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CSTPR research examines human behavior and cookstove use in West Africa CIRES News<\/a> Close to half the world\u2019s population cooks over an open fire every day. That\u2019s hard on human health\u2014people cooking over an open fire breathe in smoke and gases that can damage their lungs. Burning biomass is also bad for the environment, contributing to poor air quality and the production of black carbon, as well as deforestation. Making the transition to cleaner cooking practices is a process that intrigues Katie Dickinson, a research scientist with CIRES and the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at CU Boulder, and a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Part of Dickinson\u2019s work explores how people in the developing world make this shift, and she\u2019s spent the past few years traveling back and forth to West Africa, to study the use of cookstoves in northern Ghana.<\/p>\n The question of what drives human behavior is one of the basic questions at the center of Dickinson\u2019s research. \u201cOur first project, which was from 2013 to 2016, studied 200 households in rural northern Ghana,\u201d says Dickinson. \u201cWe gave them two different types of cookstoves and analyzed how much they liked them, and used them, and whether they prefered them to traditional cooking methods.\u201d They found that while the participants liked the stoves and used them regularly, lowering exposure to some pollutants, most of the households also continued to cook over open fires. But their research does suggest that people in developing nations could see benefits to their health by using these improved cooking stoves. \u201cNow,\u201d says Dickinson, \u201cWhat we want to do is see what some of the barriers are to adoption of these stoves.\u201d<\/p>\n Her next project, which is just starting, is called \u201cPrices, Peers and Perceptions: Improved Cookstove Research in Ghana.\u201d Her team, which is working in close conjunction with the Navrongo Health Research Center, part of the Ghana Health Service, has funding from the National Science Foundation and other sources to understand why people choose to adopt new technology. And this project will also expand beyond just rural areas, where wood, crop residue and charcoal are the main fuel sources, to urban areas, where residents use charcoal and liquified petroleum gas.<\/p>\n She and her team will be studying three variables in particular: Price\u2014how variations in the amount households are asked to pay for a stove affects whether people want or use these products; peers\u2014whether having a neighbor with a stove influences purchase and use; and perceptions\u2014how both the prices and the exposure to the new stoves via peers affect people\u2019s perceptions of those stoves. \u201cThere are lots of dynamics between these three elements. We want to know what all three say about whether someone wants a new stove and if they stop using the old one,\u201d explains Dickinson. Read more …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CSTPR research examines human behavior and cookstove use in West Africa CIRES News December 29, 2016 Close to half the world\u2019s population cooks over an open fire every day. That\u2019s hard on human health\u2014people cooking over an open fire breathe … Continue reading
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\nDecember 29, 2016<\/p>\n