Like everyone else here at Daily Kos, I have been religiously following the general election campaigns of Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R). I’ve been with you all during the highs, the lows and the pie fights. I have been an active participant in the threads — reading, commenting and Monday morning quarterbacking HRC’s campaign from the comfort of my couch. This past week, I’ve also tried to avoid getting drawn in by the doom and gloom news that the MSM is flogging 24/7.
Pundits and posters are continually telling us that Hillary needs to give people a reason to vote for her, not just against Donald Trump. They say she needs to talk about her accomplishments and current policy proposals — go positive, not negative. So I decided to do some reflection about why I admire Hillary Clinton. Hopefully by now we have all heard of HRC’s life long advocacy for women and children. Here are a few examples of the better known work:
Volunteering at New Haven Legal Services as a law student and taking on suspected child abuse cases from the Yale-New Haven Hospital Working for Marion Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defence Fund Registering migrant workers in Texas to vote in 1972 Going undercover to expose racism in the school system in Alabama Working in South Carolina to investigate and report on youth inmates being housed with adult inmates in the prison system Working for health care reform — which although unsuccessful at the time — resulted in SCHIP Advocating against child marriage and violence against women Promoting educational opportunities for girls Sponsoring data collection projects to collect and analyze markers re progress made by women all over the world — METRICS MATTER, and An indefatigable advocacy for women’s rights at home, in the workplace and in the doctor’s officeAll the above are just broad brush strokes and I am not quite sure we will ever understand the full scope of her life’s work.
Today, I wanted to let my fellow bloggers and posters know about one of the reasons why I admire and support Hillary by re-publishing my diary about a very specific and under the radar initiative HRC formally supported as Secretary of State — The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. I am not trying to be lazy by reposting an old diary. I truly believe that this quiet initiative is incredible and illustrates just how much the details matter to Hillary Clinton — she sweats the small stuff.
Of note, since I first published the original diary the Alliance has updated their website (or made at least made this stuff easier to find) and added the following regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) adopted by 193 nations in 2015. I think these 10 points help illuminate the reasons the GACC do the work they do (note I have had to reformat but I have not changed any of the words):
How clean cooking helps deliver on the global goals
No Poverty: Clean cooking is part of basic services necessary to lead a healthy and productive life and saves households time and money.
Zero Hunger: Efficient cookstoves reduce the amount of fuel needed to cook, thus reducing the burden on families who would otherwise have to collect it, buy it, or trade their food for it.
Good Health and Well-Being: Reducing smoke emissions from cooking decreases the burden of disease associated with household air pollution and improves well-being, especially for women and children.
Quality Education: Children, particularly girls, are often kept out of school so that they can contribute to household tasks, like cooking and collecting fuel.
Gender Equality: Unpaid work, including collecting fuel and cooking, remain a major cause of gender inequality.
Affordable and Clean Energy: Clean cooking is essential to addressing energy poverty and ensuring sustainable energy security for billions of people.
Decent Work and Economic Growth: Energy access enables enhanced productivity and inclusive economic growth. The clean cooking sector offers many job opportunities.
Sustainable Cities and Communities: Clean cooking addresses household and ambient air pollution, resource efficiency, and climate vulnerability.
Climate Action: Up to 25% of black carbon emissions come from burning solid fuels for household energy needs. Clean cooking solutions address the most basic needs of the poor, while also delivering climate benefits.
Life on Land: Up to 34% of woodfuel harvested is unsustainable, contributing to forest degradation, deforestation, and climate change.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DKOS — minor edits completed Sept 17, 2016
Wednesday Apr 13, 2016 · 1:40 PM EST 2016/04/13 · 13:40
HRC supporters are frequently asked why they support Sec. Clinton and I thought it was about time that I contributed one of my own reasons (among many) -The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. I frequently see many of HRC’s advocacy initiatives mentioned and I don’t think I have seen this particular initiative diarized (although I’m relatively new here so perhaps it has been done to death already :))
I learned of this initiative a number of years ago but I never really thought too much about it. I was too consumed by my own first world issues.
I was lucky to travel to China for a month a few years ago with my then 4-year old daughter. I knew there was a major issue with the air quality and I researched child sized respirator masks, talked to pediatricians re the short-term effects of exposure, picked up a Ventolin inhaler and nebulizer “just in case” and timed my trip to miss the worst seasons for smog. It was all academic until we got there, then it became our reality for the next month.
On the drive from the airport black smoke streamed into the air from manufactories — it was shocking. We checked in to our hotel and found adult sized emergency respirators in the hotel room closet — that was a first. We wandered around cities shrouded in a perpetual layer of smog — see my pic of a beautiful day in Shanghai (this day I actually remember coming in and my skin literally feeling slightly crispy from the pollution). We spent time in rural China where the fog of industry and automobiles was joined by the smoke of open air cooking fires — China was beautiful, breathing in China — not so much.
Air Quality Index has this day registering as 197 on its scale — back home the same day it was 27.So what does this have to do anything? Well, while we were in China I realized how lucky we were — period. We were lucky to escape the pollution by retreating to our lovely air-conditioned hotels. We were lucky that we were rarely exposed to kitchens where food was prepared over coal cookstoves — with their attendant smoke and particulate matter. We were lucky that the chance of any long term effect on us was negligible. Not so lucky? A good percentage of Chinese people -many rural and poor who still use solid fuel cookstoves to prepare their meals, the use of which directly increases the air pollution within their own homes (and their general environment by extension). Sadly, these people have no escape from the pervasive pollution (indoors or out) and the consequent long-term health effects. Here are some interesting statistics for China and Household Air Pollution (HAP). They are not broken out — if I can find a better graphic with specifics I will post it:
Country StatisticsPopulation using solid fuels for cooking - 45% Number of people affected by HAP - 607,812,750 Number of deaths per year from HAP - 1,039,358
So back to The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and HRC. Below is an except from GACC’s “Our Mission” statement and it details their mission better than I ever could (bolds are mine):
The use of open fires and traditional cookstoves and fuels is one of the world's most pressing health and environmental problems. Globally, three billion people rely on solid fuels to cook, causing serious environmental and health impacts that disproportionally affect women and children. According to the World Health Organization, household air pollution from cooking kills over 4 million people every year and sickens millions more.
Yet, safe, affordable, and accessible clean cooking solutions exist that can dramatically reduce fuel consumption and exposure to harmful cookstove smoke, while providing economic opportunities in communities around the world.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Alliance), hosted by the UN Foundation, is at the forefront of efforts to promote the adoption of clean cooking solutions and spur universal adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels. Launched in September 2010 by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative, the Alliance has an ambitious 10-year goal to foster the adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020. The Alliance and its partners are working to establish a thriving global market for clean cooking solutions by addressing the market barriers that impede the production, deployment, and use of clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels in developing countries.
Yes, Sec. Clinton used her position as Secretary of State, with the backing of the US Government, to champion a fairly non-sexy, quiet type of change that impacts peoples lives at their most fundamental level — the health, safety and security of themselves and their families. To me, her early participation and championing of clean cookstoves confirms her genuine and life-long commitment to helping those in need by implementing change at the macro AND micro level. I think the people at GACC believed the same -here is a video of them thanking her for her work on behalf of the Initiative while HRC was Sec. of State.
x YouTube VideoPlease take a moment to learn more about this initiative at cleancookstoves.org/…
I thank those that have seen this diary before and have taken the time to re-read it. I hope that those who did not know about this initiative and HRC’s role in it learned something new. Above all, I hope that each person reading this diary takes the time to reflect on why they are with her...and perhaps take the time to share their reasons in a diary.
Cheers all.