Subscribe to new articles and posts

Peter Harper is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Center for Alternative Technology (UK). Peter was the originator of the term “alternative technology” and has been a prominent theorist of the movement since the early ’70s. He is also a biologist, horticulturalist and landscape designer.

In this presentation he discusses the data and projections from his “LifeStyle Lab” project. He premises the need for a zero carbon society and possible solutions that might lead us there. He outlines the pros and cons of lifestyle-driven changes and technology-enabled reduction; do we have the time, as consumers, to choose which strategy we want to take?

Peter elaborates on the challenges of creating a low carbon society and in particular discusses potential different lifestyles. He illustrates these using two fictitious families he names the “WOTs” (Well-Off Techie greenie household) and the “LILs” (Low-Income Lifestyle greenie household). Watch or listen to find out whether technology-driven lifestyles or do-it-yourself approaches deliver the more promising carbon gains.

We apologise for the quality of the sound recoding as there were technical difficulties with the recording equiptment. Peter is introduced by Chris Ryan, this is particularly hard to hear, the introduction is 1minute 45 seconds long.

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5