Amy Smith: Simple designs that could save millions of childrens' lives

譯者: Dxm Online大小媒體 審譯者: Bill Hsiung

In terms of invention,

就發明而言，

I'd like to tell you the tale of one of my favorite projects.

我想跟大家分享一個我最喜歡的計畫。

I think it's one of the most exciting that I'm working on,

也是我正在進行計畫中，最令人興奮的一個，

but I think it's also the simplest.

但也是最簡單的一個。

It's a project that has the potential to make a huge impact around the world.

這計畫有可能對全世界造成巨大影響。

It addresses one of the biggest health issues on the planet,

這個計畫致力解決地球上最大的健康問題之一，

the number one cause of death in children under five.

那就是五歲以下兒童的第一大死因，

Which is ...?

那又是什麼呢？是藉由水傳染的疾病、腹瀉或營養不良嗎？

Water-borne diseases? Diarrhea? Malnutrition?

都不是，而是吸入屋內烹飪用火的煙

No.

It's breathing the smoke from indoor cooking fires --

acute respiratory infections caused by this.

所引起的急性呼吸道感染疾病。你能相信嗎？

Can you believe that?

I find this shocking and somewhat appalling.

我覺得震驚而且有點可怕。

我們難道不能製造低污染的烹飪燃料嗎？

Can't we make cleaner burning cooking fuels?

Can't we make better stoves?

我們難道不能製造更好的烤爐嗎？

How is it that this can lead to over two million deaths every year?

這種原因怎麼可能造成每年 200 萬人以上的死亡呢？

I know Bill Joy was talking to you about the wonders of carbon nanotubes,

我知道比爾•喬伊剛剛跟大家談過

奈米碳管的好處。

所以現在我想跟大家談談

so I'm going to talk to you about the wonders of carbon macro-tubes,

巨碳管，也就是木炭。

which is charcoal.

(Laughter)

So this is a picture of rural Haiti.

這是海地農村的照片。98% 的樹林已遭砍伐。

Haiti is now 98 percent deforested.

You'll see scenes like this all over the island.

這樣的景象在海地隨處可見。

It leads to all sorts of environmental problems

這造就了各種環境問題，

and problems that affect people throughout the nation.

影響整個國家人民的問題。

A couple years ago there was severe flooding

幾年前有場很嚴重的水災，

that led to thousands of deaths --

造成上千人的死亡，

that's directly attributable to the fact

原因要歸咎於

that there are no trees on the hills to stabilize the soil.

山坡上沒有樹木可以固定土壤。

So the rains come --

當下雨時，土壤流進了河流，因而造成了水災。

they go down the rivers and the flooding happens.

Now one of the reasons why there are so few trees is this:

樹木變稀少的原因之一是：

people need to cook,

人們需要煮飯，所以就砍樹並

and they harvest wood and they make charcoal in order to do it.

製造木炭來烹飪。

It's not that people are ignorant to the environmental damage.

並不是人們不知道這樣會破壞大自然。

They know perfectly well, but they have no other choice.

他們非常清楚，卻沒有其他選擇。

Fossil fuels are not available,

石化燃料不易取得，

and solar energy doesn't cook the way that they like their food prepared.

用太陽能烹煮的食物風味不符合他們的口味。

And so this is what they do.

所以他們只好如此。

You'll find families like this who go out into the forest to find a tree,

你會看到像這樣的家庭到森林裡去找一棵樹，

cut it down and make charcoal out of it.

砍倒樹後，做成木炭來用。

So not surprisingly,

並不意外地，有人做了許多努力，

there's a lot of effort that's been done to look at alternative cooking fuels.

探討替代的烹飪燃料。

About four years ago, I took a team of students down to Haiti

大約四年前，我帶了一群學生去海地，

and we worked with Peace Corps volunteers there.

與和平團的志工一起工作。

This is one such volunteer

這是其中一位志工，

and this is a device that he had built in the village where he worked.

這是他在他所服務的村子裡建造的機器。

And the idea was that you could take waste paper;

概念來自於你可以將廢紙

you could compress it

壓扁成為燃料用的紙餅。

and make briquettes that could be used for fuel.

But this device was very slow.

可是這個機器運作速度很緩慢。

So our engineering students went to work on it

所以我們工程系的學生過去幫忙，

and with some very simple changes,

透過一些非常簡單的改進，

they were able to triple the throughput of this device.

就將機器的生產率提高了三倍。

So you could imagine they were very excited about it.

你可以想像他們有多麼興奮。

And they took the briquettes back to MIT so that they could test them.

