The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. Energy The solution is easy to articulate but nearly impossible to implement: stop using fossil fuels immediately. We realize that this sounds alarmist, but we see no other single action that could have as broad an impact as the complete cessation of the use of … More Basic Stances — Energy: Electricity
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. Humans are a product of the interplay of their genetic propensities and surroundings. Before the neolithic revolution, 10,000 years ago, when humans first started settling down to an agricultural way of life, they were hunter-gatherers, moving throughout a region in search of seasonally available … More Basic Stances — Infrastructure
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. Education Throughout human history, educational systems have been a reflection of their age. In feudal times, education was the purview of the wealthy and religious ascetics. With the invention of the printing press (first in China and then Europe), knowledge became more widespread as the … More Basic Stances — Social Organization: Education and Population (Part 4)
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. It’s the ‸Stupid Economy, Stupid The economy can be looked at through a variety of lenses, but one of the most basic divides it into three sectors. The primary sector has to do with resource extraction. Everything from logging, mining, and drilling to farming and … More Basic Stances — Social Organization: Economy and Finance (Part 3)
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. We must get away from the two most insidious beliefs of modern governance—hierarchy and survival of the fittest—and instead we should champion their opposites—heterarchy and cooperative symbiosis. Our current society is explicitly ordered in hierarchical systems: local, state, and federal governments, for example, or … More Basic Stances — Social Organization: Heterarchy and Survival of the Fittest (Part 2)
The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming novel EcoGuerrillas. Our society uses a variety of systems to organize itself. Cities, neighborhoods, counties, and towns order us in physical space. Representatives in the local, regional, and national government make decisions and the rules by which we live. Our work is organized into industries: extraction, production, … More Basic Stances — Social Organization (Part 1)
Email subscribers to the blog may have been sent a few extra emails Friday night, and we’re sorry for that but promise it was for good reason. Our previous podcast host, SoundCloud, only allowed three hours of audio to be live at any one time. We recently found a way to host the podcast with … More Apologies for Multiple Emails, But Our Podcasting Just Got Better (and Yours Can, Too)
Low Tech News In Conversation: Justice & Equity After Fossil Fuels – Resilience Retrofitting the Suburbs for an Abundant DIY Future – Milkwood What should you do with your food scraps? – Grist Milk Kefir: breaker of chains, un-pasteurizer of milk – Milkwood Off Grid Crockpot? – Natural Building Blog Built on stilts: Brick house … More News Roundup — Nov. 18, 2016
Low Tech News There’s an effort to write tiny homes into the International Residential Code afoot – TreeHugger How Much Did Our Tiny House Cost??? – Natural Building Blog Don’t Put Tomatoes in the Fridge – TreeHugger Understanding Urban Agriculture Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 – Deep Green Permaculture Labeling Mushroom Logs – The … More News Roundup — 28 Oct. 2016
We strive for cycles of growth and nutrient use here at the institute. Modern farms are a one-way street for resources: fertilizers, seeds, and equipment come in, while the grown products, excess fertilizer, and money go out (for a discussion of this, have a listen to Low Tech Podcast no. 3). One cycle we’ve built … More Introduction to Aquaponics