A presentation unveiled at the recent COP15 meeting by the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA, of which we are proud members) might have turned the tides had it received greater attention. Titled Cleaner Cook Stoves for Developing Countries:  Improving Health, Reducing Climate Change, the PowerPoint focused on the carbon offset potential and role of improved cookstoves and biofuels. According to the slides, the presenters included • Health Effects: Dr. William Martin, Associate Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, USA • Black Carbon: Professor V Ramanathan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San … Continue reading →

Fifteen years ago I was driving out of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to film a segment on family planning practices in rural villages. While looking out the window of our van as we drove past an open landfill I noticed there was not a single scrap of inorganic material to be seen. No bright red or yellow plastic containers, discarded appliances, or busted mattresses and bed frames were visible. (Not the picture above.) In fact, it appeared there was little intact organic material either. An old lady scavanging through the refuse picked up a some dried coconut husks and stuffed in her … Continue reading →

I wonder if the 2006 film Blood Diamond (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly) would  have garnered as much attention if the object of discord had been charcoal instead of diamonds. It’s hard to imagine that charcoal – charcoal! – could be the cause of gruesome murders, a thriving black market, sinister cartels, and the source of funding of irregular armies. But that’s exactly what’s happening in various places around the world and there is every reason to believe things are about to get worse quickly, especially if Copenhagen approves a deal to protect forests in developing countries. A series of gruesome … Continue reading →