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Renewable Energy
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A typical kitchen in Nairobi, Kenya. Eye and
lung irritation are a real problem cooking in these conditions.
According the Intermediate
Technology Development Group, 1.8 million deaths occur annually
from illness related to smoke from cooking fires. Many people use
charcoal instead of wood to reduce the amount of smoke in the kitchen,
but that means that about five times as many trees are cut down
to do the same amount of cooking. |
ProTREE
Promotion of Technologies in Renewable Energy Enterprises
Since the dawn of history, people have been burning
wood to cook their food, provide heat and what little light they have
available at night. In developing countries, firewood and charcoal are
still the primary fuels for about 2.4 billion people. In fact, half of
all the trees cut in the whole world are used in this way. Ninety eight
percent of world population growth occurs in these areas, so demand for
fuel wood resources is still increasing, requiring more and more time
and effort of those who are forced to depend on traditional fuels to meet
their basic necessities. However, forest regeneration can no longer keep
up with the cutting. It has been estimated that in some places in Africa,
trees are being cut down ten thousand times faster than they can grow
back. Once the rate of harvesting has exceeded the rate of regeneration,
the forest is doomed unless something changes—it’s only a
question of how long it will take to cut it all down.
In places like Ethiopia this process is complete and there are no forests
left. Many other places are well on the way. Deforestation is having an
increasingly large impact on rainfall and weather patterns. Since forests
are the lungs of the world, this is a global issue that affects all of
us.
The Jatropha Solution
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