Two billion of the world’s poorest people cook on open fires. During the past few years, climatologists have discovered that the toxic “black carbon” smoke from these fires is one of the planet’s leading causes of global warming. It is also the most easily avoidable.

Solar cooking is a simple, safe way to cook food without needing to acquire and burn fossil fuels. For hundreds of millions of people around the world who cook over fires fueled by wood or dung, and who walk for miles to collect wood or spend much of their meager incomes on fuel, solar cooking could be a life-saving blessing.

It costs less that $50 to provide a solar cooker to one of the neediest families one earth, which includes essential training, a cooker, a cooking pot and a water indicator to tell when deadly microbes have been removed from drinking water. Solar cooking emits zero carbon, and it reduces the desperate need to continually gather and burn wood in deforested environments.

The ecological benefits to switching from open fires to solar cooking are enormous. Indeed, experts increasingly believe that curbing open cooking fires is the cheapest, fastest way to significantly slow global warming.

What’s more, the humanitarian benefits from helping people switch to solar cooking are enormous. These include: Reducing Deadly Air Pollution Indoor air pollution from wood burning cooking stoves is a major cause of disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that toxic emissions from cooking stoves are responsible for causing 1.6 million premature deaths every year, half of them among children under five years old. The use of solar cookers eliminates the disease caused by the indoor air pollution from wood stoves. Reducing Deforestation Wood gathering for open cooking fires contributes significantly to the deforestation and even desertification of some of the poorest regions of the world. Reducing Rape and Violence Against Women Millions of women put themselves at risk when they search for firewood in remote areas. Given the sparse vegetation which is common in many of the world's poorest areas, they are forced to venture up to 10 miles to gather wood for their cooking fires, exposing them to armed bandits. Solar cooking stoves provide a safe alternative. Reducing Territorial Disputes Over Firewood Firewood is a precious commodity in the parts of the world where vegetation is thin. Disputes between villages for firewood occur from time to time, some violent. Solar cooking provides a local renewable source of cooking fuel, eliminating skirmishes between rivals for firewood. Reducing Health Problems From Wear and Tear on the Body Firewood collection can take 20 hours a week; some women can walk more than ten miles over difficult terrain in search of wood. Women commonly suffer from back problems from carrying heavy wood loads on their head. In many cases, uterine prolapse among rural women is attributed to carrying heavy firewood as is an increased risk of miscarriage. Increasing Time for School Girls in the world's poorest rural areas are often kept out of school to assist in wood collection. This has a large negative impact on rural poverty in general, and human poverty in particular affecting well being of rural households. Providing Clean Drinking Water Solar cookers can also be used to provide safe drinking water. An estimated two million children die every year from preventable waterborne illnesses, which are the leading causes of disease in the developing world.