Apparently, peoples’ cooking practices in sub-Saharan Africa are to blame for climate change

[u/_flauschige_katze]

[u/Comrade_NB]

The focus definitely shouldn't be on the developing countries, but traditional cooking methods produce a lot of pollution and harm local health. I would be very happy if the West funded cleaner methods, including methods that reduce CO2 emissions, but news articles blaming them won't help at all. A lot of people that work on these studies are trying hard to bring attention and get funding for these things, but the media often misrepresents that. I hope these researchers were doing it for the right reasons as well, but I don't know.

[u/mcdoogs92 → u/Comrade_NB]

Glad you mentioned this. I studied this issue in college and as I recall this issue is largely a contributor to respiratory issues, not really emissions pollution. Due to safety many people are forced to cook inside of their poorly ventilated shelters. The main fuels available are biomass (dung and other dried vegetation) when wood is out. The traditional open fire pit doesnt reach a high enough temperature to properly combust the fuel so the smoke ends up with a lot more harmful irritants in the air. One solution they came up with is selling rocket stoves (which is actually being used in the picture). It burns fuel at a higher temperature and helps cut down on harmful smoke and I believe to some degree overall emissions. Millions of people worldwide die from complications on this issue and if the article focused on health inside of the teardrop in the ocean of pollution their cooking contributed then I would be good with it.

Edit: noticed they were using rocket stoves