The Age of Low Tech - Towards a Technically Sustainable Civilization, by Philippe Bihouix

Faced with the alarming signals of the global crisis – growth at half mast, tensions over energy and raw materials, the collapse of biodiversity, soil degradation and destruction, climate change and generalized pollution – we are being reassured. “Green” technologies would be on the verge of saving the planet and growth thanks to a fourth industrial revolution, that of renewable energies, smart grids, the circular economy, nano-bio-technologies and 3D printers.

Consuming more rare resources, more difficult to recycle, too complex, these much-vaunted new technologies are leading us to a dead end. This book dismantles one by one the mirages of high tech innovations, and proposes to take the opposite course to the technological race forward by turning to low tech , "low technologies". It is not a question of going back to candlelight, but of maintaining a pleasant level of comfort and civilization while avoiding the shocks of future shortages. If it puts to rest our last illusions, it is to better explore the possible paths towards a sustainable economic and industrial system in a finite planet.

About the Author: Philippe Bihouix

Philippe Bihouix is an engineer. A specialist in the finiteness of mining resources and its close interaction with the energy issue, he is co-author of the book What Future for Metals? , 2010.

PRIZE OF THE FOUNDATION FOR POLITICAL ECOLOGY 2014