Deforestation, respiratory disease, poverty.

Three words we shouldn’t have to know.

Nearly half of the people in the world cook over open fire, which leads to: Deforestation, Respiratory Disease, and Poverty (http://www.theparadigmproject.org/why-stoves)

For $40 you can buy a Rocket Stove for a family. One Rocket Stove equals:

• $280 of income saved
• 1,300 hours of time saved
• 33 trees saved
• 60% reduction in smoke which stops 7.5mt CO2e from reaching the environment

What’s a Rocket Stove?

Used for cooking purposes in many third-world coutnries, the rocket stove achieves efficient combustion, ensuring a good draft into the fire, controlled use of fuel, complete combustion of materials, and efficient use of the resulting heat.

Why a Rocket Stove?

Cleaner burning, more efficient, simply better stoves reduce wood consumption and toxic smoke. This leads to a better life, a brighter future and social, environment and economic change.

More than 3 billion people in the world still cook over an open fire, leading to respiratory diseases, the deforestation epidemic and compromised safety and overall well-being. Over 2 million women and children die each year due to respiratory problems caused by cooking over an open fire. These respiratory illnesses are the #1 killer of children under the age of 5, more than Malaria or AIDS. (from Paradigm Project press release).

Read more about the Rocket Stove here: http://www.theparadigmproject.org/the-stove or check out this video:

Episode 3: Meet the Makers from The Paradigm Project on Vimeo.

Follow Greg and Austin around the world on out mission to 5 million stoves. In this episode you’ll meet the makers of the locally produced “JikoPoa”, which means the “cool” or the “right stove” and see the value that local production can add to reaching 5 million stoves.

The goal of the Paradigm Project is to deliver 5 million stoves by 2020, already 28,973 stoves have been delivered. It’s easy to help. Donate today!

Pick a campaign and donate any amount: http://www.theparadigmproject.org/donate

If $40 is too much, how about just one latte, or $5. We can all skip one trip to Starbucks can’t we?

Click image to see this full-size

Stunning photos from around the world from this past Saturday’s Earth Hour, click on the images to see them fade (took me only 15 minutes to figure that out!) ….

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html

At 8:30 PM local time on Saturday the 28th of March, Vote Earth by turning off your lights for one hour… Earth Hour.

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global WWF climate change initiative. The campaign invites individuals, businesses, governments and communities to turn out their lights for one hour on one day of the year to show their support for action on climate change. The event began in Sydney in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights. In 2008, more than 50 million people around the globe participated. In 2009, Earth Hour aims to reach out to 1 billion people in 1,000 cities.

More info at http://www.earthhour.org/