Podcasts about low tech magazine

What if the solutions are the problem?Life is made beautiful by the myriad possibilities that evolve—spontaneously—from interactions in the world. A look shared between strangers, a joke passed from customer to barista, a story swapped, a birdsong heard. But these possibilities are diminishing with every tech substitution for interaction. Tech gets in the way. I'm joined by journalist and founder of Low Tech Magazine, Kris De Decker, to discuss the difference between high tech and low tech; the zealous and unfounded faith in tech crippling our climate decisions; the relationship between tech, finance, economies and state control; and how a low tech lifestyle is liberating. This is a beautiful conversation with someone really walking the walk when it comes to sustainability—and reaping the rewards.Planet: Critical is 100% independent and community-powered. If you value it, and have the means, become a paid subscriber today!References: Brett Scott and Altered States of Monetary Consciousness: Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

We speak with founder and editor-in-chief of Low Tech Magazine, Kris de Decker, about his work since 2007 highlighting technologies of yesteryear, developing simple and low-cost energy systems to run his apartment and publishing, building un-hackable websites powered completely off of solar, and advocating demand-side management as a superior approach to sustainability. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com https://www.notechmagazine.com Support the work of Kris and his collaborators by purchasing low-tech versions of his online magazine, AKA books (compendiums of website content)!

Kris de Decker, founder, Low-tech Magazine Tomaš Dvořák - "Game Boy Tune" - "Mark's intro" - "Interview with Kris de Decker" [0:07:05] - "Mark's comments" [0:47:48] Linus Akesson - "Vivaldi Summer Presto" [0:56:55] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/134134

On this episode, Nate welcomes back journalist, inventor, and low-tech expert Kris De Decker to take a deeper dive into a more human-powered system on the backside of the carbon pulse. Through both historical and experiential lenses, Kris shares five creative alternatives to current high tech systems - from hot water bottles to electric buses and preventative-focused healthcare systems. Could a move towards communal services and human-power also shift our mindsets to think twice about how much energy is actually needed to thrive and still be comfortable? Will society willingly move from a resource intensive growth economy towards a lower energy, human powered economy?  About Kris De Decker: Kris De Decker shifted from a journalism career covering high tech to exploring low tech through formal and personal research and projects, including the Human Power Plant and the Solar Powered Website.   De Decker is creator and author of Low Tech Magazine and No Tech Magazine, publications which explore low tech solutions to questions society assumes must be solved through high tech.   De Decker has contributed articles about science, technology, energy and the environment to Mother Earth News, Techniques et Culture, Design Magazine, The Oil Drum, Resilience, EOS, Molenecho's, "Knack", "De Tijd" and "De Standaard".  De Decker's books "Energie in 2030" advised the Dutch government on challenges related to science and technology and his book "Stralingswarmte: gezonde warmte met minder energie" provided a guide for how heat works.    For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/75-kris-de-decker  To watch this video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4MYqRvm7vX4

On this episode, we meet with inventor, researcher and author Kris De Decker to understand the concept of “low tech” and its relevance in a high tech society and growth-driven economy.  How does low tech differ from high tech and what does it feel like to live a low tech lifestyle? Why do we assume high tech will always be the solution, and could low tech be a feasible path for a sustainable and fulfilling future? De Decker shares his personal experiences as a low tech advocate and researcher in a high tech urban environment and how freedom from technology provides both challenges and unexpected benefits.   About Kris De Decker: Kris De Decker shifted from a journalism career covering high tech to exploring low tech through formal and personal research and projects, including the Human Power Plant and the Solar Powered Website.   De Decker is creator and author of Low Tech Magazine and No Tech Magazine, publications which explore low tech solutions to questions society assumes must be solved through high tech.   De Decker has contributed articles about science, technology, energy and the environment to Mother Earth News, Techniques et Culture, Design Magazine, The Oil Drum, Resilience, EOS, Molenecho's, "Knack", "De Tijd" and "De Standaard".  De Decker's books "Energie in 2030" advised the Dutch government on challenges related to science and technology and his book "Stralingswarmte: gezonde warmte met minder energie" provided a guide for how heat works.    De Decker was born in Antwerp, Belgium and lives in Barcelona, Spain. De Decker describes himself as “rather inactive” on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Degrowth und die Frage nach der Technologie - ein nicht unbelastetes Verhältnis, das gerade deshalb besprochen gehört. Kollaborative Podcast-Transkription Wenn ihr Future Histories durch eure Mitarbeit an der kollaborativen Transkription der Episoden unterstützen wollt, dann meldet euch unter: transkription@futurehistories.today FAQ zur kollaborativen Podcast-Transkription: shorturl.at/eL578     Shownotes Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie: https://konzeptwerk-neue-oekonomie.org/ Schmelzer, Matthias & Vetter, Andrea. 2019. Degrowth, Postwachstum zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius Verlag.: https://www.junius-verlag.de/Programm/Zur-Einfuehrung/Degrowth-Postwachstum-zur-Einfuehrung.html  Guenot, Nicolas & Vetter, Andrea. 2022. "An overview of strategies for social-ecological transformation in the field of digital technologies and the cases of Low-Tech Magazine and Decidim". In: Barlow, N. et al. (Hrsg.). Degrowth & Strategy. how to bring about social-ecological transformation. Mayfly Books. [PDF]: https://www.degrowthstrategy.org/ https://mayflybooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Degrowth-n-Strategy-2022.pdf Schmelzer, Matthias; Vansintjan, Aaron; Vetter, Andrea. 2022. The Future Is Degrowth. A Guide to a World beyond Capitalism. London: Verso Books.: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth Vetter, Andrea. 2022. Konviviale Technik: Empirische Technikethik für eine Postwachstumsgesellschaft. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag [Veröffentlichung am 27.10.2022]: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5354-0/konviviale-technik/?number=978-3-8394-5354-4 Degrowth Vienna: https://www.degrowthvienna.org/   Weitere Shownotes Haus des Wandels: https://hausdeswandels.wordpress.com/ Master Transformationsdesign an der HBK Braunschweig: https://transformazine.de/ Matthias Schmelzer: https://www.soziologie.uni-jena.de/arbeitsbereiche/mentalitaeten-im-fluss-nachwuchsgruppe/personen/dr-matthias-schmelzer Interview mit François Schneider: https://www.pfz.at/themen/sozial-oekologische-transformationen/can-decreix-ein-post-wachstums-labor-in-frankreich/ Group Assembly Process (GAP): https://degrowth.community/gap Günther Anders: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_Anders Jacques Ellul: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul Ivan Illich: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich Helen Hester: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/staff/helen-hester Bastani, Aaron. 2020. Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. Verso Books.: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3156-fully-automated-luxury-communism Solarpunk: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk Decidim Barcelona: https://www.decidim.barcelona/?locale=es Erik Olin Wright: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Olin_Wright https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/RealUtopias.htm Antonio Gramsci: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci Extraktivismus: https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/5579/der-neue-extraktivismus   Weitere Future Histories Episoden zum Thema S02E12 | Friederike Habermann zu Tauschlogik: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e12-friederike-habermann-zu-tauschlogik/ S01E52 | Max Koch zur politischen Ökonomie des Degrowth: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e52-max-koch-zur-politischen-oekonomie-des-degrowth/ S01E36 | Ronja Morgenthaler & Kai Kuhnhenn zu Zukunft für alle: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e36-ronja-morgenthaler-amp-kai-kuhnhenn-zu-zukunft-fuer-alle/ S01E28 | Joanna Pope zu Degrowth & Akzelerationismus: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e28-joanna-pope-zu-degrowth-amp-akzelerationismus/ S01E03 | Armen Avanessian zu Akzelerationismus & Ethnofuturismen: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e03-armen-avanessian-zu-akzelerationismus-ethnofuturismen/   Wenn euch Future Histories gefällt, dann erwägt doch bitte eine Unterstützung auf Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistories? Schreibt mir unter office@futurehistories.today und diskutiert mit auf Twitter (#FutureHistories): https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcast oder auf Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FutureHistories/ www.futurehistories.today Episode Keywords: #Podcast, #FutureHistories, #AndreaVetter, #JanGroos, #Interview, #Technologie, #GreenNewDeal, #LinkerAccelerationismus, #Ludismus, #OpenSource #LowTech, #PartizipativeDemokratie, #Postwachstum, #Degrowth, #Zukunft, #GrünesWachstum, #Demokratie, #GreenGrowth, #GrünesWachstum, #AlternativeWirtschaft, #Solidarität, #Wandel, 

