Why We Support The Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

We support The Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves with donations from memberships to our Pitmaster Club. This remarkable a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization develops and distributes high efficiency cookstoves to the needy around the world. Many are wood burning but they require much less wood than the old fashioned stoves that also filled their huts and eyes and lungs with soot. These new designs are practically smokeless. Many use propane which is very clean. Some burn biomass such as rice husks or even dried dung and some use solar energy. Some are even manufactured locally.

 

Placeholder

Some of these clever designs have come from the recreational camping world, and many have migrated the other way, into the camping world. Below is a well insulated high efficiency unit that can burn wood, biomass such as crop byproducts like corncobs, it can run on solar, and can even store enough energy to power a light or charge a cell phone. Reducing the amount of wood means less deforestation in dry areas and women spend less time collecting wood and are at less risk. Check out the hundreds of designs being tested. 

 

Placeholder

Household smoke may be the world’s deadliest environmental hazard

This article is excerpted from The Economist.

Imagine building a small pile of wood and kindling in the smallest room in your house and setting fire to it. You can keep the door open to let out some smoke, but cannot switch on an extractor fan. You must tend the fire for an hour. Repeat the process three times a day.

This is how Fatou N’Dour lives. Her kitchen, separate from her home and built of mud bricks, measures roughly two metres by two. She usually cooks indoors because of the winds that whip across Lambayene, the village where she lives in central Senegal. Wood-collecting may take four trips a week, each one of up to four hours.

Household smoke is thought to be the world’s most lethal environmental problem, killing 2.6 million people a year. Where wood and charcoal are burned trees often disappear. Africa loses some 0.5% of its forests every year, a higher rate of destruction than South America’s. Soot from domestic fires also warms the planet, particularly when it settles on snow. Black carbon like that from dirty cookstoves is thought to be the third most important cause of climate change after carbon dioxide and methane.

Brazil, Ecuador and Indonesia, among others, have all subsidised propane (LPG). Since 2016 the Indian government has made LPG available to 34 million households, giving them gas stoves and one cylinder free. Not only is propane much cleaner than solid fuel. It also feels like a step up in the world and is easier to use (the women say that even men can cook with it).

Subsidies make for poor policy tools. They are snaffled by wealthy, well-connected people. They create lobbies supporting them, and become hard to cut. Particularly in small countries, subsidised goods are likely to leak over borders. Subsidies may also vary from year to year with the government’s budget. That is a particular danger in the case of cooking fuel, because cooks prize reliability. If people cannot always obtain clean fuel, they will probably revert to dirty stuff, says Radha Muthiah, the departing head of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

 

Placeholder

 

Published On: 04/26/2018 Last Modified: 08/31/2019

india

Meathead Goldwyn

Meathead is the founder and publisher of AmazingRibs.com, and is also known as the site's Hedonism Evangelist and BBQ Whisperer. He is also the author of "Meathead, The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", a New York Times Best Seller and named one of the "100 Best Cookbooks of All Time" by Southern Living.

BBQ Stars

bbq support

Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our links and purchase from them. On Amazon it works on everything from grills to diapers, they never tell us what you bought, and it has zero impact on the price you pay, but has a major impact on our ability to improve this site! And remember, we only recommend products we love. If you like AmazingRibs.com, please save this link and use it every time you go to Amazonhttps://tinyurl.com/amazingribs

Placeholder

our bbq logo

Get Smoke Signals, our free e-letter. No spam. Guaranteed

Enter your email:

Pitmaster cartoon

bbq pork belly

 

Post comments and questions below

Placeholder

1) Please try the table of contents or the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.

2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.

3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can't help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.

4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different than your membership login.

Moderators

  Meathead
  Max
  Clint
  Spinaker
  Prof. Blonder
  Jerod
  Huskee
  Candy Sue
  Henrik

 

Click to ask questions and make comments
 

 

 
  FIRST PRIZE: Award of Excellence, National BBQ Association
  NOMINEE: World Food Media Awards
  MEMBER: International Association of Culinary Professionals
  LIFETIME MEMBER: Kansas City Barbeque Society
  MEMBER: Memphis Barbecue Network
  MEMBER: National Barbecue Association
  ORDER OF THE SCUPPERNONG: Southern Foodways Alliance
  FOUNDING MEMBER: Operation BBQ Relief
  REPRESENTED BY: The Lisa Ekus Group, Promoting A World Of Culinary Talent
  SUSTAINING DONOR: Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves

Placeholder