學生們把紙餅帶回麻省理工學院測試。

其中一個發現是，紙餅並不會燃燒。

And one of the things that they found was they didn't burn.

So it was a little discouraging to the students.

這讓學生們感到有點洩氣。

(Laughter)

And in fact, if you look closely,

實際上，如果你仔細看，就在這兒，

right here you can see it says, "US Peace Corps."

你可以看見上面寫著：「美國和平團」

As it turns out, there actually wasn't any waste paper in this village.

後來發現，那村子根本沒有任何廢紙。

And while it was a good use of government paperwork

這志工雖然充分利用了政府文件

for this volunteer to bring it back with him to his village,

做成了紙餅帶回他的村子，

it was 800 kilometers away.

八百公里之外的村子。

And so we thought perhaps there might be a better way

所以我們認為，也許還有更好的辦法

to come up with an alternative cooking fuel.

來製造替代的烹飪燃料。

What we wanted to do is we wanted to make a fuel

我們想要做的是，製造一種燃料，

that used something that was readily available on the local level.

使用在地現有並容易取得的材料。

You see these all over Haiti as well.

你在海地也到處看得到這種小型的製糖廠。

They're small-scale sugar mills.

And the waste product from them

榨取甘蔗汁之後的廢料

after you extract the juice from the sugarcane

稱為甘蔗渣。

is called "bagasse."

It has no other use.

甘蔗渣沒有其他用途。沒有營養，

It has no nutritional value, so they don't feed it to the animals.

所以不能用來餵養動物。

It just sits in a pile near the sugar mill until eventually they burn it.

甘蔗渣就被堆積在製糖廠旁，等著最後被燒掉。

我們想做的是，找出一種方法

What we wanted to do was we wanted to find a way

to harness this waste resource and turn it into a fuel

利用這些廢料資源做成燃料

that would be something that people could easily cook with,

讓人能輕鬆用之來烹飪，

something like charcoal.

一種類似木炭的東西。

So over the next couple of years,

接下來數年間，我跟學生們研發這種燃料的製程。

students and I worked to develop a process.

So you start with the bagasse, and then you take a very simple kiln

首先你將甘蔗渣放進一個非常簡單的窯，

that you can make out of a waste fifty five-gallon oil drum.

一個可以用 55 加崙廢汽油桶做成的窯。

After some time, after setting it on fire,

燃燒一段時間後，密封起來

you seal it to restrict the oxygen that goes into the kiln,

防止氧氣進入窯裡面，

and then you end up with this carbonized material here.

最後會得到這個碳化的材料。

However, you can't burn this.

但是你不能燃燒這個。因為太細

It's too fine and it burns too quickly to be useful for cooking.

且燒得太快，無法用來烹飪。

So we had to try to find a way to form it into useful briquettes.

所以我們必須想辦法把它

And conveniently, one of my students was from Ghana,

變成有用的餅塊，剛好有個學生來自迦納，

他記得他母親曾做過的「可康堤」，

and he remembered a dish his mom used to make for him called "kokonte,"

which is a very sticky porridge made out of the cassava root.

那是一種用樹薯做的黏稠的粥。

And so what we did was we looked,

於是我們調查後發現

and we found that cassava is indeed grown in Haiti,

海地確實有種植樹薯，只是被叫做木薯。

under the name of "manioc."

In fact, it's grown all over the world --

其實世界各地都有種植 —

yucca, tapioca, manioc, cassava, it's all the same thing --

絲蘭西米、木薯、樹薯，全都一樣，

a very starchy root vegetable.

是一種含高澱粉的根菜。

And you can make a very thick, sticky porridge out of it,

可用其做成很黏稠的漿糊，

which you can use to bind together the charcoal briquettes.

來把炭餅黏在一起。

So we did this. We went down to Haiti.

於是我們就這麼到海地去如法炮製。

These are the graduates of the first Ecole de Charbon,

這是「木炭大學」第一屆的畢業生，

or Charcoal Institute.

又或你稱它為「木炭研究所」

And these --

（笑聲）

(Laughter)

That's right. So I'm actually an instructor at MIT as well as CIT.

沒錯。我其實不但是麻省理工學院，同時也是木炭大學的老師。

這些就是我們製造的炭餅。

And these are the briquettes that we made.

現在我將帶各位看看另一塊大陸。這裡是印度，

Now I'm going to take you to a different continent.

This is India

and this is the most commonly used cooking fuel in India.

這是印度最普遍的烹飪燃料：牛糞。

It's cow dung.

