[Stoves] TED Talks: Amy Smith Discusses Charcoal From Bagasse in Haiti and Corncobs in Ghana (Video or Podcast)

[frank]

Tom,

I watched the vidiocast with my ten year old daughter and it was a real 
eye opener. When finding out that most children under five die from 
smoke in the house she was thinking it was from a fire place like the 
one we have and use about five times a year. We then went through many 
of the excellent pictures of stoves in the homes and other info from 
this web site. We got out the globe and looked up the countries 
mentioned in the video. She now has a better idea of how lucky we are 
and how poor much of the world is. So thanks for putting that video on 
the site. And to think Amy gave that talk about 30 miles from where I live!

If you have more we can see I would appreciate having them.  I think 
much of the reason Amy, and the rest of you are not getting more help is 
because few know about the seriousness of the problem and few have any 
understanding about the way others live -and think. We should teach 
about the ways others live in the schools at an early age. She has a 
science project due at the  end of the school year and I am hoping she 
will pick something around stoves.

Thanks again


Frank









Tom Miles wrote:

>See http://bioenergylists.org/en/smithtedtalk
>
> 
>
>This links to a videocast series featuring Amy Smith of MIT. 
>
> 
>
>"MIT engineer Amy Smith designs ingenious low-cost devices to tackle tough
>problems in developing countries. She received a MacArthur "Genius" Grant in
>2004, and was the first woman to win MIT's famed Lemelson Prize. In this
>talk, she explains the vision behind her inventions, which include
>eco-friendly charcoal and a laboratory incubator that doesn't require
>electricity. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 15:48)"
>
> 
>
>She discusses how MIT handled problems of briquette compressibility at MIT
>and Haiti to burn longer and cleaner than wood charcoal which commands
>revenues of $260 million in Haiti. She wants to make charcoal production a
>micro-enterprise for farmers.  
>
> 
>
>Smith comments that she is also working on low cost water testing and low
>cost water treatment. She has 30 students per year that work on
>implementation of these projects overseas.
>
> 
>
>This is a good summary of the discussion we had about Smith's (MIT D-Lab)
>activities last month. 
>
> 
>
>Tom Miles
>
> 
>
> 
>
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-- 
Frank Shields
Soil Control Lab
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frank at compostlab.com
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