Invincible Environmentalist, Sani, Determined to Materialize His Motto of Universal Peace Possible Solely Through Creating Job Opportunities in Environmental Industries

Over 800 representatives from 94 countries of the world gathered in the World Renewable Energy Congress VI & Renewable Energy 2000 held in Brighton, England. The above photo was taken on the sidelines of the congress. Standing in the photo from left to right are: Professor Donald T. Swift-Hook, the Head of the environmental congress Professor Ali Sayegh, and three environmentalists from India, and Mr. Sani

Mr. Sani in charge of Saving Our Planet Consultant Engineers is to start a four-week trip round the world along with Professor Donald T. Swift-Hook from England. But before particularizing on Sani’s plans and achievements as well as those of Mr. Hook, we would like to tell you a bit about Sani, the invincible Iranian environmentalist who has been dedicating his life and energy to environmental protection.

The middle aged lovely and hardworking environmentalist is back to Iran after nearly a year again. He does not seem to be going to give in to the difficulties and obstacles in his way. He comes back any time with a new brilliant idea and new achievements. When he talks of his new leaps forward, you get thrilled at his frankness and friendliness. Guess who? Yes, you’re right. The same lovely Mr. Sani, who carries you to the heart of hope with his optimism. With him, you never know time elapses for he lures you to a different world by the sweet mixed English-Persian language he speaks. All he is concerned about in the world is environmental protection.

His mind is usually obsessed with wind turbines, recycling of waste, conversion of waste to energy, or other similar issues. You would never know his words and actions fit in unless you call on him at his tiny apartment in northeastern Tehran, where his neighbors like him very much. He does everything for them to show an environmentalist is, at the first place, a human. What stuns you even more than that is the things he has innovated to reveal he really does what he says to prevent pollution.

Last year we went to see the manager of business and project development of the Swiss Von Roll Inova Company, Dr. Kern, in his house when we found an interesting filter he had made to absorb the dust and particles in the air. Anyhow, this time Mohammad Sani is back with a pack of new words and information for us. He says he participated in the World Renewable Energy Congress VI & Renewable Energy 2000 held in Brighton, England, where he addressed the audience elaborately. And this was at the congress where he became an acquaintance of Mr. Donald T. Swift-Hook. Following the congress, Mr. Hook wrote to Sani a letter, part of which follows:

Following the World Renewable Energy Conference at which you made such an impact, I shall be delighted to join Saving Our Planet Engineering Consultants. Most of my scientific and engineering career was spent in the power industry with the old Central Electricity Generating Board and I landed up as Head of a Research Division.

At various times, I was on the Councils of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Energy. I had close connections with many Universities, funding their research (with CEGB funds) and getting external Ph.D.s in my own laboratories for more than a dozen of my staff (and for myself incidentally). Since 1979 I have been a Visiting Mr. at kings College London. I retired early from the CEGB just before privatization.

Sani speaks highly of Mr. Hook, who has been active in renewable energy since 1973 when he started up a major program on wave power and a few years later moved into wind power. Sani, in charge of Saving Our Planet Engineering Consultants, says Mr. Hook represented UK in the International Energy Agency on the Wind Energy Agreement and led several multi-million pound international projects as operating agent including Off-Shore Wind Power and Wakes and Clusters. Mr. Swift-Hook wrote an article in a newspaper once he was just back from an international conference in Helsinki where the latest developments in the economics of wind energy were revealed.

He said in his article: More than 800 MW of wind turbines are up and turning in Germany with over 1 million pounds invested for every megawatt of plant. There are nearly 2,500 of these sizeable machines, the tips of their blades reaching up to 50 m off the ground. Sani believes at this time that Iran is faced with the air pollution crisis and use of renewable energies, it would be wise if we invited experienced experts in the related fields to the country such as Mr. Hook, to discuss with them issues such as starting wind turbines or ways to curb air pollution.

Since early January this year, Sani has taken over 250 thousand km round the world’s five continents. He has constantly pursued the issue of establishing peace through creating jobs in environmental projects. The issues he addressed in the recent Brighton congress concerned such a world issue. The following is a list of the issues of his concern at the congress:

1. Amount of renewable energies totaled 0.04% that means 99.96% of the energies were provided from fossil fuels. But at the present time the figure has grown to 2% and a simple calculation shows an 80% growth rate.
2. The number of occupations in the year 2020 provided by clean energies will total 100 million.
3. At the time being, over 125 million of the 6 billion population of the world are engaged with manufacturing weapons, either directly or indirectly.
4. The machinery for manufacture of weapons is in the heavy industries sector. Such industries can be used for wind turbines and production of weapons should be banned as much as possible. For instance, drug production and use has been announced prohibited in some countries though it is being produced and consumed.

But such a ban, as the first step, is a positive movement toward its curbing. The same measure should be taken as to manufacture of weapons. In late November 1999, the First Seminar on Conversion of Wastes Into Electric Energy, sponsored by the Recycling and Conversion of Materials Department of Tehran Municipality, was held in Tehran. The seminar was aimed at exchanging information on optimal use of wastes and protection of the environment.

The writer of the above article believes that under the critical circumstances we need to invite environmentalists and experts in the field to Iran to help resolve the problem of air pollution, at the first place. Besides, the interested foreign partners should also be invited to make investments in environmental fields. Despite all the promises the officials have given to the citizens of Tehran during the recent years, for instance, to curb air pollution, they have remained at the level of talks. Curbing air pollution comes before any huger project such as wind turbines, renewable energies, electric cars, etc. Therefore, the Iranian nationals all expect the government to pave the way for the presence of environmentalists and investors such as Mr. Sani or Dr. Hook in the country to help resolve environmental hassles.

It is high time we put words into actions because we do not want to lag behind in the field of environmental protection.