Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Wood-burning stoves are bad - but for the wrong reason
A paper in the latest edition of Science (Residential biofuels in South Asia: Carbonaceous Aerosol Emissions and Climate Impact;Ventakatarama et al; Science; Vol 307, 2005; pp 1454-56) should win an award for missing the point. Their finding is that soot from domestic cooking in rural India - using wood or cow dung as fuel - is a major contributor to the region's impact on climate change.
Only passing mention is made to cleaner cooking methods "yielding significant local local health and air quality benefits". However, indoor cooking with wood-burning stoves is known to be a serious health hazard. For example, in an article on the SciDev website covering the Science paper (Cooking with wood "contributes to climate change") it is reported that "According to the Intermediate Technology Development Group, indoor pollution caused by burning biofuels affects the health of hundreds of millions of people, and kills more children each year than malaria or HIV/AIDS. Among the diseases linked to stove use are pneumonia, lung cancer and respiratory tract infections."
It looks like the current fashion for guilt over supposed Man-made climate change has blinded some people to the very real and unnecessary suffering of fellow human beings, which could be eliminated at a fraction of the cost of complying with the Kyoto protocol. On the other hand, maybe this is a well-meaning attempt to fund a very worthwhile initiative on the back of climate change work. Who knows?
Only passing mention is made to cleaner cooking methods "yielding significant local local health and air quality benefits". However, indoor cooking with wood-burning stoves is known to be a serious health hazard. For example, in an article on the SciDev website covering the Science paper (Cooking with wood "contributes to climate change") it is reported that "According to the Intermediate Technology Development Group, indoor pollution caused by burning biofuels affects the health of hundreds of millions of people, and kills more children each year than malaria or HIV/AIDS. Among the diseases linked to stove use are pneumonia, lung cancer and respiratory tract infections."
It looks like the current fashion for guilt over supposed Man-made climate change has blinded some people to the very real and unnecessary suffering of fellow human beings, which could be eliminated at a fraction of the cost of complying with the Kyoto protocol. On the other hand, maybe this is a well-meaning attempt to fund a very worthwhile initiative on the back of climate change work. Who knows?
