High-tech solutions are a popular way to achieve sustainability. It seems that we can still enjoy the comforts of our lives while helping the planet by making cars electric and installing smart systems that monitor and reduce energy consumption.
However, this approach has many risks. Many modern technologies use metals like cobalt, nickel, lithium, and other rare earth elements. These metals are used in devices such as motors, televisions, and cell phones. Their supply is limited and they produce significant emissions.
Many of these devices are also difficult to recycle. This is because complex mixtures of materials are required to create them. Sometimes, these small quantities can be very costly. It is expensive to separate and collect them for recycling.
These limitations, among others, have caused some to question the high tech direction our society is heading and to take a growing interest in low-tech alternatives. These solutions are simple and durable, local manufacturing, as well traditional or ancient techniques.
Low-tech solutions are often focused on conviviality. This encourages social connections through communal music and dance, as opposed to encouraging hyper-individualism fueled by digital devices.
Contrary to popular belief sustainable living doesn’t require high tech solutions. Low-tech, even old, methods can be used to reduce energy consumption.
Low-tech does NOT mean that we should return to medieval ways. It does require more discernment in the selection of technologies and consideration for their disadvantages.
Origins of low-tech
Over the centuries, critics have proclaimed that excessive technology has its downsides. They range from 19th-century Luddites to 20th-century writers like Lewis Mumford or Jacques Ellul. These ideas were popularized in part by the Western energy crisis of the 1970s.
E.F. Schumacher, a British economist, wrote in 1973 Small is Beautiful a powerful critique on modern technology and its depletion. Schumacher instead advocated simplicity: locally affordable, efficient technology (which he called intermediate technologies), such small hydroelectricity units used by rural communities.
A growing movement called low-tech has taken Schumacher’s place. Since 2007, Kris de Dekkers, a Belgian writer, has been cataloguing low-tech solutions online at Low-Tech Magazine. The magazine examines outdated technologies that could still contribute towards a sustainable society. For example, fruit walls were used in 1600s to create warm microclimates for the cultivation of Mediterranean fruits.
Julia Watson, an American architect and academic, wrote Lo-TEK. TEK stands to Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Philippe Bihouix, a French engineer, realized the technology’s drain on resources and wrote his award-winning book The Age of Low Tech. It was published for the first time in 2014. It describes life in a low tech world, including how to drastically reduce consumption.
Bihouix presents seven commands of the low-tech movement. These include being mindful of the environmental impact of technology, being careful about automation (especially if it replaces employment), and reducing our dependency on nature.
The first principle of low tech is to avoid excessive or frivolous consumption and be satisfied with less beautiful models that have lower performance. Bihouix says:
A reduction of consumption could help you quickly rediscover many simple, poetic and philosophical joys in a rejuvenated natural environment. Stress reduction and work time reduction would also make it possible to develop many leisure or cultural activities, such as theatre, music, gardening, or yoga.
Solutions from the past
We can also apply low-tech principles in our daily lives right now. We can reduce our heating energy use by using blankets and warm clothes. Food can be purchased in reusable and recyclable packaging, such as glass, provided it is not packaged.
Low-tech solutions are possible in architecture, especially if history is a guide. Buildings can be cooled with less energy by using wind-catcher towers that allow cool air to flow through the rooms. As a way to deal with the intermittent nature of renewable energy, heat storage in stones, which was used by the Romans for underfloor heating is being looked at.
Design and manufacturing for sustainability emphasizes reducing waste. This is often done by avoiding mixing and contaminating material. Simple materials such as plain carbon and steels can be easily recycled and repaired locally. These steels can be used to rehabilitate and recycle buses, trains, and farm machinery, as well as modern cars made from advanced alloys.
In some areas, low tech principles are already being used to influence urban design and industrial policy. Example: 15-minute cities with shops and other amenities within walking distance of residents. Cargo bikes are used for deliveries and cargo bikes are used to transport goods. Right-to-repair legislation is available in the EU and the US to encourage repairable products.
Japan is now reviving the Edo period’s recycling and reuse practices. The country was closed to the outside world from 1603 to 1867 and had very limited access to raw material. It was therefore possible to reuse and repair broken pottery and utensils that had holes, which we now consider waste. Specialist repairers could repair or recycle everything, from books and paper lanterns to shoes and umbrellas to candles, shoes, and pans.
These examples show how we can make technology choices that are both intelligent and sustainable.
The writer is a Senior Fellow in Engineering at University of Bristol
Republished from The Conversation
Published in Dawn EOS, February 27, 2022
