SOCIALLY
3 billion of us in this world cook every meal over a dirty, inefficient open fire. Can you imagine not being able to just turn the oven on, automatically light the burner on the stove top or throw your meal in the microwave to eat? 1 in 2 of us don’t have that luxury. 1 in 2 of us have to walk over 10 miles and spend over 30 hours a week to collect wood, spend up to 35% of our income on purchasing fuel, expose ourselves to harm and smoke the equivalent of 40 cigarettes a day according to the World Health Organization (WHO) just to cook. The WHO has also estimated that harmful cookstove smoke is the fourth worst overall health risk factor in developing countries behind malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of access to clean water and sanitation. Killing 1.6 million each year, women and children are disproportionately the majority of deaths related to indoor cooking smoke. Surprisingly indoor cooking smoke is the number 1 killer of children under the age of 5 (that’s ahead of AIDS, malaria, malnutrition and water-borne diseases).
ENVIRONMENTALLY
In the rural developing world, over 90% of energy consumption is either wood or other biomass. In the country of Kenya alone, this leads to the consumption of over 100 million trees annually. It is estimated that 25% of global CO2 emissions are generated by the rural poor, more than all global transportation-related emissions combined. When too many trees are cut down, a compounding affect takes place and a chain reaction is set in motion that destroys watersheds allowing wind, erosion and floods to wash away valuable topsoil. Then the land becomes arid and grasses cease to grow affecting livestock. Following this the birds and the bees necessary for pollination disappear. And finally, crop yields are reduced, increasing food insecurity and poverty.
This negative paradigm is further crippling the poor in the developing world and leading to catastrophic DEFORESTATION, RESPIRATORY DISEASE and the further exacerbation of POVERTY.