Kris de Decker's balcony in Barcelona is nice and sunny. Which is just as well, because a website depends on it. This week we chat to Kris, co-founder of Low-Tech Magazine, about why he built a solar-powered website and how human history can inspire modern environmental solutions. We're also talking about foie gras, faux gras, and bringing EU and non-EU Europe together. You can check out the solar-powered version of Low-Tech Magazine's website here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: 'Today in Focus - The Wagatha Christie case'; 'Multiples: 12 stories in 18 languages by 61 authors'; this vegan foie gras recipe; Impact from Les Glorieuses, a feminist newsletter in English and French. Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify. 03:23 Good Week? Macron's big new idea 12:09 Bad Week: Foie gras 20:09 Interview: Kris De Decker on building a solar-powered website 34:38 Isolation Inspiration: 'Today in Focus - The Wagatha Christie case' and 'Multiples' 38:04 Happy Ending: Italy's women footballers go pro Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak, with thanks to Katz Laszlo Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

This is episode 103 of EV Musings a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners. On the show today we'll be looking at destination charging. What it is, where it is, and why it's possibly more important than rapid charging This season of the podcast is sponsored by Zap Map. LINKS Zap Map https://www.zap-map.com/apps Wireless charging episode https://evmusings.libsyn.com/68-wireless-charging Wireless charging pilot https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/uk-firm-begins-public-trial-wireless-ev-chargers Cool thing: Low Tech Magazine https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com Social Media: Patreon Link: http://www.patreon.com/evmusings Ko-fi Link: http://www.ko-fi.com/evmusings EVMusings: Twitter https://twitter.com/MusingsEv and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/The-EV-Musings-Podcast-2271582289776763 Octopus Energy referral code (Click this link to get started) https://share.octopus.energy/neat-star-460 'So, you've gone electric?' on Amazon : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Q5JVF1X

