These are a few stories we found this week that may be of interest to institute regulars. If you have a news tip, please send it to lowtechinstitute@gmail.com.
Low Tech News
The Real Reason Coffee Has Gotten So Fancy – Mother Jones
Swedish shopping center sells only refurbished second-hand items – Mother Jones
Earthbag Building Gains Code Approval in Nepal! – Natural Building Blog
Do you know how to identify well-made clothes? – TreeHugger
Traditional Landscape Design vs Permaculture Landscape Design – Natural Building Blog
Jaw-Dropping Traditional Small Japanese Home Renovation – Natural Building Blog
How a new way of thinking about soil sparked a national movement in agriculture – Ensia
1712 – What Sustains You? – Permaculture Podcast
Forget food deserts. We need to talk about food mirages – TreeHugger
How cycling can change the world – TreeHugger
Vogel Haus by the Artisans Group is what a modern house should be – TreeHugger
Earthbag Tiny House/Survival Shelter – Natural Building Blog
Don’t believe everything you hear about pesticides on fruits and vegetables – The Conversation
Environmental News
California’s Drought Is Over, but the Rest of the World’s Water Problems Are Just Beginning – Mother Jones
Michigan’s Tart Cherry Orchards Struggle To Cope With Erratic Spring Weather – NPR
California’s drought is over! Too bad the world’s breadbaskets are slowly drying out – Grist
Great Barrier Reef Hit By Bleaching For The Second Year In A Row – NPR
Renewables growth breaks records again despite fall in investment – Carbon Brief
In Chesapeake Bay Cleanup, a Larger Ecosystem at Stake – New York Times
Artist’s brilliant National Park posters advertise a grim future – TreeHugger
A tiny Iowa paper just won a Pulitzer Prize for tackling farm pollution – Grist
Sand Mining in America – Civil Notion
California got 50 percent of its electricity from solar power one day in March – TreeHugger
Fracking comes to the Arctic in a new Alaska oil boom – The Conversation
Here’s Why Water in the West Goes from Drought to Deluge – Mother Jones
Research News
Study: Climate Change Could Increase PTSD, Suicide, and Depression – Mother Jones
Warming limit of 1.5C would ‘save’ huge expanses of permafrost, study says – Carbon Brief
More Permafrost Than Thought May Be Lost as Planet Warms – New York Times
These Are the Seed Banks from Around the World That Will Save Us from the Apocalypse – Vice
A crucial climate mystery is just under our feet – Grist
Road Salt is Turning North America’s Freshwater Lakes into Saltwater – Vice: Motherboard
Fungal Pesticides Offer A Growing Alternative To Traditional Chemicals – NPR
Methane Leaks from Energy Wells Affects Groundwater, Travels Great Distances, Study Confirms – The Tyee
Watching the planet breathe: Studying Earth’s carbon cycle from space – The Conversation
There Are More Than 60,000 Tree Species Worldwide, Scientists Say – NPR
Op-Ed¹
The best way to restore environments in the face of climate change – Ensia
Tesla’s parking lot demonstrates the fundamental problem of the car: There are too many of them – TreeHugger
Disclaimer: The news stories and posts linked above are not meant as an endorsement of the information presented. They are provided as they may be of interest to our readers and further our aims of solutions for a post-fossil-fuel world. We strive to provide fact-based information. If you feel that political views are being presented in a partisan fashion, we are happy to provide equal time to opposing view points as long as they are derived from verifiable data and facts.
¹Opinion pieces represent the independent thought of their authors and may or may not represent the position of the Low Technology Institute.