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LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

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High-tech Problems

Technology has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is—more often than not—aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions.

Bike Powered Electricity Generators are Not Sustainable

The present approach to pedal power results in highly inefficient machines.

Piston-powered aircraft from the 1950s were as fuel-efficient as the current average jet

Estimates about the fuel efficiency of aircraft ignore the record of the pre-jet era.

The Status Quo of Electric Cars: Better Batteries, Same Range

We don’t need better batteries, we need better cars.

How (Not) To Resolve the Energy Crisis

Increasing the share of renewable energy will not make us any less dependent on fossil fuels as long as total energy consumption keeps rising.

The Monster Footprint of Digital Technology

The embodied energy of the memory chip alone exceeds the energy consumption of a laptop during its life expectancy of 3 years.

How much energy does it take (on average) to produce 1 kilogram of the following materials?

Wood, steel, aluminium, iron, glass, paper, plastics, copper, silicon, nickel, titanium, electronic grade silicon.

Small Windmills Put to the Test

Wind power rules, but commercially available small windmills are a swindle.

Who Killed the Electric Grid? Fast-charging Electric Cars

Fast recharging times generate lots of excitement, but what seems to be forgotten is that they can lead to a fabulous amount of peak demand.

Truckloads of Hard Disks

Imagine you put a portable hard disk of 500 gigabytes in your backpack and start walking. In which cases are you faster than your internet connection?

Only idiots travel by train

How can you blame people for flying if there is no affordable alternative?

Viva Las Vegas: LEDs and the energy efficiency paradox

LEDs introduce lighting in places and situations where there was no lighting before.

Urban windmills harm the environment

A small windmill on your roof or in the garden is an attractive idea. Unfortunately, commercially available micro wind turbines deliver hardly enough energy to power a light bulb. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy and in urban areas they will not even deliver as much energy as was needed to produce them.