I didn’t think of how small my building’s elevators were when I bought a sofa after moving into my current apartment. It didn’t fit. The deliverymen tried to bring it up the stairs too. They made the first landing, but couldn’t make the turn to go up the next flight.They had to take it back. I ended up paying a $300 restocking fee plus big tips for the deliverymen’s extra efforts. Plus I lost weeks with no sofa. Now I know my home’s limits. Living within them is no problem when I know them, only when I didn’t. A few minutes of measurement and geometry could have saved me that trouble and improved my life.Can homo sapiens’ elevator, also known as Earth, fit us all in? As with my sofa, maybe a bit of calculation is worth saving the trouble of finding out if our sofa can fit. We’re past the point of eyeballing it. Our sofa is civilization and billions of lives.I doubt even those who study sustainability most can answer Important questions likeCan fusion save us? Will it?What works between solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, and other options? What doesn’t? Why not?What unintended side-effects are we missing?Do we risk losing civilization? If so, how great is the risk?If we take the gloves off, can geoengineering and other last-ditch efforts work?How hard will saving it be?What do we have to do to make it?These questions have answers, whether we find them out or not. There are a lot of books on the environment. I’ve read a lot of them. Most just describe our situation and what will happen if we don’t fix it. Some talk about what we can do, but they don’t help us understand. They don’t describe the patterns, just the results or instruction. We have to trust the writer.We’ve all heard to eat less meat. How much less? Will all the things they tell us to do solve the problems? How can I tell? What if I don’t eat less meat? Between eating meat or not, why can’t I see any difference in the world? Should I bother trying or just enjoy life to the max?We’re just told the problems and what to do. Maybe school should have taught us but it didn’t. After decades of poor science education, few teachers know how to teach science. They spout facts and instruction. Most analysis and activism is done without context or knowing nature’s patterns, based on feelings. Some envision a world of 10 billion thriving, others a collapse well before.Sustainability leadership is my life passion and frankly I don’t find most resources on the environment useful or readable. From the IPCC report Greta Thunberg gave to Congress to An Inconvenient Truth to articles suggesting “one little thing you can do for the environment,” they describe results and tell us what to do. They don’t help us understand beyond “coral reefs are bleaching” and oversimplifications like “CO2 acts like a blanket.” We have to take their word things like biodiversity is good and pollution is bad.Even knowing all the data doesn’t tell us the patterns. Will buying an electric vehicle matter? Does flying matter? How much? Enough to save lives? How can I tell, or do I have to take your word for it? Most of all, what about when they clash with other values? What if someone else says jobs or energy security is more important? Is there conflict? If so, how do we resolve it? What if we don’t want to emit greenhouse gases but our mother is sick, flying distance away? Or we feel our job depends on it? What about someone else saying the economy depends on my buying more stuff?Only knowing data but not patterns, we can’t think or decide for ourselves. We throw up our hands. For generations we’ve said we’d act and in fact we have, yet we keep lowering Earth’s capacity to sustain life and society. Could our ignorance be causing our attempts at solutions to augment the problems? Might our current attempts at solutions be exacerbating the problems. Are we on a road to hell paved with good intentions?A New HopeTom Murphy’s new book, Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, changes all that. It empowers us to understand, think, and act for ourselves.Murphy earned his PhD at Caltech and teaches at UC San Diego. A decade ago he started the Do The Math blog, where he did more than answer the questions above. He showed how he found the answer so you can too, so you can think for yourself. I called it the best site on the internet (tied with Low Tech Magazine).Murphy’s sofa-doesn’t-fit-in-the-elevator moment came in 2006, shortly after moving to San Diego, considering the value of his home. He wrote:I pored over articles on the matter, and found two camps. One camp provided rafts of alarming quantitative analysis of the peril: sub-prime lending, soaring price-to-income ratios, unprecedented unaffordability by average families, vulnerability to any weakness in other sectors. The other camp said that the housing market was manifesting a new normal, that San Diego’s universal appeal would prevent a price drop, that scary lending practices were easily skirted by re-financing before interest payments ballooned. I chose to go with the quantitative analysis over the hand-wavy platitude-based set of beliefs, and am glad that I did.He sold at the height of the market. On seeing the success of applying quantitative analysis over hand-wavy platitude-based opinion to life, instead of moving to finance like many physicists, he applied it to the environment. He saw hand-wavy platitude-based beliefs and couldn’t stand it. He began applying physics to how we create energy, population, and so on in Do the Math.To the chagrin of his dedicated audience, since 2015, he posted only once. He told me on one of his appearances on my podcast that he had answered the most important questions so didn’t have more to write.But he wasn’t done. The blog was an unorganized string of posts. He taught a course to non-science undergraduates on the subject, called Energy and the Environment. He used the course to compile his posts, polish them, and make a self-contained comprehensive book. As far as I know, the only one like it, possibly because mathematics is the language of nature, so equations abound, but he explains them, so people who haven’t taken science or math classes since high school can follow.Showing the math means we don’t have to take his word for it. We can do the math too and think, judge, and act for ourselves. No matter our politics, age, industry, etc, we can access this book equally. The environment involves many branches of science, including physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, systems, and more, as well as fields including engineering, history, politics, philosophy, and more. Murphy brings them together like no other resource I’ve found. Many will shy away from devoting the time that the gravity of our environmental situation demands, but for enabling and empowering every reader to understand, think, judge, and act for themselves, I consider Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet the science book of the decade.I’ve read and watched a lot of books, videos, and articles. For reference, I consider Sustainability Without the Hot Air by Caltech-trained Cambridge physicist David MacKay the science book of the previous decade, and Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, the science book of the decade before that, by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen Randers. (A video of David MacKay after his book led me to avoid flying, not as a burden but to increase my enjoyment of nature and connection to humans.) Read these three books, and you understand our environment.But wait, there’s more. Murphy has acted on his findings in his personal life. He didn’t just use an electric car or unplug appliances before doing so was cool, he measured his results and shared how doing so affected his relationships with his wife, peers, and students. He shares his life and profession. This book doesn’t teach raw information, it shares a lifestyle.I’m not saying the book is easy, only that I find it the most valuable book or resource on the most important area humans have faced as a species, and I’ve read and watched many.Murphy’s book is glorious. He writes about the wonder of nature, our genius in harnessing it, its limitations, and our folly at not measuring the sofa before trying to jam it into the elevator, or believing the self-serving interests suggesting a “new normal” without justification.The math is accessible to a non-science undergraduate. To someone with a PhD in physics like me, it is a symphony—pure joy when you understand it, even more when your study it. Beethoven didn’t write his Ninth for one hearing. Yo-Yo Ma has to study pieces and even with my PhD, I have to take time to understand its equations and application. I learn each time I read Murphy. You will too. The payoff is worth it for aesthetic pleasure alone. There are practical benefits to understanding the patterns: unlike Beethoven, the fates of civilization and millions of species, including our own, depend on our understanding and behavior.Learning math and physics here is like learning biology and chemistry when you start gardening or sports. You don’t need to start with anything. You won’t reach your potential, but you won’t get injured either. You’ll learn by doing. Any gardener will soon learn about species and seasons. Lifting weights taught me anatomy and diet. Sailing will teach you tides and fluid dynamics.Math doesn’t give answers. It doesn’t have values. People Do.Humans have values. What we consider good, bad, right, and wrong stands outside math and science. Euclid derived all of Euclidean geometry from five axioms but he had to start with them. Likewise, math lets you get from your values to what to do but it doesn’t tell you your values.Engineers often think math tells you answers. They promote nuclear power for not emitting CO2 or electric vehicles because they are more efficient, but do our deepest values include avoiding CO2 emissions and efficiency?Murphy describes how nuclear fission and fusion work, their hurdles to implementation, and so on, but then treats the science and technology as only the starting point to decide their value. Most analyses and people confronted with waste and pollution see more efficient sources and less polluting sources as the solution. Obviously, they pollute less, right? Not so fast. You have to do the math. What patterns have we followed before? If we follow them again, what will happen? People familiar with systems may expect systems to behave differently than their elements alone. Murphy does the math and suggests clean fission and fusion would compound our problems. Don’t believe him? You can do the math yourself, but if you just feel confident based on hopes, dreams, and fantasies, you’ll benefit most from his book.Most science books tell you results of experiment or predict some outcome based on some model. The IPCC reports, for example, tell you our best understanding of our climate measurements and where, given our patterns, we’ll end up or could end up if we change our behavior. The results show lots of numbers. They do math but they don’t enable you to do math. Books like the Uninhabitable Earth describe such predictions in prose, again not enabling you to do math.Who Should Read ItAfter generations of this nation denigrating science, math, nature, and education of them, I’m under no preconceptions of how popular this book will become. People feel guilty thinking and talking about the environment when their responsibility comes into play. Still, everyone can understand it. You’ll love it when you work through it.Every policymaker, CEO, and media programmer will benefit their audiences from knowing this book. Even if leaders don’t read it enough to understand it, this book enables them to have on staff or retainer someone who understands the math from doing it. That leader can choose not to talk in equations. He or she may even wave his or her hands and speak in platitudes, but can start from understanding, not ignorance.Why You’ll Love the MathI wrote how mathematics is the language of nature and that Murphy’s book is a symphony. The video below of a master class will illustrate what I mean (and put a big smile on your face, there are more of his videos here). Ben Zander is a conductor, musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and bestselling author. He speaks sometimes in English but other times through the piano. Because music is the language of music. Zander can’t communicate in English the sound and meaning of music where a few notes on the piano communicate everything.https://youtu.be/b2S-OjTb4nUAs music communicates music, equations describe nature. I know people more fluent in music will hear more than I do from Zander, but I love what I hear and value hearing what I can. You will gain as much reading Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet.Enjoy the book!Here is a video Tom and some peers made of the book:https://youtu.be/2fbOWhJy7So See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm in my second month since I unplugged my fridge. Why unplug it?Not because I think its power makes anything more than a negligible difference. This episode describes why.Here are my notes I read from:The other two reasons I unplug the fridge. The first was after reading Vietnam and much of the world ferments, I was curious to learn fermentation. Second is reading how much backup power a grid needs to maintain perfect uptime. Resilience. Each bit after 99% costs a lot more. Alternatively, 95% requires almost no backup. Third is to learn and grow myself. Neediness and entitlement, especially to things that hurt others and nobody needed for hundreds of thousands of years, doesn't make me better person. Do you know anyone spoiled? Do you describe them as "You know what I love about Kate? She's spoiled and acts entitled."Low Tech Magazine's two articles I mentioned, plus a third on how resilience increases security tooVietnam's Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of DecayHow (Not) to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power AloneKeeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You could fill a library with reports and books describing the importance of energy-efficient heating systems and home insulation. However, not a word has been said or written about the energy savings potential of clothing, even though there has been a lot of progress in this area too. Modern thermal underclothing offers the possibility to turn the thermostat much lower without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal. The potential energy savings are huge; the costs are almost nil. This article explains through science and statistics how to maintain thermal comfort at any given indoor temperature using only clothes. Photo credit: Woolpower. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article has been translated into French and Spanish. Over the last decades, both the insulation of homes... https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/02/body-insulation-thermal-underwear.html WoolpowerFrenchSpanishsourcesourcespeed of an automobile12Dutch reportDavid MacKaythermal manikinhereIcebreakerPatagoniaMammutWoolpowerHelly Hansentile stove

