What's the number one cause of death in children under 5? Waterborne diseases? Diarrhea? Malnutrition? No: "Breathing the smoke from indoor cooking fires - acute respiratory infections caused by this."
Indoor cooking with commonly used stoves causes a lot of smoke contributes to deforestation, erosion, flooding.
There are lots of efforts to improve cooking fuels as well as the stoves. Some have been successful, many haven't been appropriate to the needs of the users. Amy Smith, a remarkable thinker, inventor and doer in appropriate technology, shares some exciting developments:
People around the world are working on appropriate technology. Most of them don't know each other - aren't aware of others with knowledge that might inform their own work. Connecting these people and this knowledge is what we had in mind when we started this Appropriate Technology Wiki almost 3 years ago.
"Appropriate Technology Wiki" is one way of describing Appropedia - it could also be called a sustainability wiki, an international development wiki, public health wiki, a wiki for thrivability, for abundance, or many other things. But appropriate technology sums up so much: the right solution for the context, relying on ingenuity, efficiency and awareness of the environment, rather than throwing resources at a problem.
By this definition, are you working on appropriate technology? Do you want to see a comprehensive resource, a guide to solutions? Join us: Use Appropedia, contribute to it, and make sure appropriate technologists around the world know about it. And leave a comment to let us know how it's helping you.
Swadeshi is a term popularized by Gandhi meaning self-sufficiency, and being mindful of what one consumes. Global Swadeshi, with the tagline because one world is plenty, is a network of globally minded people who believe in enabling self-sufficiency - being in a community producing what we need, rather than living beyond our means.
Not everyone at Global Swadeshi is a hardcore isolationist, with a "grow or make absolutely everything" philosophy. Vinay Gupta, the co-founder, relies heavily an the power of mass-production for his flat-pack refugee shelter, the Hexayurt. I'm a believer in trade (with provisos about the nature of the transport). But we can agree on self-sufficiency as the norm - being productive where we are - which means a resilient community, greater connectedness with others and with the earth that supports us. By nature it also means greater sustainability - not for the sake of a trend, but because it makes sense, and is the opposite of waste.
And among other things, Global Swadeshi is a meeting place for people interested in:
Just as Gandhi's Swadeshi movement came at a moment of crisis - the oppression of India by another nation - and offered practical measures that ultimately worked, so Global Swadeshi comes when the human race as a whole is facing unprecedented challenges, and is working on real solutions. No time for fluff and games - this is serious.
While so many are poor, we cannot say that we are a rich world. Rather, we are a world which has the capacity first to support everyone, and secondly to manifest the latent abundance of the world in ways which this generation cannot even dream of. - from the Global Swadeshi manifesto
Can anyone add to our page on appropriate technology villages? There must be examples out there. (If our wiki isn't friendly enough for you yet, then feel free to leave a comment here.)
My trip to Latin America is drawing near, so I'm personally very interested in examples in Latin America, that would welcome a traveler for a short visit. Heck, if they have broadband, and some need that I can help out with, then a long visit might even be on the cards.
*or eco-villages that care about affordability and usability (because an affordable and usable sustainable technology is most of the way to qualifying as an appropriate technology).
Appropedia made it to semi-finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. (Yay, recognition! Sob, no cash prize.) From our entry:
Difficulties in tracking down existing solutions to appropriate technology problems has led to engineers and fieldworkers wasting time, energy, and resources solving the same problems over and over again. A single shared infrastructure is needed so that the existing disjoint community of appropriate technologists can more easily and openly collaborate on their projects.
...and that's exactly what we're doing, in appropriate technology and many related areas.
