[Stoves] Of stoves, pumps and the emergence of eco-facsism

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Friends

The following like is to an article by Brendan O'Neill on the subject of
carbon offsets and carbon trading in general.  I suggest you take a deep
breath before reading it.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3788/ 

Dr Bill Mollison said, while visiting Swaziland, that he was not going to be
dictated to by eco-fascists.  That was a work I had not heard before and I
don't have a clear definition of it. 

O'Neill writes about the futility of sponsoring CO2 purchases from stove
programmes and how it keeps people enslaved forever using what we consider
to be an improved stove and what he thinks is an inferior technology.

When I lived in Transkei, when it was an independent homeland, we frequently
encountered this attitude: do nothing until you can deliver a
product/benefit worth having, which was defined as something very upscale.
Anything less than what people in 'Europe' have is inadequate and delivering
it is a form of oppression.  In the meantime the capacity of the world to
produce and deliver 'the perfect solutions' is completely inadequate.  What
I find happens is that the condemnation of the intermediate technology keeps
the poor were the radicals want them.

To what extent are we complicit (if at all) I working out low cost biomass
solutions?  I observe some really high tech products that are very simple to
look at.  

Go team!

Regards
Crispin