This morning the crew of Batwa and Maasai constructed their inaugural stove in Uganda. The first home was particularly appropriate, as it is there that our young friend Amon, two years ago, received third degree burns that deformed his chest, legs and genitals. Amon is a happy, active nine-year-old today; but his life will be ever effected by the accident of the family cookfire. Amons mother thanked us for the new home improvement; it is a major event for that family, but just the first of hundreds we hope to complete in Bwindi and Buhoma. According to the World Health Organization, some three billion people rely on open fires to cook and heat their homes. Average family size in the developing world is about five. So the math tells us we have just 600,000,000 stoves to build. A worthwhile venture? Beside causing horrible burns, smoke-related diseases like pneumonia and lung cancer, and the destruction of forests and associated watersheds by the gathering of wood, the inefficient cook fires used in six hundred million homes are significant contributors to todays climate change. Black soot from wood fires are second only to carbon dioxide (which is also produced by burning) in warming our atmosphere. Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanatham of Scripps Institute of Oceanography, one of todays leading climate scientists, refers to cooking fires as the low-hanging fruit in the fight against the heating of our planet; in other words, its the easiest thing we can do. So... building a stove in southwestern Uganda doesnt just help a family like Amons. It helps us all.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 18:03:02 +0000
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