Marie Otsuka (http://motsuka.com) is a designer working around tools and methods for making. She designed and developed the solar powered version of the Low-Tech Magazine website (http://solar.lowtechmagazine.com). This episode was originally recorded in New York on December 30, 2019, not too long after Marie returned from Barcelona, where the solar-powered server of Low-Tech Magazine lives.

The poor today are always working long hours in menial jobs to pay off something that is continuously breaking down. In many ways they are being punished for being poor.   If you have a hot jug, fan heater, hairdryer, juicer, toaster, vacuum cleaner and other consumer white ware - with a bit of luck you may get two to three year’s life out of them - and then they are off to the landfill.    This interview of Rex Weyler, is one of the original Greenpeace activists - when it was more a volunteer organisation - and they were true Rainbow Warriors - tells of the continuous battle on bringing humankind to become accountable and responsible for the wanton abuse and use of the earth’s critical resources.    This below is Rex’s most recent article ‘Its a waste world’ that was printed in Greenpeace Magazine https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/23747/its-a-waste-world/ A popular bumper sticker in the United States – typically seen on large vehicles, with giant wheels and vibrating chrome muffler pipes – reads: “My carbon footprint is bigger than yours.” This appears as a banner for the culture of extravagant indulgence. And wherever consumption is encouraged and admired, waste follows. The world’s rich cultures are all wasteful, and not just because of excessive fossil fuel use. Even our modern electronic devices represent a massive waste stream. Last year, electronic waste reached an all-time record of 65 million tonnes. Planned Obsolescence   Used bulb lamps collected by Greenpeace volunteers during the clean up at Bokor Island conservation area on Thousand Islands. © Dhemas Reviyanto / Greenpeace Even modern LED light bulbs, for example, do not last as long as incandescent bulbs made a century ago. One carbon filament light bulb, at a fire station in Livermore, California, is still burning continuously after 120 years. Building things that last, and consuming modestly, used to be common human values. But that all changed with the advent of contemporary business models and modern marketing. In 1924, three companies – Dutch Philips, German Osram, and US General Electric – formed a cartel, Phoebus, to shorten the life of light bulbs. Making light bulbs that could last 100 years limited their sales growth. They agreed on a thousand-hour standard, about three or four months of normal use, the historic beginning of planned obsolescence. During World War I, the U.S. Treasury Department launched a frugality campaign to save resources for the war effort. Merchants, however, opposed the initiative. According to Giles Slade in Made to Break, US stores displayed signs such as, “Beware of Thrift,” and “Business as Usual.” New York retailers formed the “National Prosperity Committee,” with slogans like, “Full Speed Ahead!” and “Clear the Track for Prosperity!” During the global economic depression in 1932, New York manufacturers circulated a pamphlet: “Ending the Depression through Planned Obsolescence,” the first known printed use of this phrase. An article in Printer’s Ink journal warned that the idea of durability was “outmoded,” claiming that, “If merchandise does not wear out faster, factories will be idle, people unemployed.” Paul Mazur, a partner at Lehman Brothers, declared that obsolescence, designing products to fail or wear out, was the “new god” of business philosophy. In 1950s America, advertising firms learned that they could sell products not based on function, quality, or durability, but on novelty. Products were sold as “new,” “modern,” and “innovative,” whether or not the “innovations” offered any genuine value. The throwaway fashion industry was born on the notion that clothing “styles” allegedly changed every year, and that to appear “modern,” one must repeatedly buy new clothing. Ad agencies convinced popular journals to publish fashion sections to inform, or manipulate, the public regarding the latest styles. Thus, the idea of well-made, durable products died away in rich nations, replaced by products that break, wear out, become obsolete, or go out of fashion. This trend has now seized the modern electronics industry. E-waste and the cost of high tech   A small child sitting among cables and e-waste in Guiyu, China © Greenpeace / Natalie Behring Since the 1980s, computers and electronic devices have made lives in rich countries more convenient and entertaining. Some observers expected that modern electronics would also make society more “efficient,” that computers would save paper and other resources. Those hopes, however, encountered what is known in economics as the “rebound effect“: Efficiency often leads to more resource use, not less. Human enterprise now uses six times more paper than we used at the dawn of the computer age, six times more lithium, five times more cobalt, more iron, copper, and more rare earth metals. Mining for these minerals tends to be ecologically destructive and exploitive of human labourers. Due to increasing demand and low rates of electronics recycling, mining companies are now proposing strip mines on the ocean floor, a practice that ocean biologists say would permanently damage unique and biodiverse ocean ecosystems. As computer chips got smaller, more powerful, and more energy efficient, the material and energy intensity of those chips increased exponentially. Since our computers require so little energy to operate, we may believe they are “efficient,” but we are measuring the wrong metric. To understand the high cost of high tech, we must consider the embodied energy built into our devices, our telecom infrastructure, server networks, and data centres. We also have to consider the sheer growth of consumption and the acceleration of waste. According to Statisa, about 4 million cell phones are sold every day, over 1.5 billion per year. About 250 million computers are sold each year. The average lifetime of these devices is now about two and a half years. Manufacturers design in obsolescence, changing critical parts and marketing more fashionable, “improved” devices. We may marvel at social media and connectivity, but this level of consumption leaves behind a massive, toxic, and destructive waste stream.   Discarded computer monitor casings in a lagoon in Ghana. © Greenpeace / Kate Davison Apple Corporation has become notorious for designing smartphones, tablets, and laptops that are difficult to repair or upgrade. These policies are not an accident or a necessity of technological advance. They are marketing decisions, designed specifically, like the three-month light bulb, to sell more products. Between June 29, 2007 and November 3, 2017, Apple introduced 14 new iPhone models, one every 37 weeks. The company stopped supporting the first generation phones within three years, and continues to make previous phones obsolete and unsupported. According to Jason Koebler at Motherboard, “Apple is trying to kill legislation that would make it easier for normal people to fix iPhones.” Apple designs products with proprietary parts that cannot be easily repaired and the company has actively lobbied against right-to-repair legislation in the US. According to a Repair.org study, both Apple and Sony have blocked environmental electronics standards that would support repair, upgrade, and recycling. However, Apple Corporation is not alone. According to a 2017 Greenpeace report, other consumer electronics companies are lagging far behind. Although Apple has made progress in the use of renewable energy they are “moving in the wrong direction,” along with Microsoft and Samsung, by shortening the useful life of devices. Samsung, Amazon, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi receive failing grades in every category, using toxic chemicals and dirty energy, making short-lived products