[Stoves] Energy poverty and shack fires

cec1863 at gmail.com cec1863 at gmail.com
Tue May 9 14:12:25 CDT 2017


Dear CPP‎,

Thanks for the heads up. Helps us to "keep it real" as Les McCann  - the jazz pianist - liked to shout out in his up tempo song: "Compared to What" (from the Vietnam War era & worth a listen on youtube).

When we start our stove discovery process near the bottom of the socio-economic pryamid ‎(BOP) and focus on the cooks, stove operators, the fuels, the fuel suppliers, the kitchens and housing, the cuisines, and the various cultures that guide and give meaning to stove technologies and choices, we end up with an appreciation of the full context in which cooking & heating stoves are presently designed, fabricated and bought & sold by the people and households at the BOP. 

Rather than waste time and money on stove tests and intricate performance standards I recommend we promote stove races where stove innovators ‎demonstrate and offer to sell their stoves to a representative cross section of the stove users in communities of stove users. The different stove using publics and constituencies will very quickly decide what are their prefered stove models and why? 

Remove the complex layers of professional false consciousness from the center of the stove assessment process and empower the cooks and stove tenders and buyers by teaching them how to operate new stoves and how much they will really cost and stand back; the stove using public will quickly decide about their preferred stoves and the designers and fabricators can pay attention to what their primary customers‎ want in their stoves. 

Have the WB economists‎ and stove engineers forgotten that in all viable local economies the customer is king. Study the customers and stove science becomes so simple. 

Environmental pollution, global warming, energy poverty and gender equity ‎are ideological abstractions in the minds and hearts of first world urban residents who are "slum-ing" in the 3rd & 4th worlds. Apply those politics and abstract ideologies in NYC at the UN or in DC at the WB or USAID or London and Paris and Bonn & Berlin. 

In Alex township in Gauteng (Johannesburg) ‎the biomass and coal burning stove customers know more than enough to educate stove designers and fabricators about the technologies they prefer and that they are willing to try out and then actually purchase with there own scarce cash flow.

Forgive me for repeating myself: let the stove races begin and let the stove users and customers decide!

Stove users of the BOP unite, you have nothing to fear from the stove funding agents and stove experts but their arrogant and will financed presupposition that because they are experts they know best! Please liberate us from the Lords of Poverty. Is such a liberation possible? Or does it require a complicated escape plan to break out of prison? 

I vote for stove races!

In search,
Cecil Cook
Techno Share

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
  Original Message  
From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 10:36 AM
To: 'Stoves (stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org)'
Reply To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: [Stoves] Energy poverty and shack fires

Dear Friends

Dr David Kimemia has published an article with Ashley Van Niekerk

Energy poverty, shack fires and childhood burns
Abstract
Burn injuries are a persisting challenge in South Africa. Energy poverty, prevalent in under-resourced communities, is a key contributor to the problem. The energy-poor rely on solid fuels and flammable hydrocarbons, such as paraffin, for energy services. The fuels are burnt in inefficient, leaky and unstable appliances, leading to health losses from pollutant emissions, burns, and conflagrations. Within cramped informal home settings, using flammable fuels and risky combustion technologies, the situation can become devastating, especially for young children. Those who survive fiery incidents have to contend with trauma and property losses that may lead to further impoverishment. Proactive intervention strategies are required and should include the broadening of access to safe and sustainable energy. We advocate greater enforcement of home appliance standards and targeted support for the distribution of proven alternative energy technologies, such as liquefied petroleum gas and solar power. Support and advocacy from professional and citizen groups would be necessary to ensure that government prioritises the safe energy requirements of poor citizens.

(c) 2017, South African Medical Association. All rights reserved.

Full text is available<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315903220_Energy_poverty_shack_fires_and_childhood_burns> on request.

Regards
Crispin





More information about the Stoves mailing list