Caring for Kids since 1984

When Technology Fails (Revised & Expanded): A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency [Paperback] is a fantastic book for those that are worried about the future!  There is a ton of information that will help you prepare for the future that may happen!

About the Book (from Amazon)

There’s never been a better time to “be prepared.” Matthew Stein’s comprehensive primer on sustainable living skills—from food and water to shelter and energy to first-aid and crisis-management skills—prepares you to embark on the path toward sustainability. But unlike any other book, Stein not only shows you how to live “green” in seemingly stable times, but to live in the face of potential disasters, lasting days or years, coming in the form of social upheaval, economic meltdown, or environmental catastrophe.

When Technology Fails covers the gamut. You’ll learn how to start a fire and keep warm if you’ve been left temporarily homeless, as well as the basics of installing a renewable energy system for your home or business. You’ll learn how to find and sterilize water in the face of utility failure, as well as practical information for dealing with water-quality issues even when the public tap water is still flowing. You’ll learn alternative techniques for healing equally suited to an era of profit-driven malpractice as to situations of social calamity. Each chapter (a survey of the risks to the status quo; supplies and preparation for short- and long-term emergencies; emergency measures for survival; water; food; shelter; clothing; first aid, low-tech medicine, and healing; energy, heat, and power; metalworking; utensils and storage; low-tech chemistry; and engineering, machines, and materials) offers the same approach, describing skills for self-reliance in good times and bad.

Fully revised and expanded—the first edition was written pre-9/11 and pre-Katrina, when few Americans took the risk of social disruption seriously—When Technology Fails ends on a positive, proactive note with a new chapter on “Making the Shift to Sustainability,” which offers practical suggestions for changing our world on personal, community and global levels.

My Thoughts

I think this book is fantastic!  I will be the one reading it with a flashlight when the electricity goes out (which happens plenty in the stormy Spring)!  I like that it gives information about being greener and better self-reliance.  I think that anything that we can do as a family to save money and resources is fantastic!  And as a paranoid mom, I also like knowing how to best survive if something crazy happens and we are stuck in the basement of our house, because a tornado came through.  I also like the lists of things to prepare, such as the 72-hour kit list.  More than likely that will be what we need if there is an emergency, something that we can grab and run with.  It also has First Aid Information, which would be helpful if doctors are not readily available.  There are some things that I didn’t agree with, but for the most part, this book is a great resource to have!

About the Author

Matthew Stein holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He is an engineer, author and building contractor. He has also worked as a schoolteacher, carpenter, and rock climbing and ski instructor. As the owner of Aloha Aina Builders, Stein has built hurricane resistant, energy efficient and environmentally friendly homes. As a mechanical engineer and president of Stein Design, he has designed consumer water filtration devices, commercial water filtration systems, photovoltaic roofing panels, medical bacteriological filters, drinking fountains, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, portable fiberglass buildings and automated assembly machinery for Open Energy, Hewlett Packard, Seagate, Plantronics, Duraflame, Haws, and IGT, among other companies. He currently resides with his wife Josie in the High Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe, CA. Additionally, Stein holds a number of US patents and was a National Merit Scholar. For many years, Stein has pursued avid interests in renewable energy, alternative healing, sustainable growth, and preventative medicine. He is available for lectures and workshops. Check out his green building and mechanical engineering website and his book’s website.

Stein’s outdoor experience includes considerable backpacking and camping (starting at age 5), alpine ascents in the Canadian Rockies and High Sierras, solo winter ascents of peaks in the High Sierras and numerous Yosemite Valley hard rock climbs (including several Half Dome and El Capitan big walls). He volunteers his services as a guide and guide trainer for blind skiers with the Ski for Light blind cross-country skier program.

Buy it!

You can purchase a paperback copy of this book for $35 here.  Or you can get the Kindle version for $19.25 here.

*Disclaimer-These are my opinions only, I received this book and no compensation for doing this review.*