Perceptions on SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Hari, Wikipedia has this diagram mislabelled. The intersection of environment and economic {+En+Ec-So} is not "viable" except in the short term. And the less attention to social needs, the shorter the term of viability. Rename the zone. And the emphasis on wages is only the tip of the iceberg. The primary focus must be on human need.

In my agricutural consulting work I have seen families living very contented, peaceful lives on the equivalent of $20.00 US per week. They grew most of their own food on their own little garden plots, and the employer provided clothing, medical attention, and staples like coffee and flour. When I looked at their condition, the question arose "What else does one need?" This man has a decent shelter, adequate food and clothing, access to medical attention, a happy family to share it with, and a little work to do to keep his hands from mischief. No, he does not have access to the internet or video games, but neither does he have the knowledge to use them. In what he does know, he taught me a few things.

I know people in New York City who have a hard time making it on $90,000 per year. Some of my friends in South Texas do very well on less than half of that. Money is not even a good first approximation for the solution, except that it is needed to get the projects started. Look again at the presentatin I sent you. It was specifically targeted for Africa, since that was the primary interest of the source of funds. But the same model will work in India, China, the Caribbean, Australia, or any other region as long as the dewpoint temperature is above 10 C for a significant part of the year.

That outline is the answer to the piracy problem in Somalia. I spent 2 hours on Google Earth looking for water resources in Somalia, and there are none visible. But look at the map of the dewpoint temperatures in Somalia. There is adequate water for human consumption and irrigation. And a couple of ancient technologies can recover it. Now which makes more sense, spending a moderately large amount of money one time over a few years to create a sustainabe environment for the Somalis, or wasting a much larger amount of money and young men's lives trying to fight an enemy who has nothing to win by quitting? But, then, since when have our "leaders" ever taken the wise course?

Go back again to our website www.ire-incorp.com and take a closer look.

Hi George, thank you

I fully appreciate and agree to your comments/ observations. The Subject here is: Perceptions on Sustainability. Please read through my Discussions-thread in the earlier Subject, preceding this

In India there are about 700 M to 800 M people (which approximates to 135 million to 150 million families), who have average earnings less than US $200 equivalent. To most of them (near about 450 million) water, energy, One Whole meal per day, medicines, sanitary facilities and shelter are either "barely available" or obtained very sparingly. see the two Photo-illustrations below

Agro-Biogenics would look at these Majority poorest sections of the society, and apply Science, Technology, and Engineering toward answering the minimum material NEEDS of these people. Our Initial works are being planned to be in India and any one of the African nations (Nigeria, Ethiopia); and later we propose to extrapolate and spread these to the various other developing nations, almost all of them being in the tropics

We are looking at many supporters for our initiative, through involving in creating appropriate designs for our APIX_30_Pilot, so that the entire Module could be offered in Open Source Engineering

Thank you

A Case of Contrasting Perception on Sustainable development

The photo illustration above is a typical village hut, which is the normal "standard" housing arrangement in the coastal regions (stretching across about 600 KM, touching the Arabian Sea) of Kerala State, India. The approximate overall plinth area of such dwellings would be in the range 350 sq ft to 450 sq ft. The main construction materials come from the Coconut trees, which form the biggest tree resource in the entire region. The Main structural posts, roofing reapers, beams and Wall studs are all made of the tree trunk; the roof itself is a "thatched" sheet system, made of the fronds (a typical man-made sheet may be an average size of 4.5 ft x 1.5 ft). These sheets are carefully placed, as seen in the photo, and anchored by using "tie-wires" made of pliable portions of coconut fronds/ leaf systems. The side walls are covered using planks made of coconut tree trunk material, sawn into appropriate sizes. Very little cement would be used, except to make a more water-proof flooring and plinth line. The total cost of one such house, with at least two rooms, one kitchen and a small front gallery/ porch, would be less than Rs.100, 000 (approximating to $2000). The usual household would consist of the main family (Husband, wife – age group 40 +, two children – age group 10 to 15, and parents of either the husband or that of the wife). The typical household may, thus, be considered to include 5.5 adults. Pumped water may rarely be available to such villagers, although in many villages there could be public water supply that are free (the said public supply being highly erratic, often being made available past midnight!). India has about 100 million to 150 million families (over 700 million people) in this category.

Let us now look at a contrasting Lavish Construction of a Singapore based Hotel, as presented in the photo illustration below.

Without going into the details of the construction and other related aspects, the estimated construction and finishing costs for such a "Five/ Seven" Star Hotel could be as much as one-hundred and fifty times (tending toward two-hundred and more) higher than that of the unit costs of the village house described earlier! Further, the electrical consumption at the village house would be less than one unit (KWHe) per day, against an estimated average of not less than 200 units per day, for a "group of five" in the case of the latter.

How do we arrive at appropriate definitions for the following, which would take such contrasting "living systems" into consideration?

1. Sustainable Development
2. Sustainability
3. GREEN Products
4. Carbon Footprints
5. Poverty
6. Minimum Living Standard

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