that are difficult to recycle, and hiding the data about their practices. On the other hand, HP, Dell, and Fairphone are leaders in producing products that are repairable and upgradable. Electronic waste has now reached over 65 million tonnes per year. Computers, screens, and small hand devices comprise about 22% of that waste, 14 million tonnes annually. According to a 2014 UN Report, Europe produced the highest per-capita electronic waste, over 15 kilograms per person every year. Asia generated the most e-waste, 16 million metric tonnes, followed by the Americas, 11.7 million tonnes per year. Since 2014 those volumes have increase by about 50%. System Change As with most of our ecological challenges, there are solutions, but the response requires more than marginal change. According to Deishin Lee, at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, “most waste is generated on purpose,” built into modern business models. Lee criticizes “output-oriented,” production systems that only consider the product. “Every output-oriented process,” she writes, “is designed to produce waste.” We can overcome this by shifting to input-oriented production, considering the value of all resources, how to conserve, and how to use resources effectively, with a minimum of waste.   Smartphone repair © RIcardo Padilla Roman / Greenpeace Economist Tim Cooper, at Nottingham Trent University believes that a transformation away from planned obsolescence will require a “radical, systemic change.” In his book, “Longer Lasting Products,” Cooper suggests the change could be accomplish with economic policies to encourage minimum standards of durability, repairability, and upgradeability. Quality goods, robust repair-and-servicing, and secondhand markets would result in more jobs and more economic activity for a given amount of resources. Cooper calculates that when consumers spend less on throwaway products, they will spend more for other services and investments. In “Culture of Waste,” Julian Cribb, a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, describes how we could reverse the trends toward food waste with government regulation to limit wasteful practices, full-cost pricing and taxing, subsidies for good stewardship production, and with education. The 2017, Greenpeace Report, advocates similar actions to create closed loop, circular production, beginning at the design stage, with all companies required to design recyclable parts, easy repair, and a take-back program for all products. Growth swamps efficiency Everything we build requires energy. Wasteful practices waste energy. Although we are witnessing an unprecedented effort to develop renewable energy, we are failing to keep pace with growth in demand. Unless we address the growth of human numbers and human enterprise, we are destined for the natural results of ecological overshoot. We also need to phase out fossil fuels and redouble efforts to build renewable energy infrastructure. The following chart – prepared by Canadian energy engineer David Hughes, using data from the 2019 BP Energy Review – shows the annual growth in renewable energy compared to the annual growth in electricity demand. A great deal of this demand is due to wasteful manufacturing and sales practices. Two-thirds of the growth is met with fossil fuels. Furthermore, this only accounts for electricity. 83% of the world’s energy consumption is non-electric.   The only year that renewable energy growth exceeded demand growth occurred in 2009 during an economic recession. This chart reveals two critical pieces of our waste and energy challenge: (1) Renewable energy growth is not keeping pace with total energy demand, and (2) The way to turn this around is to end the expectation of endless economic growth. Some companies, such as Fairphone and Patagonia, have business models that account for slowing growth. The idea that we should keep businesses growing by creating waste is no longer valid – and never was. We can employ more people by building quality products and repairing them. To reverse the trend of wasteful production, biodiversity collapse, carbon emissions that cause global heating, and general ecological overshoot, humanity has to embrace modest consumption and put an end to the era of extravagant indulgence.   References and Links “E-waste World Map Reveals National Volumes, International Flows,” StEP Initiative, 2013, Quoted in Greenpeace E-Waste report, 2016.E-waste: The Escalation of a Global Crisis, TCO certified“Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America,” Giles Slade, Harvard University Press, 2007; and excerpts at Google Books.“A Culture of Waste,” Julian Cribb, Ecology Today, 2012.Guide to Greener Electronics 2017, Greenpeace Reports, October 17, 2017“Overcoming the culture of waste” Deishin Lee, MIT, Sloan School of Management, 2017.Power-hungry gadgets endanger energy efficiency gains, review of The International Energy Association analysis, John Timmer, 2009, ARS Technica.The Global E-waste Monitor, 2014: UN University, 2014.“Electronic Waste (E-Waste): How Big of a Problem is it?” Rubicon, 2018Facts and Figures on E-Waste and Recycling, Electronics Takeback Coalition, 2014“The monster footprint of digital technology,” Kris de Decker, Low-Tech Magazine,“Electronics Standards Are In Need of Repair,” Mark Schaffer, Repair.org, August 2017.“Apple is against your-right to repair i-Phones New York state records confirm,” Jason Koebler, Motherboard, 2017.“Longer Lasting Products: Alternatives to the Throwaway Society,” Tim Cooper, Gower Books, 2010.Culture and Waste: The Creation and Destruction of Value, Edited by Gay Hawkins and Stephen Muecke, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.“The L.E.D. Quandary: Why There’s No Such Thing as ‘Built to Last’,” J. B. MacKinnon, New Yorker, 2016.“Patagonia’s Anti-growth Strategy,” J.B. MacKinnon, New Yorker, 2015.What is happening here in NZ?Here in NZ we continue with this ‘business as usual’ attitude, superimposed over the whole country. It is ‘taken for granted’ and the NZ Government is basically none the wiser. They just continue to carry on as if everything is normal. The NZ struggle to get recycling more efficientNZ has not been able to get a deposit on soft drink or beer bottles, where once we had them. As a kid I used to be continuously walking up and down the main road collecting beer bottles as they were in those days just thrown out the window of cars. At the big rugby games at towns, dur9ng the curtain raiser prior to the main game, I was always able to collect enough coke and lemonade bottles to be able to buy a drink and a hot pie and have some change left over.  Why has NZ not been able to follow the legislation as in the State of South Australia and in the State of Oregon in the USA.  Because, like all the other states in Australia and the USA - business interests in both these countries have overridden prudent ecological policies.  Time and time again the breweries and Coke cola with huge financial resources and well paid lawyers - have been able to stop a deposit with regard to recycling - in its tracks. Hence, the throw away mentality is still prevalent in NZ especially with the unconscious male macho way of life.  Yet, it could be said that as an extension of the top of this article that stoves, fridges etc don’t last long too too, when compared to how they were built 50 years ago.A person working at a local transfer station north of Auckland said - If it was not for the Warehouse - he would not have a job! (The Bargain was not necessarily a bargain)Some of the other issues talked about in this interview was that big business is still calling the shots.One of the issues is that businesses do not look at our planet as a complex living super system. They fail to see the biosphere as a homeostatic, self regulating system of trillions of living creatures that are all delicately balanced and embedded in the web of life.Their (very limited) perspective is that they are on ‘a platform’ - that has raw products coming in (they are not interested in where these products come from or how they are extracted or gained) -  all they want to do is then push (highly packaged) product out onto the market. It also does not really matter how much pollution they produce in the process - hence various governments world wide - have had to enforce clean air and clean water standards on businesses to force them to comply. This has been an ongoing ‘battle’ for over 100 years.There is no thought of ‘nature’ in any business model.  