And more than in Haiti, this produces really smoky fires,

比海地更嚴重的是，牛糞製造更多的煙，

and this is where you see the health impacts

你可以看到燃燒牛糞和生物質對健康所造成的影響。

of cooking with cow dung and biomass as a fuel.

你可以看到燃燒牛糞和生物質對健康所造成的影響。

Kids and women are especially affected by it,

小孩子和婦女尤深受其害，

because they're the ones who are around the cooking fires.

因為他們常待在火爐旁邊。

於是我們想要知道是否可以將

So we wanted to see

if we could introduce this charcoal-making technology there.

炭餅製作的技術引進到印度。

Well, unfortunately, they didn't have sugarcane

可惜的是，印度沒有甘蔗渣

and they didn't have cassava,

及樹薯，但那無法阻擋我們。

but that didn't stop us.

What we did was we found what were the locally available sources of biomass.

我們找出當地可用的生物質資源。

And there was wheat straw and there was rice straw in this area.

那地方有麥稈和稻草。

And what we could use as a binder was actually small amounts of cow manure,

至於黏著劑

則是少量的牛糞肥，

which they used ordinarily for their fuel.

也是他們常用在燃料上的東西。

And we did side-by-side tests,

我們進行了並排測試，你能看見這裡是

and here you can see the charcoal briquettes

炭餅，這則是牛糞。

and here the cow dung.

And you can see that it's a lot cleaner burning of a cooking fuel.

你會發現炭餅是更乾淨的燃料。

And in fact, it heats the water a lot more quickly.

實際上，它還能更快地將水煮沸。

And so we were very happy, thus far.

因此，到目前為止，我們非常開心。

But one of the things that we found

但當我們

was when we did side-by-side comparisons with wood charcoal,

把炭餅和木炭並排比較時，

it didn't burn as long.

發現炭餅的燃燒時間較短。而且炭餅會有點碎裂，

And the briquettes crumbled a little bit

and we lost energy as they fell apart as they were cooking.

烹飪過程中也會因瓦解而喪失能量。

So we wanted to try to find a way to make a stronger briquette

於是，我們想要找方法製造更強韌的炭餅，

so that we could compete with wood charcoal in the markets in Haiti.

好讓炭餅能在海地的市場上與木炭競爭。

So we went back to MIT,

所以我們回到麻省理工學院，拿出材料測驗機，

we took out the Instron machine

and we figured out what sort of forces you needed

找出了所需要的壓力

in order to compress a briquette to the level

來壓製真正能

that you actually are getting improved performance out of it?

提升效能的炭餅。

And at the same time that we had students in the lab looking at this,

在此同時，我們有學生在實驗室裡研究

we also had community partners in Haiti working to develop the process,

也有海地的社群夥伴一起開發製程，

不斷改進且讓村民能更容易取用炭餅。

to improve it and make it more accessible to people in the villages there.

一些時日之後，

And after some time,

we developed a low-cost press that allows you to produce charcoal,

我們開發出低成本的壓製機來製造

which actually now burns not only --

比木炭燃燒更久且更乾淨的炭餅。

actually, it burns longer, cleaner than wood charcoal.

So now we're in a situation where we have a product,

現在的情況是，我們有個產品

which is actually better than what you can buy in Haiti in the marketplace,

比你所能在海地市場買到的更好，

which is a very wonderful place to be.

這真是個美好的成就。

In Haiti alone, about 30 million trees are cut down every year.

光是海地，每年就有三千萬棵樹遭砍伐。

There's a possibility of this being implemented

炭餅很可能被市場採用，

and saving a good portion of those.

大量的樹林就得以被保存。

In addition, the revenue generated from that charcoal is 260 million dollars.

此外，這炭餅所創造的營收是兩億六千萬美金。

這對海地來說是很龐大的金額，

That's an awful lot for a country like Haiti --

with a population of eight million

一個總人口數 800 萬

and an average income of less than 400 dollars.

每人平均收入低於 400 美元的國家。

So this is where we're also moving ahead with our charcoal project.

這也是我們炭餅計畫的目標。

And one of the things that I think is also interesting,

另外我覺得有趣的是，

is I have a friend up at UC Berkeley who's been doing risk analysis.

我有個朋友在柏克萊大學做風險分析。

And he's looked at the problem of the health impacts

他觀察燃燒木柴及木炭

of burning wood versus charcoal.

所造成的健康影響。

And he's found that worldwide, you could prevent a million deaths

他發現如果全世界

把烹飪燃料從木柴換成木炭

switching from wood to charcoal as a cooking fuel.

That's remarkable,

就可避免好幾百萬人的死亡。這是很值得注意的。

but up until now, there weren't ways to do it without cutting down trees.

