Podcast: 8. Low-tech Magazine 省エネの技術のブログ

Links:

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/12/how-and-why-i-stopped-buying-new-laptops.html

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/12/too-much-combustion-too-little-fire.html

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/10/electric-velomobiles.html

記事のまとめ・Summary:

Low-tech magazine – doubts on progress and technology

From the “About” page:
Low-tech Magazine questions the blind belief in technological progress, 

and talks about the potential of traditional knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society. 


Low-tech magazine is written by a Dutchman called Kris De Decker. 

Basically, this website tries to think of ways of combining traditional and modern knowledge to create a sustainable society.

For example…

the most recent article is called:
“How and why I stopped buying new laptops”
The writer says he uses laptops for an average of 5.7 years. 

But making a laptop takes a lot of energy (for the factories, materials, etc), 

so instead he uses an old laptop from 2006 . 

It has parts that are easy to replace so it is easy to repair, 

and he uses Linux which is small so it runs fine on older computers (windows and iOS would be too slow)

Another recent article is called:

“too much combustion, too little fire”

It talks about how we burn fossil fuels in power stations, 

then transport the energy to our houses so we can cook, heat space and water, dry clothes etc, 

but in traditional cultures the people did all of this with a household fire. 

The article suggests that maybe we could use modern scientific knowledge to make household fires safe and efficient. 

There are also very interesting articles on velomobiles (like bicycles but with an outer shell like a car to reduce wind resistance) and on storing energy using compressed air instead of chemical batteries.


overall this is a very interesting website that looks at ways of making our society low-energy and therefore sustainable. 
 

Hey Saimon what do you think? 私に勝手な一コメントいわせていただければ・・・

I love the ideas in this website – I think to solve the climate crisis we need to make our societies low-carbon, which means low-energy – this site has lots of great ideas for low-energy societies. 


The articles are quite techical, which I find a bit much, so I skim read the details and focus on understanding the problem and the solution. 


I really hope we can put the ideas in this website into action in our societies, to make an actually sustainable world!


Because remember – our current society is “unsustainable” which means “IT WILL END” – if we don’t want our societies to end, we need to change how they work!

    
Listeners, what do you think? 皆さん、いかがでしょうか?

Do you think we can learn from low-tech magazine? 
How do you think we can make our society low-energy and therefore sustainable?

Thanks for listening everybody!

Credits:

Music by Kajiki

Sound Effects: https://freesound.org/people/tensaimon/bookmarks/

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