A presentation unveiled at the recent COP15 meeting by the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA, of which we are proud members) might have turned the tides had it received greater attention. Titled Cleaner Cook Stoves for Developing Countries: Improving Health, Reducing Climate Change, the PowerPoint focused on the carbon offset potential and role of improved cookstoves and biofuels. According to the slides, the presenters included • Health Effects: Dr. William Martin, Associate Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, USA • Black Carbon: Professor V Ramanathan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Continue reading
December 2009
Culture, stoves, and fuels come together in Bangladesh
Fifteen years ago I was driving out of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to film a segment on family planning practices in rural villages. While looking out the window of our van as we drove past an open landfill I noticed there was not a single scrap of inorganic material to be seen. No bright red or yellow plastic containers, discarded appliances, or busted mattresses and bed frames were visible. (Not the picture above.) In fact, it appeared there was little intact organic material either. An old lady scavanging through the refuse picked up a some dried coconut husks and stuffed in her Continue reading
Relief agency "gets it" by putting the right stove in the right hands
A few weeks ago a story in the Financial Times led with the stove project of Mercy Corps, a relief agency working in camp for Internally Displaced People in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. We wanted to know more so we sent a list of questions to Elisha Moore-Delate. She is the Environment Program Manager for Mercy Corps in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the person responsible for the stoves program. We’re sharing her inspiring and insightful responses below. 1. When, and how, did you realize that introducing energy efficient stoves would help improve conditions for the IDPs? Continue reading
Charcoal: The poor man's blood diamonds
I wonder if the 2006 film Blood Diamond (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly) would have garnered as much attention if the object of discord had been charcoal instead of diamonds. It’s hard to imagine that charcoal – charcoal! – could be the cause of gruesome murders, a thriving black market, sinister cartels, and the source of funding of irregular armies. But that’s exactly what’s happening in various places around the world and there is every reason to believe things are about to get worse quickly, especially if Copenhagen approves a deal to protect forests in developing countries. A series of gruesome Continue reading
New Yorker magazine article on the quest for the perfect stove
The December 21st issue of The Newyorker magazine has a fascinating article about one inventor’s quest for the perfect stove for the developing world. In typical Newyorker fashion, the story focuses on some of the quirkier aspects of the inventors of stoves and the trials and tribulations of getting these done and adopted. Still, it’s an excellent read. The article’s author discussed the story this morning with radio talkshow host Brian Lehrer on New York’s Public Radio, WNYC. The program took one call during the interview, which came from yours truly at The Charcoal Project. In the nanosecond we had, Continue reading