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
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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
Is Copenhagen funding a global stove, kiln, and briquettes conversion program?
I can’t decide what to make of today’s announcement in Copenhagen heralding a new five-year program by industrialized nations to invest $350m in the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies in developing countries. On the surface this should be a cause of celebration. The big question is how will these funds will be spent? Here’s a hint, according to Climate Wire. Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference here, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the new program — with an $85 million U.S. contribution — would help get energy-efficient appliances and lighting to the poorest nations, Continue reading
Can – or should – the charcoal trade be regulated?
A dispatch from Kenya this morning made me wonder if efforts to ban the charcoal trade in various African countries is at all effective. Can it be enforced? Who suffers? Has this strategy yielded results somewhere? I don’t know. What is clear is that the pace of decimation of African forests for charcoal and woodfuel is rapidly reaching crisis point in various countries — Uganda, Malawi, parts of Kenya and Tanzania. Excerpts from news dispatches help paint a picture. From the article mentioned earlier, reported by Wildlife Direct: “According to Elias Kimaru of the Kwale landscape project of the WWF Continue reading
Video: Africa’s forest have a lot to offer in Copenhagen
There is an excellent film by South Africa-based photojournalist Jeffrey Barbee that will hopefully get quite a bit of play in Copenhagen. It explores how African forests and woodfuel efficiency can play a big role in reducing CO2 emissions while improving people’s livelihood. We were especially interested to learn through this film about a stoves project in Malawi which is not only improving the lives the local inhabitants but also providing valuable carbon credits to an eco securities firm for sale on the voluntary carbon market. (The segment about Malawi and the stoves begins at 5:40 on part 2 but Continue reading