Sustainable Design Update

Treadle Pump (Sierra Magazine)

Nearly two billion people live off the grid or with very limited access to electricity.  If you live in slum cities with limited power or in rural parts where the power lines don’t reach,  lack of power limits your options in life and it causes unique environmental problems.  For one, if you light your home with candles, kerosene or battery operated lights, you create pollution at an alarming rate.

Recently  Sierra Magazine ran an article about what can be done to provide opportunity for people without electricity while helping the environment.  Sierra also mentions our work at The Appropriate Technology Collaborative and our efforts to help people with economically viable and sustainable technologies.

WITH 1.6 BILLION PEOPLE LIVING OFF THE GRID, the financial and environmental costs pile up quickly. Residents of the world’s poorest nations sometimes spend a third of their income on kerosene, a fuel that poisons lungs and poses a fire hazard; a kerosene lantern emits 550 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. Battery-powered lights are an option, but could result in mountains of tiny cylinders of toxic waste. Inexpensive devices that harness the sun and wind can supply small amounts of power, come from local materials, and create local jobs. The developing world’s population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion over the next 40 years, so these innovative energy savers can’t come soon enough.

More at:  Sierra Magazine

Check out: The Ferris Files

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Appropriate Technology, BioFuels, Design, Energy, Green Building Materials, Technology, Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.