[Stoves] News: National Geographic on promotion of gas stoves over improved woodstoves - in Guatemala

[Nikhil Desai]

Crispin:

In all humility, may I suggest that your answer "Ignorance about how to
invent cool stuff and get it adopted" comes across as a bit arrogant?

Under conventional stereotype, where women are the principal home workers
and hold exclusive responsibilities and powers over cooking and feeding (if
not on purchase of food ingredients), I submit that cooking is about (a)
women's time and energy allocation; and (b) the overall human environment,
in and around the homes.

There is perhaps not a single "cool" invention in solid fuel cookstoves
does not seem to hold much promise for the Third World masses the way it
happened with, say, Primus or Nutan stoves using kerosene some 60-80 years
ago, or LPG/electric stoves and other thermal appliances over the last 50
years to this date. (There are fancy wood cookstoves in the Western markets
as well).

Then again, who knows, wood or pellet stoves with electric assist may
change a lot.

I do agree there is a wide chasm between the users and the inventors, and
the overall context of fresh and waste biomass with considerable variation
in economic geography, that may be said to limit success with solid fuel
stoves in the past.

Remember, the current fraction of humanity, the Bottom Half, is more
variegated structurally from the upper half than was the case 50 or 100
years ago. And the bottom 20% if much farther apart in assets and income
from the top 20% than ever, at least in the last 100 years.

Population and human capital (health, education/skill-base, employment,
security) dynamics are far more complicated than the simple mindsets of the
1960s to 1990s suggest (and which is what lies within many of us).

Thank you so much for the pithy "Hence, the current mess."

As GACC slides into the last three years of its plan, it's worth revisiting
"the mess". Reformed thinking and institutional apparatus are necessary.


Nikhil



On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 11:59 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:

> Dear Gordon
>
>
>
> - What are people trying to do?
>
>
>
> Invent cool stuff and get it adopted to help save the world.
>
>
>
> - What problems are getting in the way of your success?
>
>
>
> Ignorance about how to invent cool stuff and get it adopted.
>
>
>
> - What collaborations are possible?
>
>
>
> The best one would be for the ‘stovers’ to approach social scientists to
> find out in much clearer detail why people behave the way they do when they
> use domestic energy and apply it in their lives.
>
>
>
> There is usually a gulf between the wanna-be designers and the potential
> users, as large as the gap between marketing people and the self-same
> designers.
>
>
>
> A three-way collaboration between marketing, design/engineering and
> behavioural scientists would produce products that would naturally attract
> funding.
>
>
>
> At the moment people seek funding first, technical solutions second,
> marketing expertise third, and a deep understanding of the users last.
>
>
>
> Hence, the current mess.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Crispin
>
>
>
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