[Stoves] Regenerative Capitalism (Jock Gill)

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott crispinpigott at outlook.com
Sun May 31 14:07:02 CDT 2015


Dear Stovers and Discussants (if you are not stovers)

 

Samer indirectly asks if this: ".centric approach serves the 'poor' or the
'environment'."

 

Consider this: steel sheeting is made without no anticipation of the
products that will be formed from it.

 

A stove designer forms a product from steel sheets, limited by his or her
understanding of what might be possible using it. 

 

Nature produces a variety of fuels with different properties and strengths
with no concern as to what possible fire may consume them.

 

A cook buys the stove and creates foods unimagined by the stove designer or
the steel maker. The cook uses the fuels in ways unseen in natural fires.
The cook makes the fire and the stove sing and dance, performing the
required actions, producing the right amount of heat, light, and food.

 

Which is the most important, the most significant, the most influential
factor creating the final products? The cook. Without understanding the
needs, desires, intentions and skills of the cooks, how is it possible to
design a stove or fuel, or combination, that will do what is needed? It is
not possible.

 

Homogenizing the production and broadening the footprint of distribution of
improved stoves carries great risks, mostly the risk of failure to adopt.
Similarly the introduction of subsidized fuels has multiple intended and
unintended consequences.

 

With this in mind we should recognize there are two large scale agendas at
work. 

 

The first is those who would replace the stoves with products that are far
more efficient and flexible, attractive to own and worth investing in for
comfort and pleasure with reduced PM and CO emissions and which make better
use of the available energy carriers. 

 

The second is that group which seek to remove solid fuels altogether from
the kitchen, promoting as they do and will, electricity, LPG, natural gas
and light fraction liquid fuels.  Their byline is 'to provide clean cooking
solutions to those who have traditionally been forced to burn solid fuels'.
The implication is that there are no 'clean-burning' solid fuels which
rather sets their agenda against that of the first group.

 

Old-timers may remember the contribution by Liz Bates (former editor of
Boiling Point magazine) remarking on the improvement in the lives of cooks
in Sudan who received subsidised LPG stoves and fuel. LPG is a wonderful
solution to IAQ problems, but does LPG address all the social and material
needs of the users of fire?

 

Let's ask Cecil.

 

Regards
Crispin

 

===============

 

Dear Jock,

 

I found the article very stimulating. Of course, there is much that can be
examined in terms of how the global stoves 'industry' is developing. For
instance, if one examines the topics discussed at the ETHOS meetings year in
and out, there are moments when clear shifts in what is being discussed (and
who discusses) occur. As I read it, the broad trend has shifted from
concerns of design, implementation, and marketing in context, to global
markets (e.g. carbon credits, international testing standards, advocacy).

 

This trajectory will have foreseeable benefits for energy-oriented bilateral
agreements, mass manufacturers of stoves, NGOs/corporations that will tap
into carbon offsets, and laboratories authorized to certify stoves, etc.
Along with this is a strong *claim* that this global market-centric approach
serves the 'poor' or the 'environment'.

 

I wish to stay way from simple dichotomous arguments of global/local,
top-down/bottom-up, standardized/pluralism, or laboratory/field, but
certainly the 'regenerative capitalism' approach you suggest might demand a
reconsideration of this trend towards standardization, scale, and
donor-driven markets? What alternatives might your approach suggest?

 

Your thoughts on this matter are appreciated!

 

Best,

Samer

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20150531/74c0303d/attachment.html>


More information about the Stoves mailing list