Justin Guay, Sierra Club - India Program Officer
It is difficult to comprehend in a society where owning a car is often a prerequisite to a 16th birthday, that over two billion people around the world lack such ubiquitous modern conveniences as clean efficient stoves. However, nearly one-third of humanity cooks over open fires suffering terrible health effects associated with indoor air pollution (IAP).
According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 million deaths occur annually due to IAP in rural areas. In addition, IAP contributes to respiratory infections, lung and throat cancers, eye infections and low birth weights, all of which converge to keep rural populations trapped in a perpetual cycle of poverty.
The relatively “simple” technology of improved cook stoves can produce enormous developmental and health benefits for billions around the world. A public health study conducted by the Lancet found that fifteen million improved cook stoves distributed every year for the next decade would supply eighty-seven percent of households across India with a technology that would reduce premature deaths by seventeen percent. Whereas reaching larger scales of distribution, lowering costs, and determining locally-appropriate designs remains a challenge, the developmental impetus for meeting the challenge of indoor air pollution is clear.
What is less well known and appreciated are the climatic impacts caused by a lack of improved cook stoves in the developing world – particularly Asia. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research recently found that industrial pollutants from Asia are drifting into the stratosphere due to wind patterns associated with the monsoon. This allows black carbon, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide particles to climb 20-25 miles into the earth’s stratosphere thereby altering the global climate.
Such findings are all-the-more alarming, as scientists believe that black carbon emissions result in nearly one-fifth of temperature increases associated with global warming – thus making black carbon the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. One of the most deleterious effects occurs when these particles settle on snow and ice, creating a dark surface that absorbs heat and accelerates melting. For example Black carbon emissions account for 30% of the changes associated with Himalayan glacier melt.
It is perhaps fitting to say that one of the cheapest and most efficient means of avoiding dangerous tipping points in the climate system is to provide the world’s poor with improved cook stoves. By eliminating the use of open fires for cooking and accompanying black carbon emissions, it is possible to reduce an estimated 0.5-1 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases in India alone. In addition this is a fast-acting climate strategy when compared to other mitigation strategies as particles generally remain in the atmosphere days to weeks compared with up to one hundred years for carbon dioxide.
The case for improved cook stoves is clear. By distributing improved cook stoves on a large scale we can save millions of lives, as well as our planet from rapidly-approaching tipping points. The Green Livelihoods Center has created a partnership between the Sierra Club, Prakti Design Lab, and the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to do just that, because in order to address climate change in rapidly industrializing countries we must address sustainable development - the two go hand in hand.
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Image: Envirofit Cook Stove in use, posted courtesy of www.popsci.com
