Another Story about Elegantly Simple Technology Solving Complex Problems

When we consider global warming, greenhouse gases, and the loss of the world’s forests we know there's a connection between these things, but it all seems very complex. You'd think we need big, expensive, complex technology to do anything about it.

So what would you say if someone suggested a small cardboard box could be a significant part of the solution? Would you be offended by the very idea of something so simple solving something so complex?
 
The other day I came across an article (isn’t it funny how these things just pop up sometimes when you're looking for them) and I was stopped in my tracks. The article was titled “Solar-powered cooker nabs climate prize”. The article said a $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food and sterilize water could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases and save trees. What?
 
This is an example of true genius. The box is called the "Kyoto Box," after the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol on emissions of greenhouse gases. Billions of people in the developing world (almost half the world’s population) use firewood to cook. In the process they are cutting down the world’s forests, releasing greenhouse gasses and destroying one of the most powerful planetary processes (known as forests) for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. How do we break this vicious cycle?
 
We break this cycle by providing people with inexpensive cardboard boxes lined with reflective silver foil that allows them to concentrate sunlight to create heat for cooking food and boiling water. We don’t have to build expensive energy infrastructure to do this, we don’t have to train technicians to operate and repair this technology, and we don’t have to provide loans for people to be able to purchase this solution. Instead of paying people to build and buy technology to manage the problem we could pay people to plant trees and save trees (remember when "tree hugger" was a term used to make fun of people?) and address a root cause that can (just about) eliminate the problem.
 
The guy who came up with the idea (Jon Bohmer, a Norwegian living in Kenya) entered a competition sponsored by the Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard, and Forum for the Future. These are pretty impressive high finance, high tech, and high IQ organizations. In the presence of such company I’d probably be too intimidated to even suggest such a simple idea for fear of being laughed out of the room and told not to come back.
 
I’d spend my time looking for tricky financial, complex technical, and clever intellectual ideas. I’d match wits with others doing the same and we’d all come up with tricky, complex and clever ideas befitting our educational and social achievements. And the world would not be a better place because of it.
 
Not only is Jon Bohmer a genius, he was willing to brave scorn and laughter to present his idea. That takes courage.
 
In the IT world how many times have we had sudden glimpses of elegantly simple ideas that would solve major problems? How many times have we then considered the consequences of suggesting such simple ideas and decided to keep them to ourselves? Better to go along with the reigning experts and the tricky, complex, clever ideas that conventional practice demands.

I know I’ve been guilty of that.