudflats. He lists another houseboat, named Dodge, on Airbnb to fund his lifestyle.
Onboard Verda, underneath a striking ceiling incorporating second-hand aircraft wings, the spacious main room is currently home to a banner Hamish has made in support of Extinction Rebellion, the international climate change protest movement.
Denne historien er fra January 2020-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra January 2020-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.
May Fiction
An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month
Wine Not
In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food
Train Booking Hacks
With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again
My Britain: Cheltenham
A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here
Stand Tall, Ladies
Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?