Something that Kyoto doesn't address - department # 92,304

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Kyoto seems to be out of focus on a lot of things. The demonstrated effect of CO2 is minimal, H2O is a much worse greenhouse gas but nobody is doing anything about that (probably because they can't). Neither does Kyoto focus on the fact that the Sun has a long history as a variable star and we have a demonstrated 400 year period of warming and cooling. We happen to be entering a warming period -- the idea that humans are responsible is ludicrous. Another thing is that Kyoto, for all of it's "environmental" street cred, requires developed nations to spend themselves into the poorhouse with little or no real effect but it ignores situations where a small expenditure would have radical and earth-changing effects on the local population. Case in point from the New Scientist:
Tackling the 'kitchen killer' � solid fuel
Investment in curbing one of the biggest causes of death in the world � smoke from unclean cooking fuels � would pay itself back seven times over.

That is the conclusion of a new report from the World Health Organization, which calculates that an annual investment of $13 billion could halve the number of people cooking with such fuels by 2015.

Just under half of the world's six billion people cook with solid fuels, sometimes breathing in smoke equivalent to 40 cigarettes a day.

Each year this �kitchen killer� leads to the deaths of 1.5 million people, with 900,000 of those in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. The smoke from using wood, dung, coal and other solid fuels on open fires or simple stoves kills more children under the age of 5 than malaria or AIDS.

The WHO analysis suggests the $13 bn annual investment would have an annual payback of $91 billion as a result of less time lost to illness and collecting fuel. Much of the investment would go toward helping people gain access to liquefied petroleum gas, a cleaner burning fuel. The report also suggests offering one-time subsidies to help families purchase gas cookers.

The investment could help to break the cycle of poverty, WHO experts argue, as healthier children would be able to attend school while their mothers could engage in income-generating activities, such as agriculture.

Children who inhale indoor smoke have a doubled risk of pneumonia and adults are more likely to suffer from illnesses such as chronic bronchitis compared with those who cook with electricity, gas and other clean-burning fuels, the report says.
Time to figure out the big picture guys; it's not just about you...

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on May 7, 2006 11:41 PM.

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