[Stoves] Humanitarian Engineering

[Nikhil Desai]

Cecil: 

I am off-the-web for a few days more, but the leads from Crispin and Ron raised my stink censors. 

Yes, anything like this has got to be too good to be true. 

At least, too fanciful to be useful. Goldman Sachs and Ivanka Trump Kushner will tell. 

To me, the narrative smells fruity, with hints of dubious smoke. 

Engineering Utopianism is now some 150 years old, and popular in rich countries' universities. Serves as a powerful sedative and narcotic for successive generations. 

I trust you will apply your clinical tools to the study of academic tribes. Chronic drug abuse threatens the business model. 

Crispin: What if I told you - no proof yet - that the entire increment of energy requirement for cooking foods over the last 40 years as world population doubled was met by gas and electricity AND that, as current economic and demographic trends go, all the growth in the next 40 years plus about a half of the current demand met by direct biomass would also be met by gas and electricity (plus some solar and liquids)?

That leaves roughly 10% of the 2057 cooking energy demand, or perhaps 2% of the world's total (useful) energy demand that can be met by new-and-emerging biomass cookstoves. 

I would appreciate a different set of forecasts. But this is an attempt to pay attention to Robert van der Plas' suggestion a few days ago that we try to go back to the drawing boards. 

What have we wrought, with humanitarian engineering, ETHOS, GACC and ISO, or non-humanitarian engineering of electrical systems? Singing our own praises?

Nikhil

PS: Have we solved the WBT problem? I think the ISO spectacle is a splendid example of humanitarian engineering. Ideals, interests, and egos converge and collide. 

> On Apr 30, 2017, at 9:06 AM, cec1863 at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Mr CPP‎ the book of 780 pages is downloadable! It looks tremendously inclusive. The author is at OSU. I will try to meet him. Pro Kevin M Passiono; his book - Humanitarian Engineering: advancing technology for sustainable development.... it looks too good to be true!
> 
> Cecil
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
>   Original Message  
> From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
> Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2017 4:18 PM
> To: 'Stoves (stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org)'
> Reply To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: [Stoves] Humanitarian Engineering
> 
> Dear Friends
> 
> https://www.engineeringforchange.org/humanitarian-engineering-principle-one-focus-on-people/
> 
> This has a set of lessons called "Humanitarian Engineering Series". The principles expounded there are a really good introduction to how to think about creating stoves people will want to own and use.
> 
> The important of context is emphasized, which applies to both product development and testing for performance and acceptance.
> 
> Regards
> Crispin
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
> 
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>