Daily Lesson from Life 09 April 2009

"Solar-powered cooker wins $75,000 climate prize - Wed Apr 8, 2009 8:05pm EDT

OSLO (Reuters) - A $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food, sterilize water and could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases, has won a $75,000 prize for ideas to fight global warming.

The "Kyoto Box," named after the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol that seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, is aimed at billions of people who use firewood to cook.


Costing 5 euros ($6.60) to make, it can also make it easier to boil polluted water.

"We're saving lives and saving trees," the Kyoto Box's developer Jon Boehmer, a Norwegian based in Kenya, said in a statement.


The FT Climate Change Challenge was backed by the Financial Times, technology group Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored the award, and development group Forum for the Future.

The other four finalists were a garlic-based feed additive to cut methane emissions from livestock, an indoor cooling system using hollow tiles, a cover for truck wheels to reduce fuel use and a "giant industrial microwave" for creating charcoal.


A statement said that Boehmer would carry out trials in 10 countries, including South Africa, India and Indonesia. He would then collect data to back an application for carbon credits.

The United Nations is discussing giving credits to developing countries that preserve tropical forests, which soak up carbon as they grow. Those credits could then be traded.


Many countries are looking for cheap green ways to stimulate economies mired in recession. More than 190 nations have agreed to work out a new U.N. climate pact to succeed Kyoto at a meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009.
($1=.7582 Euro)“

This is a very meaningful competition and kudos to the sponsoring organizations!

Lessons for me are:

1. innovative devices need not be expensive!;

2. living in the places where the invention will be used can inspire that spark of genius! I think the fact that the inventor, though a foreigner , lived in Kenya helped him to feel the ground and create what is available there! Of course, he assessed the ground but did not restrict his fertile imagination and thoughts!;

3. while this type of competition must have been going on for some times, we just do not get to hear about it that much. It shows that when we have good ideas, we must not be bashful to make it though to anyone and everyone who come into contact with us! Spreading the good news, not of the spiritual kind, is also worth doing! ;-)

I looked forward to seeing the inventions from the 4 finalists in the market soon!

It fits into the 'evolve' chapter of the 7e Way of Leaders!