可是在這之前，除了砍樹外，別無他法。

But now we have a way

但現在我們可以利用

that's using an agricultural waste material to create a cooking fuel.

農業廢料製造燃料來煮飯。

One of the really exciting things, though,

其中真的很令人興奮的，

is something that came out of the trip that I took to Ghana just last month.

也是上個月我到迦納才發現的。

And I think it's the coolest thing,

這是我覺得最酷的事，

而且比你剛才看到的技術還要簡單，

and it's even lower tech than what you just saw,

if you can imagine such a thing.

如果你能想像得到的話。我們來看一下。

Here it is.

So what is this?

這是什麼呢？這是玉米芯做成的木炭。

This is corncobs turned into charcoal.

And the beauty of this is that you don't need to form briquettes --

最棒的是，你不需要把它壓成餅狀。

it comes ready made.

原本就已成型了。這正是我的百元電腦。

This is my $100 laptop, right here.

And actually, like Nick, I brought samples.

我其實跟尼克一樣有帶樣品來。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So we can pass these around.

我們可以傳著看一下。

They're fully functional, field-tested, ready to roll out.

玉米芯炭完全實用，實地測試過，且即可上市。

(Laughter)

And I think one of the things

我認為，關於這技術的另一個值得注意的事

which is also remarkable about this technology,

就是這技術是非常容易轉移的。

is that the technology transfer is so easy.

Compared to the sugarcane charcoal,

比起甘蔗渣木炭，

where we have to teach people how to form it into briquettes

我們必須教人如何做炭餅，

and you have the extra step of cooking the binder,

而且還多個步驟，必需熬煮黏著劑，

this comes pre-briquetted.

玉米芯炭則完全不用。

And this is about the most exciting thing in my life right now,

這大致上就是我現在生命中最興奮的事，

which is perhaps a sad commentary on my life.

也許對我的生活來說，是個蠻可悲的註解。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But once you see it, like you guys in the front row --

可是一旦你看過之後，就像現在前排的你們，就會認同

All right, yeah, OK.

對吧，總之，就是這樣 ...

So anyway --

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Here it is.

我認為這是個完美的例子

And this is, I think, a perfect example

of what Robert Wright was talking about in those non-zero-sum things.

說明羅伯•賴特所說的「非零和」。

So not only do you have health benefits,

這不只對健康有好處，

you have environmental benefits.

還更環保。

But this is one of the incredibly rare situations

而且是極為少見的

能夠創造經濟效益的例子。

where you also have economic benefits.

People can make their own cooking fuel from waste products.

人們可以用廢料製造自己的烹飪燃料，

They can generate income from this.

並從中製造營收。

They can save the money that they were going to spend on charcoal

他們可以節省原本需要購買木炭的錢，

and they can produce excess and sell it in the market

製造額外的玉米芯炭

to people who aren't making their own.

拿到市場賣給不自己製造的人。

It's really rare that you don't have trade-offs

很少見到

between health and economics, or environment and economics.

在健康和經濟之間或環境和經濟之間是沒有抵換的。

So this is a project that I just find extremely exciting

因此，這是讓我覺得極度興奮的計畫，

and I'm really looking forward to see where it takes us.

也期待它將引領我們創造的未來。

現在，當我們談到將被創造的未來，

So when we talk about, now, the future we will create,

one of the things that I think is necessary

其中我認為必須要有的

is to have a very clear vision of the world that we live in.

就是對我們所生存的世界要有很清楚的遠見。

And now, I don't actually mean the world that we live in.

我並不是指大多數的我們居住的這個世界。

I mean the world where women spend two to three hours everyday

而是指女人們每天花兩三個小時

grinding grain for their families to eat.

輾磨榖粒給家人吃的那個世界。

I mean the world where advanced building materials

我是指當「先進建材」

means cement roofing tiles that are made by hand,

指的是手工水泥屋瓦的那個世界，

and where, when you work 10 hours a day,

以及即使每天工作十小時，

you're still only earning 60 dollars in a month.

每個月還是只賺 60 塊美元的那個世界。

I mean the world

在我所說的世界，女人和小孩們每年總共花四百億小時在打水。

where women and children spend 40 billion hours a year fetching water.

That's as if the entire workforce of the state of California

等於是加州所有的工作人口

worked full time for a year doing nothing but fetching water.

一年工作全職專門只是打水。

It's a place where, for example, if this were India,

那是一個這樣的地方，例如，如果這裡是印度，

in this room, only three of us would have a car.

在這演講廳中的我們，只有三人擁有汽車。

If this were Afghanistan,

如果這裡是阿富汗，

only one person in this room would know how the use the Internet.

