[Stoves] Charcoal in Gambia

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear George in What’s Left of the Jungle

>People got to cook - it's as easy as that

 Yup.

>>I still maintain that Gambia is probably being ruined from people breaking the law.

>Well show me the country where that is different and I'm packing my bags tomorrow.

Exactly. I manage to spend 32 year of my life in Africa without once paying a bribe. I did that by staying out of situations or whole countries where it becomes imperative. But as it is impossible to live within the law, everyone is an outlaw. Many counties are ruined by the laws, but you gotta have them or there is anarchy. Banning charcoal is like putting a bandage on a heart attack. It is life and death and the law will (largely) be ignored.

>>And Biochar production in pyrolysis stoves by these same unemployed folk can be accomplished by people like me paying for taking atmospheric carbon out of their (and my atmosphere. 

>Maybe you just found a solution to the global unemployment problem (including the growing one in the USA) I think the last time i looked the little that the US government spends from your hard earned tax bucks possibly don't even cover your own per capita emmissions in the USA - never mind ours. 

That depends on the trading price of CO2. As the market collapses it becomes cheaper, but then the subsidy available decreases. As the per capita emission rate in the USA does not factor in the absorption rate (expanding forests and all forests growing at a higher rate due to CO2 fertilisation) you might be surprised what the net USA emission level is.

>…It's hard to change habits and sometimes people here just can't afford the risk to do something that's new just in case they end up even [worse] off then they are already

 Yup. Reality bites.

>>…
>Well yes I can say that sitting here to - let's start with Texas. 

Ha ha! Yeah. East, West, home’s best. Not gonna happen.


>Once we did our baseline summary I am sure i will park it on the stoves site so everyone can see what we found out.

Great. There is very little analysis of stove opportunities by professional social scientists with technical skills.  You were lucky you could get him there at all. I believe he has spotted an opportunity to change the pot-stove combination.

Regards

Crispin

 

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