We Can’t Do It Ourselves
High-tech problemsHow to live a more sustainable life? By placing responsibility squarely on the individual, attention is deflected away from the many institutions involved in structuring possible courses of action.
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The Messy World of Fermentation
Low-tech SolutionsWhen modernity meets its end-point and creates a world where everything is sterile, controlled, and known, there will be little space for fermentation.
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Ditch the Batteries: Off-Grid Compressed Air Energy Storage
Low-tech SolutionsCompressed air energy storage is the sustainable and resilient alternative to chemical batteries, with much longer life expectancy, lower life cycle costs, technical simplicity, and low maintenance.
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History and Future of the Compressed Air Economy
Obsolete TechnologyHistorical compressed air systems hold the key to the design of a low-tech, low-cost, robust, sustainable and relatively energy efficient energy storage medium.
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How Much Energy Do We Need?
Low-tech SolutionsResearchers have calculated minimum levels of energy use needed to live a decent life, but what about maximum levels?
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Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency
High-tech ProblemsTo focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable.
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How to Run the Economy on the Weather
Low-tech SolutionsAdjusting energy demand to supply would make switching to renewable energy much more realistic than it is today.
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How (Not) to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power Alone
High-Tech ProblemsMatching supply to demand at all times makes renewable power production a complex, slow, expensive and unsustainable undertaking.
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Non-Electric Hearing Aids Outperform Modern Devices
Obsolete TechnologyThose who can overcome their vanity can revert to technology that has proven to work.
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Could We Run Modern Society on Human Power Alone?
Low-tech SolutionsUnlike solar and wind energy, human power is always available, no matter the season or time of day.
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Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages
Obsolete TechnologyThe heat storage hypocaust could keep a room warm for days with just one firing of the furnace.
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Rebooting Energy Demand: Automatic Software Upgrades
High-tech problemsMore and more consumer products are controlled by networked software: what does this mean for energy demand, and exactly who is responsible for increasing consumption?
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Vietnam’s Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of Decay
Low-tech SolutionsVietnam’s decentralised food system has low energy inputs and reduced food waste, giving us a glimpse of what an alternative food system might look like