By now, most western cultures are well aware of their carbon pollution impact. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the number one contributor to rising global temperatures and is released by everything from automobiles to coal-fired power plants.

Community Energy has come to understand these issues more intimately than most, as our business model is based around affecting change in these areas. However, when considering carbon pollution on a global scale, one segment is often overlooked. We have come to know this segment as the “third world.”

Now to be fair, most of the people living in these regions are considered lucky to have even spotty electrical generation.  Also, whether they choose to be or not, they’re masters of maximizing public transportation. I was fortunate enough to have firsthand experience with this while traveling via “Chicken busses” throughout Central America.

But the third world’s impact on carbon pollution doesn’t come in the form of CO2. Rather it comes from what has emerged as the second leading cause of climate change, what’s referred to as black carbon. Where does black carbon come from, you ask? This is a good question with a simple answer…fire.

While it might be farfetched for us as Americans to consider cooking our daily meals over an open fire, much of the world knows no other way. In these places a family’s daily routine revolves around gathering wood for these fires, and many times carrying this fuel for miles back to the home.

Now the next big question.  How do we go about affecting change in this area?  This one is not so easy to answer.  I believe an important first step in really internalizing the situation is recalling what for many of us was a staple in our first college psych course, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 

Maslow points out that first and foremost, we as humans need to fulfill our physiological needs (i.e. food, water, shelter, etc.). Only after these needs are met can one move up the hierarchy towards things like self-actualization (i.e. solving the issue of global climate change). So how can we as “first world” citizens, having the luxury to focus on higher level hierarchical needs (yet in many cases still neglecting to curb our own impacts), possibly expect people struggling with daily survival to jump on the bandwagon to stop global warming? Impossible? Maybe not…

In my humble opinion, the most plausible way to approach this issue is by finding options that fill two main objectives. The first is to offer effective, easily adaptable alternatives to the way these people currently handle this everyday survival need. The second is to ensure that these new alternatives are sustainable and non-carbon emitting.

Enter potential solution #1…

The Kyoto Box

The Kyoto Box is a solar cooker made from two cardboard boxes and costing about $5. It recently won entrepreneur John Bohmer $75,000 in the FT Climate Change Challenge which sought to publicize the most innovative and practical solution to climate change.

The invention, though not entirely new in concept, is seen as having the potential to completely change the environmental impact of the third world. As nearly two billion people in the world use wood as their primary fuel, the impact from even a fraction of those people converting to an alternative method could be massive.

As with most things, however, there are barriers that need to be addressed. The largest of which is education.   It will take time and resources to develop an effective method of educating people about the technology and benefits, but a goal that is certainly within reach.

While these are not changes that can take place overnight, it’s important that we all realize how vitally important they are. Whether it’s the use of the Kyoto Box or some other alternative concept, it’s safe to say that the developing world will be unable to spearhead these transformations on their own. It’s imperative we do everything in our power to support them with education, technology and financing.

Remember, we’re all in this together!