Where as in America there is a remarkable treatise on this thought to come from a First Nations ‘Indian’ called Chief Seattle.     Privatise the Profits and Socialise the Costs - This means putting products or services on the market and if they do not measure up, then society picks up the costs.  - Cigarette companies did this with cigarettes. They made money out of selling them but when smokers ended up in hospital beds - especially in countries with ‘free’ hospital care - it was those countries (the taxpayers) that paid to take care and treat those dying patients. It  was the same when the Wall Street bankers in New York took insane monetary risks back in 2008 whilst still collecting ‘extremely inflated commissions and salaries’ - that they threatened to collapse the whole US and world banking system. That the US Government was then ‘forced’ to bail them out - with the US taxpayer taking the hit. This same mentality is pervasive within the current business world. Privatise the profit and socialise the losses. That there is now such a devastating effect by having to clean up the global environment as a result of business practices that did not factor in a healthy future of the world’s children. Cradle to Cradle  - and the Circular EconomyCradle to Cradle was mentioned. http://www.cradletocradle.com Cradle to Cradle is a design framework for going beyond sustainability and designing for abundance in a Circular Economy. The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle. Drawing on a decade of lessons, William McDonough & Michael Braungart put Cradle to Cradle®concepts into practice with businesses, governments, and people around the world.Prof Dr Michael Braungart gave an interview on the subject of microplastics on 23-10-2018 in the ZDF news programme heute+. Car tyres are the main cause of the microplasty discovered in the human intestine, says environmental expert Michael Braungart. The main problem is the harmful pollution.In the 1980s, Braungart dedicated his work to the environmental organization Greenpeace and beginning in 1982 helped to establish the chemistry section of Greenpeace International, which he took over in 1985. In the same year he received his Ph.D. from the University of Hannover's chemistry department. In order to develop solutions for complex environmental problems, EPEA was established by Greenpeace in 1987. Ever since, Braungart has been involved with research and consultancy for eco-effective products i.e. products and production processes in a loop, not only harmless to man or nature, but beneficial.Time magazine recognized William McDonough in 1999 as a “Hero for the Planet.” In 1996, Mr. McDonough received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, and in 2003 he earned the first U.S. EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. In 2004, he received the National Design Award for achievement in the field of environmental design. In July 2014, Mr. McDonough was appointed as Chair of the World Economic Forum Meta-Council on Circular Economy. Also mentioned was that we are reaching limits to growth and Rex and I touched on some of the major environmental challenges now affecting the biosphere. Japanase built cars superior to American carsIt was quickly noted that when the Japanese car companies came to North America that it only took a few years or so for the American people to realise that Japanes cars were not only more reliable but they lasted longer. The planned obsolescent cars from Ford, General Motors and now defunct Chrysler were far inferior to the Japanese brands - hence their continued success in the US car market today.  Apple in the US comes in for some well earned criticism in the interview.That between June 29, 2007 and November 3, 2017, Apple introduced 14 new iPhone models, one every 37 weeks. The company stopped supporting the first generation phones within three years, and continues to make previous phones obsolete and unsupported. Listen - Apple are not your kind and caring corporation. They are a hard nosed business wanting to continually corner the market for their own ends. Listen to how they and Sony stopped legislation to not allow their products to be repaired.   “Apple is trying to kill legislation that would make it easier for normal people to fix iPhones.” A Global commitment to CHANGE … Transformation away from planned obsolescence will require a “radical, systemic change.”  to encourage minimum standards of durability, repairability, and upgradeability. What's wrong with 10 years for everything over $4,000?Having quality goods, robust repair-and-servicing, and secondhand markets would result in more jobs and more economic activity for a given amount of resources. We could also reverse the trends toward food waste with government regulation to limit wasteful practices, full-cost pricing and taxing, subsidies for good stewardship production, and with education.  2017, Greenpeace Report, advocates similar actions to create closed loop, circular production, beginning at the design stage, with all companies required to design recyclable parts, easy repair, and a take-back program for all products.There is a limit to growth on a finite planetThere is a limit to growth - that if one becomes an astronaut or a cosmonaut - they see clearly from space - that life within the biosphere can only take so much.  That the increase in human numbers and their extracting and polluting practices is overwhelming the natural worlds ability to rebalance these intrusions because of the short time span. Rex mentioned, that unless we address the growth of human numbers and human enterprise, we are destined for the natural results of ecological overshoot. We also need to phase out fossil fuels and redouble efforts to build renewable energy infrastructure. France Under French law it is a crime to intentionally shorten lifespan of a product with the aim of making customers replace it. ... The French investigation is being led by the economy ministry's consumer protection agency. It follows a legal complaint filed in December by pro-consumer group Stop Planned Obsolescence (Hop).Jan 8, 2018 End of the line for stuff that's built to die? A new French law demands that manufacturers display how long their appliances will last. Could this stop planned obsolescence – products designed with restricted lifetimes?  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2015/mar/03/has-planned-obsolesence-had-its-day-design Apple investigated by France for 'planned obsolescence' - BBC News   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378 https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/09/apple-investigated-by-france-for-planned-obsolescence-of-older-iphones/  - This is a Silicon Valley newspaper.Also covered was Regenerative Farming and Biological Farming as a way to make soils more healthy and keep the soil from being blown and washed off the land. This farming method is most definitely the most important way to regenerate our land without using fertilisers.https://www.ourplanet.org/Default.aspx?CCID=34961&FID=629092&ExcludeBoolFalse=True&ID=/greenplanetfm/search-results So there we have it However, it goes far deeper than this.  ListenThis is a very important interview - on an imperilled planet that is awash with rubbish, toxins and the throw away society. That we have to ask the question - are we throwing away our future and our children and grandchildren with it? Time for decisive action, from the Grass Roots up. Not top down from the summit of the Pyramid of Businessmen and Bankers. This has to be where all ‘grassroots’ groups as in localised communities across every nation need to be brought into the conversation and also the planning and action.

