Ran into my friend Bob Lange on the street corner the other day. He's just back from Tanzania where he is running a clean cookstove project, helping the Maasai people build and use more efficient stoves. His project is featured in the latest issue of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves at
http://globalproblems-globalsolutions-files.org/...
"I am happy to report that our particulate and CO monitors show that the new stoves cut indoor smoke by 90 percent. They also reduce the amount of wood use by 60 percent, thereby saving 12 to 15 hours a week of wood-gathering for the women of each household."
Bob's stoves not only reduce indoor smoke and the resulting health problems for women and children and reduce the need for fuel but also reduce black carbon and soot which helps slow climate change. Bob's stoves are being made locally and can be repaired with locally available materials. He has one factory up and running in Tanzania and is building a local economic infrastructure that will support the efficient stove market and provide local jobs.
Bob wants you to know that the picture of Hilary Clinton with Chef José Andrés in that newsletter shows them with three Chinese cookstoves. These are mass-produced models which may be cheaper than Bob Lange's stoves but do very little to build economic and social capacity among the people who use them. Bob's Maasai Solar and Stoves Project (he also installs small solar electric systems with LED lights) is a one man operation, mostly self-funded. I give him a little money each year but it's not enough. He is doing real work on the ground, collaborating with local people on solutions so that they can build on their successes and develop their own ideas to help themselves.
If you are so inclined, you can contribute to his work at
http://www.the-icsee.org/...