OUTREACH
Learning-by-Doing Leaflets
An Example: ENERGY

OUTREACH produces a series of learn-by-doing leaflets on various topics.  You may subscribe to their publication directly with them or get more information by contacting one of the following:

Dr. James Connor, OUTREACH Director
Teaching and Learning Center
200 East Building
239 Green Street
New York University
New York, NY 10003
USA

Mr. Richard Lumbe, OUTREACH Coordinator
Regional Office for Africa
UNEP
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya

Ms. Gillian Dorfman, OUTREACH Editor
TVE USA
P.O. Box 820
Shelburne, VT 05482
USA
Tel:  (1) 802-985-1492
Fax: (1) 802-985-2011
e-mail: tveusa@together.net

The following is but one example of the content of their "Learn-by-Doing Leaflets":

LEARNING-BY-DOING LEAFLETS ON ENERGY

Written by Sharon Kahkonen, M.S., Ed.D. Edited by Gillian Dorfman and James V. Connor, M.S., Ed.D. Illustrated by Gillian Dorfman.

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Educational methods and curricula inherited from the past often direct students away from the practical problems they and their families face, by concentrating on phenomena that are beyond their everyday experience. Science education is too often simply part of a sorting process through which a fortunate few may escape the rural areas and qualify for an urban job, usually in government. Science teachers, themselves a part of this system, do not expect the community to demand that they teach a practical curriculum relevant to local conditions.

The energy facts of life

Energy is the key to development for the 4 billion people who live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nations in these regions currently have more than three-quarters of the world's population, but use just over one third of the world's energy - a per capita level averages less than one eighth that in industrial countries. Third World energy use had doubled since 1970, and is generally projected to double again in the next 15 years and expand sixfold by 2050. However, these same nations are now struggling with huge debts, serious environmental and health problems, and still, severe energy shortages.

High oil prices in the late 1970s and 1980s had a devastating impact on poor nations. In 1973, many of these countries were poised to adopt oil- and electricity-based energy systems -- plans that were quickly cut short. Most found themselves spending much of their hard currency reserves on imported oil throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Three-quarters of developing countries were oil importers in 1987, and of the 38 poorest countries, 29 had to bring in more than 70% of their commercial energy-nearly all in the form of oil. Even at today's lower oil prices, most sub-Saharan African countries spend a quarter to half of their hard-currency earnings on petroleum imports, effectively gutting investment in other areas.

The drain on national economies to pay for imported oil -- and for giant electric power projects -- contributed to the world debt crisis of the 1980s, and the subsequent decline of incomes in poor countries. In 1960, the richest 20% of the world received 30 times more income than the poorest fifth. By 1994, the disparity had widened to 78 to 1.

Besides undermining development, these same projects caused devastating environmental damage, such as erosion, acid rain, and urban pollution. So the question becomes, not do developing countries have the right to follow the same energy path as the North, but is it in their best interest to do so?

In the rural developing world, most of the energy used is in the form of firewood and crop residues gathered and burned in fires for cooking. And fuelwood is disappearing fast. FAO estimates that 90 million rural people are already suffering from severe scarcity of firewood, and 800 million people are lopping trees for firewood faster than trees are growing. By the year 2000, it is expected that 140 million rural people will be seriously short of firewood, and 2,225 million will be removing the firewood resource faster than it grows. An energy-environment crisis of alarming proportions is being created.

Conservation and Renewables

So what is the way out of this dilemma? A two-part strategy should be followed: one, emphasize conservation, everything from more energy efficient industrial processes to more energy efficient cookstoves and light bulbs; and two, meet the remaining energy needs with renewable energies, which are far less costly and less environmentally destructive.

Conservation

Developing countries require 40% more energy than developed ones to produce the same value of goods and services. Domestic energy input needs are considerably higher in the developing world than in the developed world because of low efficiency. The use of traditional earth stoves, the three-stone fire, traditional cooking habits, and the way fuelwood is collected and used, result in a theoretical conversion efficiency which is seldom greater than 10%.

Low-cost locally-built cooking stoves can greatly increase the efficiency of cooking, reducing the demand for firewood by up to 40%. This would both slow the rate of deforestation and lighten the burden of long-distance wood hauling. In most cases, technologies that use local materials and skills, such as improved stoves, are more likely to be immediately affordable than expensive devices such as solar pumps, photovoltaic systems, and biogas plants.

Making charcoal more efficiently may enable less firewood to produce the same heat. Charcoal is favoured in towns because it is cleaner and cheaper to transport over the ever-increasing distances from wood sources. However, while charcoal gives out about two times the heat of firewood, it takes ten tons of wood to make one ton of charcoal: a loss of five times the heat potential!

Renewable Energy

An energy source is renewable if, when properly managed, its sustained use will not deplete supplies. Sunlight, wind, flowing water and biomass (plant and animal matter) are examples of energy sources that will seemingly never run out. (in many areas where f uelwood is the major source of energy supplies, however, it can no longer be thought of as renewable. The wood is being used up faster than stocks are being replaced through replanting and regrowth.)