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Ep 75  |  Kris De Decker

Kris De Decker: “Looking Back Towards a Human Powered Future”

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Kris De Decker The Great Simplification

Show Summary

On this episode, Nate welcomes back journalist, inventor, and low-tech expert Kris De Decker to take a deeper dive into a more human-powered system on the backside of the carbon pulse. Through both historical and experiential lenses, Kris shares five creative alternatives to current high tech systems – from hot water bottles to electric buses and preventative-focused healthcare systems. Could a move towards communal services and human-power also shift our mindsets to think twice about how much energy is actually needed to thrive and still be comfortable? Will society willingly move from a resource intensive growth economy towards a lower energy, human powered economy?

About Kris De Decker

Kris De Decker shifted from a journalism career covering high tech to exploring low tech through formal and personal research and projects, including the Human Power Plant and the Solar Powered Website.

De Decker is creator and author of Low Tech Magazine and No Tech Magazine, publications which explore low tech solutions to questions society assumes must be solved through high tech.

De Decker has contributed articles about science, technology, energy and the environment to Mother Earth News, Techniques et Culture, Design Magazine, The Oil Drum, Resilience, EOS, Molenecho’s, “Knack”, “De Tijd” and “De Standaard”. De Decker’s books “Energie in 2030” advised the Dutch government on challenges related to science and technology and his book “Stralingswarmte: gezonde warmte met minder energie” provided a guide for how heat works.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:40 – Kris De Decker Info, Works, TGS Podcast Part 1 + Low-Tech Magazine

03:10 – Joslin Faith Kehdy TGS Podcast

03:24 – Lebanon Financial Crisis

05:08 – Benefits and limits of solar power

06:55 – Most human work has now been mechanized

07:23 – One human can do the work comparable to that of a solar panel

12:55 – Kris’s bike generator

13:35 – LED Lights

14:35 – Human Powered Neighborhood

15:30 – Windmills in Medieval Holland

20:33 – DJ White + TGS Episode

21:09 – Fireless slow cooker

23:11 – Complexity of silicon wafers made in solar panels

23:26 – Current 6 continent, just-in-time supply chain

25:24 – Simon Michaux + TGS Episode Part 1 and Part 2

26:20 – Limitations on materials to support full build out of wind and solar

27:10 – HVAC

28:08 – Modern heating and cooling systems are very inefficient

28:52 – How people managed temperature before the 1950s

31:30 – Radiant heat

31:03 – Conduction

32:38 – Thermal Hot Water Bottles

37:27 – Jevons Paradox

40:05 – Historical communal services

42:45 – Urban Heat Island Effect

44:58 – Progression of personal living spaces and them getting larger

45:48 – 40% of Dutch people regularly feel lonely

46:28 – Roman bathing houses

46:40 – Hammam, Sentō, Finnish communal bathing

47:06 – Western Europe stopped bathing themselves

47:45 – Energy surplus has fueled individualism

47:57 – Peak of energy surplus

50:01 – Apartment Hotels – kitchenless apartments

51:25 – Soviet Communal Apartment

51:23 – Nuclear family

52:15 – Push for women to leave the labor force after WW2

53:43 – We live in a socialism for the rich system

54:45 – Anarchist

59:55 – Indoor kitchen and laundry pollution

1:04:15 – E-bike

1:04:57 – Trolley Bus

1:05:15 – Cable Cars

1:08:01 – Lyon, France

1:08:32 – Trolley buses associated with poor and communism

1:09:15 – Dr. Robert Lustig + TGS episode, Dr. John Kitzhaber + TGS Episode

1:09:40 – The US poor healthcare outcome compared to other OECD countries

1:10:15 – Environmental footprint of the healthcare system

1:12:15 – US medical system designed for profit

1:14:25 – There are more people in the world who are overweight than underweight

1:15:15 – Cataract surgery and environmental sustainability: Waste and lifecycle assessment of phacoemulsification at a private healthcare facility – PMC

1:16:00 – Single use products in the medical industry

More: For the Love of Laundry – Italy Segreta

What Is Coliving and Why Is It Popular? | 2023

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