Manoush Zomorodi explores the surprising environmental impact of the internet in this episode of IRL. Because while it’s easy to think of the internet as living only on your screen, energy demand for the internet is indeed powered by massive server farms, running around the clock, all over the world. What exactly is the internet’s carbon footprint? And, what can we do about it? Music professor Kyle Devine considers the environmental costs of streaming music. Geophysicist and pop scientist Miles Traer takes his best shot at calculating the carbon footprint of the IRL podcast. Climate journalist Tatiana Schlossberg explores the environmental influence we don’t know we have and what the web’s got to do with it. Greenpeace’s Gary Cook explains which tech companies are committed to renewable energy — and which are not. Kris De Decker tries powering his website with a homebrew solar power system. And, Ecosia's Chief Tree Planting Officer Pieter Van Midwoud discusses how his company uses online search to plant trees. IRL is an original podcast from Firefox. For more on the series go to irlpodcast.org Love the internet, but also love the environment? Here are some ways you can reduce your energy consumption — or offset it — while online. Learn more about Kyle Devine’s research on the environmental costs of music streaming. For more from Tatiana Schlossberg, check out her book, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have. Have a read through Greenpeace’s Click Clean Report that Gary Cook discusses in this IRL episode. You can find solar-powered Low Tech Magazine here and, if the weather is bad, you can view the archive here. As Pieter Van Midwoud notes, Ecosia uses the money it makes from your online searches to plant trees where they are needed most. Learn more about Ecosia, an alternative to Google Search. Here’s more about Miles Traer, the geophysicist who calculated the carbon footprint of the IRL podcast. And, if you’re interested in offsetting your personal carbon emissions overall, Carbonfund.org can help with that. The sound of a data center in this episode is courtesy of artist Matt Parker. Download his music here.

