Engineering Team
Nearly all contemporary engineering is undertaken in a corporate context. This means that it must be done in a way that benefits people who, objectively, already have a great deal of wealth. In terms of practice, this means that engineering often works to create barriers for others, rather than to remove them. Further, the products of engineering, because they can and must be financially rewarding, only make sense in a context where there is a reasonable amount of money available. Contemporary engineering is designed to be affordable for people of average income. The question is, which average? The average per capita American income is about $41,000. The average world income is about $1,200. One person in four, world-wide, lives on less than $1 a day.
Our engineering team's focus is work that be (a) of benefit to and (b) practicable by "ordinary people", irrespective of their ability to participate in the mainstream first world economy.
Some of the projects that the engineering team will be working on include:
- A biochar reactor that can create an agricultural supplement that greatly improves crop yield, sustainably, from waste wood chips or other plant mattter
- Small, multi- and alternative fuel engines, in vehicular and agricultural use
- Solid fuel cooking stoves that require a fraction of the fuel, and that produce a tiny fraction of the smoke, as a means of reducing resource requirements and health damage from kitchen smoke
