Additional

I previously wrote about my disappointment in the solar cooker challenge to store energy at night to help deforestation in Rajistan, India.

I'd like to add some additional thoughts to that.

Looking at the photos  that were part of the E4C challenge, there are two photos of people cooking. It seems that they cook on what I would describe as an “half-open barbecue pit”. It appears to be about a foot square, and have about 8 inches of room for the fuel. Iron griddles and large earthen pots are propped up on the bricks directly over the flames. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/44221799@N08/6768398249/in/set-72157629047928423)

Following Kent Beck's motto “Do the simplest thing that could possibly work” it seems that trying to address this with a solar cooker is a mistake. What these people need is simple a wood-burning stove. I do not mean a large free-standingstove, but more like a camp-stove. On YouTube you can find plenty of videos about two stove technologies, the “rocket stove”  and the “gasifier” . I suspect both of these approaches, or perhaps extant stoves, would use the fuel twice as efficiently. This is the simplest way to decrease deforestation: give these people stoves.

Why was this not part of the solution? For two reasons. First, it isn't fun to try to raise $100,000,000 dollars to buy a lot of existing technology. That is not a problem that appeals to engineers like myself. However, we can't let this blind us to the truth: sometimes the best way to help people and improve the world is NOT to invent something, it is just to share more.

Secondly, it is embarrassing to say to poor people “You are harming the earth (though much less than I, who flew here in a jet), so please take this stove and burn less wood.” Worse, it is a violation of their free will, but not even in a way that aligns with any social compact. I don't mind if mankind chooses to tax carbon, and makes even the very poor pay the tax, as long as the rich must also pay the tax.

But I do not want to give a $200 iron stove to someone who might say to me “Thanks, but I don't want a stove, at least not know. You see, what I really want is to send my daughter to school, so I will sell this stove and pay for her to go to school for 2 years.” I think the poor people should just be given money, and allowed the freedom to decide what to do with it.

I am in inventor. I have always been an inventor. I knew when I was very young boy that is what I am supposed to be. If you like, you can say that is what God put me on Earth to do. (Granted, I am not a good one---I haven't invented much---but, obviously, I'm working on it.) If I spent my time raising money for poor people, I would not be a happy or fulfilled.

Therefore I am sticking to my original idea for a solar cooker to be used by people that I know and understand, here close to home, where I have some hope of success. Building a solar barbecue grill for use in Austin, Texas, is perhaps too humble a project but if successful it will improve the world, at least a little.

“Think globally, Act locally.” – Buckminster Fuller.