只有一人懂得如何使用網路。

If this were Zambia --

如果這裡是尚比亞，你們當中的 300 人會是農夫，

300 of you would be farmers,

100 of you would have AIDS or HIV.

100 人會有愛滋病。

And more than half of you would be living on less than a dollar a day.

超過一半的人，每天的生活費少於一塊美金。

這些都是我們必須想出解決辦法的問題。

These are the issues that we need to come up with solutions for.

這些是我們必須訓練我們的工程師、

These are the issues that we need to be training our engineers,

our designers, our business people, our entrepreneurs to be facing.

設計師、商人、企業家去面對的問題。

These are the solutions that we need to find.

這些是我們必須找到的解答。

I have a few areas that I believe are especially important that we address.

這裡有幾點我認為是特別值得去注意的。

一個是創造技術以提倡微型金融及微型企業，

One of them is creating technologies

to promote micro-finance and micro-enterprise,

so that people who are living below the poverty line

讓住在貧窮當中的人可以設法脫離貧困，

can find a way to move out --

and that they're not doing it

且不是透過

using the same traditional basket making, poultry rearing, etc.

傳統的編籃工藝、飼養家畜等等。

But there are new technologies and new products

而是讓他們以小規模

that they can make on a small scale.

製造新技術和新產品

The next thing I believe

另一個我相信的是，我們需要爲貧窮的農夫提供技術

is that we need to create technologies for poor farmers

to add value to their own crops.

使農作物增加價值。

And we need to rethink our development strategies,

也必須重新思考我們的開發策略，

so that we're not promoting educational campaigns

讓我們不會提倡教育制度

to get them to stop being farmers,

來阻止他們成為農夫，

but rather to stop being poor farmers.

而是阻止他們成為貧窮的農夫。

And we need to think about how we can do that effectively.

我們必須思考如何有效率地達到目的。

We need to work with the people in these communities

我們必須跟當地居民一起合作，

and give them the resources and the tools that they need

提供他們所需的資源和工具

to solve their own problems.

來解決他們自己的問題。這才是最好的辦法。

That's the best way to do it.

We shouldn't be doing it from outside.

我們不應該在外部做事。

So we need to create this future, and we need to start doing it now.

我們必須創造這樣的未來，而且必須就從今天開始做起。

Thank you.

謝謝各位

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Chris Anderson: Thank you, incredible.

Stay here.

Tell us -- just while we see if someone has a question --

克里斯•安德森：在別人提問之前先告訴我們

just tell us about one of the other things that you've worked on.

另一個你做過的計畫。

Amy Smith: Some of the other things we're working on

艾美•史密斯：其它我們正在努力的有，

找出低成本可測試水品質的辦法，

are ways to do low-cost water quality testing,

so that communities can maintain their own water systems,

讓居民能維持他們自己的水系統，

know when they're working, know when they treat them, etc.

知道何時系統良好、知道何時該處理水等等。

We're also looking at low-cost water-treatment systems.

另外也在設法建造低成本的廢水處理系統。

One of the really exciting things is looking at solar water disinfection

其中相當令人興奮的就是太陽能消毒裝置，

and improving the ability to be able to do that.

以及改進裝置的功能性。

CA: What's the bottleneck preventing this stuff getting from scale?

克里斯：是什麼瓶頸阻礙了這些東西的推行呢？

Do you need to find entrepreneurs, or venture capitalists,

你需要找企業家或是創投家嗎，

or what do you need to take what you've got and get it to scale?

你需要什麼來推行你手上的技術呢？

AS: I think it's large numbers of people moving it forward.

艾美：我想是有大量的人來推動這些計畫。

It's a difficult thing --

困難的是市場非常零碎，

it's a marketplace which is very fragmented

and a consumer population with no income.

消費人口也沒有收入。

So you can't use the same models that you use in the United States

所以你無法用美國的模式

for making things move forward.

來讓事情有進展。

And we're a pretty small staff,

而且我們的員工很少，就只有我而已。

which is me.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So, you know, I do what I can with the students.

所以我盡力與學生一起努力。

We have 30 students a year go out into the field

每年有 30 位學生到現場去

and try to implement this and move it forward.

嘗試執行和推動這理念。

The other thing is you have to do things with a long time frame,

另外就是你必須長期進行，

as, you know, you can't expect to get something done in a year or two years;

你不能期待一兩年就把事情做完。

you have to be looking five or 10 years ahead.

你必須投入五或十年的時間。

But I think with the vision to do that, we can move forward.

不過只要有這個願景，我們就能向前邁進。