Basketry and Solar Panels

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Basketry Gone Wild

Kris De Decker | Low←Tech Magazine | 4th November 2021

To meet the challenges of rising sea levels, the world should look to the Dutch, who "built their country partly at the bottom of the sea". Fascine mattresses — vast hand woven platforms braided from flexible willow boughs or reeds — were in use there from at least the 17C and the modern equivalent is still "basically everywhere" in the country. It's the perfect sustainable sea defence (2,431 words)

?: Electrify, by Saul Griffith

via Five Books | Best Climate Books of 2021

An optimistic take on combating climate change: the technical solutions are already here, we just need to get on with it. Every home will need 100% adoption of electric vehicles, heat pumps and rooftop solar; the cost ($70,000 per home) will be prohibitive, so the US government should step in. “The free market needs an invisible foot to give it a swift kick in the ass now and then” (288 pages)

You coud get not just two but five recommendations for outstanding pieces of writing every day, enough to nourish even the most curious mind. Yesterday's edition included recommended reading on a pavement Picasso who paints on bubble gum, the sad decline of cemeteries, and the residents of the Mesopotamian marshes. Why not join us?

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