Fighting Climate Change With a Bucket

With so much of the discussion about global warming focused on sophisticated climate models, radiant forces, and the merits of the science (and yes, the science has merit), it’s easy to not see the forest for the trees — or lack thereof. A lot of the problems and solutions associated with greenhouse gas emissions come down to common sense.

You wouldn’t sit in a closed garage with your car running, so it makes sense that designing cars to burn less gas is a good thing. The same is true of electricity : Coal is a major source of electrical power, but burning it is nasty– a leading cause of smog, acid rain, and airborne toxins, not to mention CO2. So using less power and converting to cleaner energy sources also seems like an obvious choice.

The logic of these common sense approaches is often even more apparent in the developing world. As an example, in Cambodia, over 80% of households use firewood and charcoal for cooking, in a country with one of the worst rates of deforestation in the world. Charcoal and wood create lots of smoke, so burning less is a practical goal on multiple levels. But there’s a key difference: While we ‘Westerners’ can choose to buy a hybrid, take public transportation, and buy CFLs, better choices are not always readily available in the developing world, due to cost and accessibility issues.

Fortunately, NGOs are now stepping in to offer better options, using the money from the carbon offsets that these carbon-reducing life-improving projects generate to help fund them. In Cambodia, this means replacing the traditional bucket stove – basically a clay cooking pot – with a bucket stove that has draft holes and insulation, creating more efficient heat transfer. The result? For $3, a Cambodian family can switch to an improved bucket stove that consumes 25% less charcoal. Over 800,000 of these stoves are now in use, reducing fuel consumption by more than 150,000 tons of charcoal per year.

This idea is referred to as “carbon finance for development”, and a consortium of NGOs called NEXUS is sharing best practices and developing projects like this across Asia. Similar efforts are also underway in Africa, replacing kerosene lanterns, inefficient cookstoves, and firewood water heating with solar and other cleaner methods.

Over 2 Billion people rely on basic biomass (primarily firewood and charcoal) for cooking and heating, creating health issues (mostly to women and children), environmental degradation, and in some cases the need to spend much of each day gathering fuel. Most of these 2 Billion people don’t have access to electricity at all.

If instead of focusing on emissions allowances and industrial caps, we think of the simpler projects such as clean cookstoves and solar lights, then the idea of investing in reduction, offsets, and fuel conservation seems to make even more sense. The underlying concepts are not complicated, even if we try to make them so. Something as simple as putting some holes in a bucket can help improve our world.

Note: You can learn more about the Cambodian efficient cookstove project here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Chinmayee J.

5:01AM PDT on Apr 5, 2010

Good article. It's amazing how a few simple inventions or innovations can make such a difference, especially in developing countries. What's even better is that some of these inventions are environmentally friendly!

send a green star

Michael C.

8:25AM PST on Mar 9, 2010

A great example of how simple investments can reduce carbon emissions and pollution while improving the lives of the poorest on earth.

pierluigi b.

1:28AM PST on Dec 28, 2009

Thanks for the article!

Dmitry B.

2:55PM PST on Nov 24, 2009

Interesting Article
Thanks

Robert B.

9:20AM PST on Nov 23, 2009

I couldn't agree more with the comments of Rita B. that the oil companies and other energy giants have a stranglehold on our government. Obama is far from a saint but his stance on climate change is a great step in the right direction. However, if he were to take an extraordinarily courageous stand on this issue, I feel that he would soon be shot by someone hired by one of the big energy companies.
Secondly, Rita mentions the incredible amount of money so many countries -- the U. S. is by far the biggest culprit -- spend on weapons. We human beings have simply have got to learn to live together or we will sooner or later destroy the planet and ourselves in the process. Perhaps we can find hope by living in the way that the great spiritual traditions teach us.

Teresa M.

1:41PM PST on Nov 22, 2009

THANK YOU, VERY INTERESTING READ,

Moertl M.

9:10AM PST on Nov 18, 2009

One might think that the politicians live on another planet. Talk and talk that's mostly what they do where climate changes are concerned. Here in Austria for example, bonuses are bought from less polluting countries to be allowed to continue to pollute more than allowed by European standards.

Tammy E.

2:06AM PST on Nov 18, 2009

Its a crying shame that people in cambodia have to live this way much like some people here in egypt because they don'thave the resorces to buy or make such things. I was talking to my husband yesterday and he wanted to buy a fire place,we don't have furnices here in our homes in egypt so i mentioned gas, he kind of liked that idea i told him that it was cheaper than oil and cleaner than other heating and cooking sorces.

rita b.

8:17PM PST on Nov 16, 2009

Part of the problem is the stranglehold that the big energy corporations have on governments. As long as they control things the huge majority of of our taxes will go to proping up the bottom line of big oil, coal and nuclear while thousands of truely innovative ideas that could make a real difference go begging for funding. These energy giants and their partners in crime like the auto industry have done everything possible to supress energy innovation. Nikloi Tesela's free energy device and the electric car are good examples.
The other big problem is the amount most governments spend on weapons of war and on wars. If we could free up some of those resources there would be more than enough to provide a solar stove for every person who could use one.
Plant trees they are the lungs of the planet!

Lisa B.

7:39PM PST on Nov 16, 2009

Craig, yes that is true. The wood needs to be sustainable. So the forest does need to be replaced.

Here the wood is mostly pinus radiata plantations, which grow back within 25 years. And most firewood is from trimming the trees. Burning hardwoods on the other hand, or native vegetation, is not sustainable. I should have been clearer about what I meant.

Ron, there was a great article in treehugger today about reducing street lighting electricity usage by only using part of the colour spectrum. Check it out on http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/nightlife-made-sustainable-street-lights-match-evening-sensitivities-save-considerable-energy.php?dcitc=daily_nl.