Clean Cookstoves: Hillary Clinton Fights Cooking Deaths In Developing World

CHENNAI, India -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is putting her diplomatic and personal influence behind a campaign to reduce the nearly 2 million annual deaths caused by dirty wood- and coal-burning cooking stoves in the developing world.

In the Indian port of Chennai (CHUH'-ny) on Wednesday, Clinton said an initiative was on track to put cleaner stoves into 100 million homes by 2020. Almost half the world's population use traditional stoves and open fires to cook their food. Exposure to smoke from their fuel, often dung or wood, kills close to 500,000 people each year, mainly women and children, in India alone.

Clinton has adopted the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves as a signature project. It aims to help develop and market low-cost, efficient stoves in developing countries.

Comments

[mdinoregon]

08:50 AM on 07/21/2011

I have used a solar cooker camping the other day, works great, no fuel at all. Just saying and the site had a solar powered electric fence to keep the bears away from your food. Guess where I pitched my tent..... ;))

[jedonspring]

08:01 AM on 07/21/2011

She needs to get her hair cut - it's dragging her face down. It looked better when she first started growing it out.

[Chase Miller]

12:57 PM on 07/21/2011

haters gonna hate

[jedonspring]

04:15 PM on 07/21/2011

I don't hate her at all. I actually like Hillary very much - I'd tell my best friend the same thing.

[taurus58]

01:17 AM on 07/21/2011

with all of these wars and killing going on, she's worried about stoves....what a joke

[IPredictARiot]

04:26 PM on 07/21/2011

So the 500,000 women who die each year from pulmonary diseases brought about by cooking on traditional stoves don't count?

...what a joke indeed.

[dberianh]

02:21 PM on 08/12/2011

Clearly, you do not understand the issue.

[taurus58]

06:51 PM on 08/12/2011

clearly you dont understand Hillary Clinton

[Y2KCockroach]

08:51 PM on 07/20/2011

Simple, cost-effective measures would give people safe stoves to cook with.

Simple, cost-effective measures would give people safe water to drink.

Simple, cost-effective measures would restore peoples' eyesight.

Simple, cost-effective measures would prevent infectious diseases.

Simple, cost-effective measures would save lives in many ways. This can be done. It should not take a Secretary of State to point this out to us.

[mystshy]

04:25 PM on 07/20/2011

who ios the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ behind thus???????????????

[swampangel51]

04:01 PM on 07/20/2011

what has happened to her face?

[GirlUsingBrain]

03:18 PM on 07/20/2011

Why shouldn't Clinton address this growing problem. It is not just India. It is most third world countries.

The demand for charcoal is also a huge racket and mur.der and corruption is part of its reality. The demand for charcoal devastates forests. They are called "Charcoal Wars" and in Congo, many Mountain Gorillas have been slaughtered because of it.

A simple cooking stove, some of which cost around $2.00, would solve many problems.

Here are a couple of articles about the problem:

http://www.somaliawatch.org/archiveoct00/001026601.htm




http://ntfp.inbar.int/wiki/index.php/Charcoal

[GirlUsingBrain]

03:19 PM on 07/20/2011

She has been traveling and she is tired. What's important here: her "do" or her message?

[csjrac]

06:38 PM on 07/20/2011

Taking time to have her hair cut when she is flying from one meeting to another is not taxing.

And yes it is unfortunate to say so but a neat appearance does matter.

[beckjr2000]

02:31 PM on 07/20/2011

O.K. So long as your not using U.S. Taxpayer money to do so.

[Dragontech]

02:19 PM on 07/20/2011

Considering that wood cooking has been done for tens of thousands of years, and even today many of us do that (safely) in the summer (BBQ) HOW are so many dying from it? Are they using these stoves indoors without ventilation?

[carmenalex]

03:42 PM on 07/20/2011

Tens of thousands of years ago, wood was not treated like today. People are using scrap wood that has been treated with chemicals to prevent termites and fires. When you burn the wood, you release those harsh chemicals that can be very harmful and even cause death, also taint the food cooked with them.
Poor people don't go out and buy wood, and they can't just go and chop any tree they want, they scrounge around for it many times, so the wood burned is more often chemically treated.

[Dragontech]

07:08 PM on 07/20/2011

That explains a lot, thanks.
I'd have to say then, the issue is not the stoves themselves, per se, but the less than . acceptable wood that they have available. Granted, I can see how the economics of using scrap makes this attractive to people, especially if they are ignorant of the risk, but would they be able to afford the cleaner stoves? Or is there some way to make better fuel available to them cheaply? I'd rather see that we quit messing up natural things like wood by adding chemicals to it, so that the scraps would be healthier to use. But I don't see our chemical conglomerates easing their choke hold on the world economy any time soon.

[trumphent]

08:50 PM on 07/20/2011

Look up the Surya Project. It's a pet project of Dr Veerabhadran Ramanathan. He's a former NASA scientist and is currently at Scripps Intitution of Oceanography. In many cases, yes, indoors with poor at best ventilation. Ramanathan's research has been concentrated on the effects of aerosols and the climate. He also discovered that a single molecule of CFC-11 is 10,000 times more effective a GHG than one of CO2.

[dan101t]

02:08 PM on 07/20/2011

I’m sorry, is this the job description of the U.S. Secretary of State?
don’t we have enough problems in this country? And she needs to worry about cooking problems in India?

[AJH]

02:28 PM on 07/20/2011

Soft power, I understand most americans only understand the generals gifts of aircraft and tanks these days, but reaching a people is far more than keeping their generals happy.

[GirlUsingBrain]

03:20 PM on 07/20/2011

Yes. It is in her job description.

[anniewheelr]

01:52 PM on 07/20/2011

How about getting some American company to develop them and sell them to India...they get the safer cooking stoves and we get jobs.

[AJH]

02:33 PM on 07/20/2011

Actually there are several groups which have done just that. MIT or Berkeley as I recall developed one of the better ones which they customize to the cultural habits of the people receiving them. That is look at what they cook, use to cook etc and tweak their design so the product will be used.

[GirlUsingBrain]

03:21 PM on 07/20/2011

Yes ... true. I believe some were even solar powered and cost about $2.00.

[Lady In Silhouette]

03:29 PM on 07/20/2011

Sure, good luck finding a manufacturer willing to pay americans to get the job done when they can get the job done by laborers willing to work for a few dollars a week. They work for less than our hourly minimum wage for an entire week. People better realize we won't be getting decent jobs here. Who could live on that in this country?

[mebemommee06]

01:45 PM on 07/20/2011

I'm sorry Hillary, you look like a school marm from the olden days.. not a good look on you,,

[HPfanRJ]

03:00 PM on 07/20/2011

You're unquestionably sorry - no argument there.

[Lady In Silhouette]

03:36 PM on 07/20/2011

Any clue how ~HOT~ it is in India? Today it's 110. Not many hair do's can survive that heat. She isn't a young woman anymore and she's no doubt very tired and she doesn't look like she feels well to besides.

[GirlUsingBrain]

03:37 PM on 07/20/2011

Exactly! I've been to India. Thanks!