Sobre La Roca | Environment

Ecological cookers offer an alternative way for families who depend on firewood and gas, resources that exist in limited quantities in the world, to provide themselves with energy to prepare their food. Before using ecological cookers, the majority of families in the Global South have had to collect firewood from the forest, therefore contributing to deforestation. This is a grave problem that is causing many catastrophes, both human and environmental, in the developing world.

"Due both to deforestation and human population growth, the current ratio of forests to human beings is less than half what it as in 1960. Yet we not only need more forests, we need forests more than ever before-to protect the world's remaining plant and animal life, to prevent flooding, to slow human-induced climate change, and to provide the paper on which education and communication still depend."

-Population Action International

Half of the world's total forests have been logged, and only 20% of global virgin forests are undisturbed by humans.

Forests are most under threat in the developing world, where 65 million hectares of forests, an area the size of the nation of Afghanistan, disappeared only between 1990 and 1995. A vast area, half the size of the United States, has disappeared where tropical forests in poor countries used to flourish.

1.7 billion people, almost one third of the global population, live in countries with critically low forest resources.

Most deforestation is caused by the clearing of forests for agriculture, a trend most evident in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In these countries live nearly 3 billion people who depend on wood for their main energy source.

"What they [solar cookers] do is form an environmental consciousness...it's because of this that [Sobre La Roca] has planned to bring about other types of projects in which people can be taught how they can protect and manage natural resources."

-La Razón, July 2000

It is a proven fact that human actions from the past two centuries have caused an increase in the global temperature, and thus, the extinction of many animal and plant species, the increase of the intensity of extreme weather patterns, the spread of deserts around the world, and to the alarm of those living in countries in the Global South, the scarcity of vital resources such as food, cooking fuel, and water. The burning of firewood and natural gas contribute to global warming, as do deforestation, and add to the related problems. So that the people who are the most affected in the world by these environmental changes are not the victims of these habits, the silent assassins of the fragile environment and of the world's poorest people, they are in dire need of a viable alternative to meet their daily needs.

We believe that one of these alternatives is the ecological cooker, which exists in its several forms and can offer an improved way to provide people with energy and to prepare food without harming the environment. Tests have proven that the efficient wood-burning stove emits only very clean, clear smoke without contaminating particles, and burns far less wood to produce more heat. The solar cooker is even more environmentally-friendly, and depends on a form of renewable energy. We invite you to try this technology that benefits both you and the environment!