{"id":122651,"date":"2021-07-31T19:59:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T14:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=122651"},"modified":"2021-07-31T19:59:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T14:29:37","slug":"leveraging-traditional-lo-tech-innovations-to-fight-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/leveraging-traditional-lo-tech-innovations-to-fight-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Leveraging traditional lo-tech innovations to fight climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/meghalayas-living-root-bridges-and-keralas-kuttanad-show-indigenous-climate-resilience\/articleshow\/84904115.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: Understanding the role of traditional ecological practices as a sustainable solution to climate change problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> Indigenous technological innovations backed by traditional ecological knowledge is the way forward to fight climate change.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Problem with high-tech<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>High-tech solutions to climate change are based on an idea of abundance of resources, money and unrestricted scalability. But it is these principles of infinite resources that make this tech <strong>inherently unsustainable.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>High tech vs lo-tech<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>In contrast, lo-tech is born of <strong>finite resources<\/strong> and an understanding that <strong>ecosystems have limitations<\/strong>. Indigenous innovations evolved over thousands of years while dealing with climatic extremes like tidal surges and floods.<\/p>\n<p>This technology has inherent principles which make it truly sustainable.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Idea behind traditional lo-tech innovations<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>These innovations are based on diverse ecological understanding of indigenous communities.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Man and nature are one<\/strong>: Nature is not seen as being separate from human beings. HUman beings are all a part of the nature. Hence, these lo-tech innovations encourage working alongside with natural systems like water, trees and sunlight.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Value Stewardship<\/strong>: These technologies also value stewardship i.e. taking care of the resources. These are not about always extracting from nature or showing a superiority complex regarding biodiversity which often reflects in Western ideology. Instead, lo-tech emphasises symbiosis, working with different life forms and preserving diversity because that makes resilience possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Examples of lo-tech<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meghalaya\u2019s living root bridge system: <\/strong>Meghalaya has some of the highest rainfall in the world. When the monsoon comes, the rivers rushing by take out all the bridges, except for the living root bridges grown by the Khasi and Jaintia people. The Khasi community weaves together tree roots to make living bridges that can withstand monsoon storms and floods. These are <strong>built out of rubber fig trees<\/strong> planted near rivers by the community. They train the trees to grow across rivers and then, using bamboo scaffolding, they weave their secondary root systems together \u2014 after some years, you get a living root bridge. There are about 30 such bridges today and they are the most structurally efficient system possible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.toiimg.com\/img\/84912957\/Master.jpg?resize=635%2C429&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A living root bridge in Meghalaya\" width=\"635\" height=\"429\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kerala\u2019s kuttanad system<\/strong> \u2014 it\u2019s like the Dutch polder-dike arrangement, with a polder or lake lower than sea level and a dike or barrier which keeps the water out. This helped the Dutch make low-lying lands agricultural. Kerala\u2019s kuttanad is similar. It <strong>allows saltwater in<\/strong>, where shrimp is farmed. When the monsoon comes, this <strong>changes to a freshwater system<\/strong> which grows crops. For people trying to mitigate sea level rises on land, this is an important innovation. <strong>Kerala\u2019s technology is better than the Dutch<\/strong> because it deals with an intense weather system like the monsoon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.toiimg.com\/img\/84912918\/Master.jpg?resize=635%2C429&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Kerala's Kuttanad below sea level farming system\" width=\"635\" height=\"429\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Philippines\u2019 rice terrace aquaculture<\/strong>: There is also the Philippines\u2019 rice terrace aquaculture, made by the <strong>Ifugao people<\/strong> in Banaue. These fields are sloped at 80 degrees, so they\u2019re near-vertical. These are thousands of years old and incredibly biodiverse, supporting birds, aquatic and terrestrial life, including humans, through the growing of rice. They\u2019re acknowledged by UNESCO as some of the most important habitats on Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteading.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/longji-rice-terraces-guangxi-province-china-terrace-farming-ss.jpg?resize=620%2C434&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"10 Terrace Farming Around The World | Types Of Farming\" width=\"620\" height=\"434\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Way forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>These examples show that conversations about climate resilient technology don\u2019t need to be dominated by the West with a narrative that is centered completely around high-tech solutions.<\/p>\n<p>We <strong>need such site-specific technologies<\/strong> to deal with sea level rise, food scarcity, water shortages, etc. Locally developed tech will mitigate these challenges.<\/p>\n<p>We must think about adaptability, flexibility and how to integrate with natural systems and only indigenous technology lets us do this.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>We cannot solve climate change with the same approach that created the problem. We need to move from polluting technology to nature-based science and the bridge enabling this important step is indigenous technological innovation.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Terms to know<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a class=\"Hyperlink BCX0 SCXW132434680\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/living-root-bridges-of-meghalaya\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span class=\"TextRun Underlined BCX0 SCXW132434680\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun BCX0 SCXW132434680\" data-ccp-charstyle=\"Hyperlink\">Living Root Bridges<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: TOI Relevance: Understanding the role of traditional ecological practices as a sustainable solution to climate change problem. Synopsis: Indigenous technological innovations backed by traditional ecological knowledge is the way forward to fight climate change. Problem with high-tech High-tech solutions to climate change are based on an idea of abundance of resources, money and unrestricted&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/leveraging-traditional-lo-tech-innovations-to-fight-climate-change\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Leveraging traditional lo-tech innovations to fight climate change<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[408,59,216,483,8650],"class_list":["post-122651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-gs3","tag-sustainability","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":2,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700600947},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}