Il Mordente 27 parla dell'evento Blockchain italiano più importante dell'anno (Blockchain Week Rome 2019), del modo più semplice per avviare un sito personale (Stackbit), e della bella idea di averne uno gestito da un server casalingo alimentato ad energia solare (Low-Tech Magazine). ➡ Dettagli su https://ilmordente.it/work/podcast-27/➡ Sconto 10% Blockchain Week Rome: RICCARDOPALOMBO (blockchainweekrome.com)Nel mezzo, tutto il mio buonumore per i trattamenti dall'osteopata e tutta la voglia di tornare a correre, di faticare, di preparare una maratona il prima possibile. Infine, come procede lo sviluppo del nuovo sito? Ho qualcosa da dirvi.Come al solito potete inviare messaggi vocali su Telegram o Whatsapp al numero 351 8516089, oppure usare il modulo contatti su ilmordente.it per scrivere una e-mail.

Eugene is interested in talking about the efforts of Low-Tech Magazine to reduce the energy use required to access their content by building a low-tech, self-hosted, and solar-powered website for themselves. Charis comes to the podcast wanting to talk about Banksy trolling (or possibly being in complicity with) the art world by orchestrating the self-destruction of his painting right after it had been sold at auction by Sotheyby’s for $1.4 million USD. 00:12:40 Low-tech websites 00:26:30 Self-destructing Banksy Links: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/arts/design/uk-banksy-painting-sothebys.html What is MAEKAN? MAEKAN is a membership-based publication and community focused on the sights and sounds of creative culture. We're about learning, participating, and connecting with a global community on a deeper level that social media just doesn't provide. We’re defining the future of creative culture. We don't have all the answers, but our curiosity ensures we never stop looking. Sign-Up Today If you've enjoyed this story from the archives and want to see what else MAEKAN has to offer, sign-up for your membership at MAEKAN.com. You'll unlock all of our stories, be given exclusive member-only-access to our Slack community, and have the opportunity to participate in our monthly digital panel discussions. MAEKAN.com Follow Us instagram.com/maekan facebook.com/storiesforthecurious twitter.com/maekan stories@maekan.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/maekanitup/message

The most interesting DIY podcast, with over 350 episodes. How cool is that? Eric orders safety glasses with diopter built in and doesn't like them. Rick has eye surgery and can see again. We talk about converting shop lights to LEDs, using stone walls as a heat source for growing food, and putting Wikipedia on a thumb drive. Varroa gate for bees by bayer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfIT5vi9buc Check out the GardenFork Amazon Shop: http://amazon.com/shop/gardenfork Get our email newsletter, sign up: http://gardenfork.tv/news Support GardenFork, become a monthly supporter on Patreon, via PayPal. Convert fluorescent shop lights to LED   https://youtu.be/mmR5iEEP9q8    Download all of Wikipedia on a thumb drive  https://lifehacker.com/how-to-download-all-of-wikipedia-onto-a-usb-flash-drive-1798453949 Walled gardens to grow citrus https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pantelleria-gardens-giardino-pantesco Fruit walls on Low Tech Magazine http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html Rick is moving from Evernote to Devon Think https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.html   Watch us on YouTube: www.youtube.com/gardenfork GardenFork’s Facebook Discussion group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1692616594342396/ Visit our website, http://gardenfork.tv

From canvasing for the environment to personal accountability to how to make yogurt—— a wide-ranging conversation with Michelle Maitland, longtime activist and brand new friend. Check out Low Tech Magazine here: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/

Our guest this week is journalist Kris De Decker, the creator of Low Tech Magazine, a blog published in English, Dutch and Spanish that covers low tech solutions in great depth and detail. Without exaggeration, I think it's safe to say it's my favorite blog. On the podcast we discuss high tech problems, Catalan vaulting, […]