COOKING WITH THE SUN -- SAVING THE PLANET

WHAT:  Public Demonstration of Solar Cookers on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.

WHEN:  Thursday, July 26, 12 – 6pm
             Friday, July 27, 12 – 6pm

WHERE:  Thursday – Upper House of Representatives Park behind the Longworth Building
                Friday – Upper Senate Park by the fountain

CONTACT:  Kim Winters, Solar Household Energy at 703-869-4148

According to the EPA, almost three billion people still cook every day with traditional solid fuels (primarily wood, charcoal and animal waste).  Their numbers are expected to increase substantially by 2020.  The vast majority of these people live within thirty degrees north or south of the equator where the sun shines much of the year.  The World Health Organization reports that over 1.5 million people die of respiratory disease each year by inhaling the fumes of their cooking fires.  In developing nations millions of women and their children (who should be in school) spend hours each day foraging for fuel, resulting in denuded land, soil erosion, flooding and reduction in forest cover.  Refugee women in the Darfur region of Sudan risk beatings and rape when they leave their camps in search of firewood.  Cooking with fire also causes serious burns and eye damage.
 
Solar cooking <http://www.solarcooking.org > can dramatically reduce these problems. The benefits of using solar cookers whenever the sun is shining, in addition to smoke-free cooking, include:  job creation; technology transfer; capacity building; decreased deforestation; reduction in CO2 emissions from cooking fires; preservation of forests and ground cover; sterilization of medical instruments; reduction in respiratory, lung, intestinal and eye diseases; and the ability to pasteurize water for drinking.  Solar cooking, when used as part of an integrated cooking program can reduce fuel consumption by more than 75%!
            
More than one million solar cookers are in use in China and India alone.  Solar cookers of various types are also used on a limited basis in many parts of Africa, South Asia, Central and South America. Seasonally, they are used as far north as Afghanistan and Nepal and as far south as Chile.  Even American ice fishermen in the Great Lakes region use solar box cookers to cook on sunny winter days.  
            
THIS DEMONSTRATION WILL OCCUR EVEN IN THE EVENT OF CLOUDS/LIGHT RAIN.