Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce on Tuesday a U.S. contribution of more than $50 million toward providing clean cooking stoves in developing countries to reduce deaths from smoke inhalation and fight climate change.First off, the Secretary of State does not have authority under our Constitution to make such a "contribution." Neither does the President, for that matter. Congress should withhold funds for this frivolousness.
The U.S. funding, which will be spread over five years, is part of a Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves being started to combat a problem officials equate with malaria and unclean water in terms of their health impact worldwide.Some 1.9 million premature deaths, mostly among women and young children, occur every year due to smoke inhalation from rudimentary stoves, which in many cases consist of a few stones and an open fire inside or outside a shelter, officials said.
Secondly, our country is broke right now. Sure $10 billion/year for 5 years is a drop in the bucket, but we need to start getting water out of the bucket, not adding more. We simply can't afford this waste of money.
More importantly, people in poor countries who can't figure out how not to kill themselves cooking their food probably won't be able use an efficient stove anyway...again, this "contribution" is a huge waste of money.
He said the group would seek to create a market for cleaner, less-polluting stoves and fuels to supply some 500 million households worldwide now using inefficient and dangerous cooking methods.
Next, if this group wants to create a market for these stoves, it should invest his own damn money in creating one, not begging for a handout from the government that subsidizes purchases of his product. That's not free market at all. It's rent-seeking.
Lastly, human caused global warming is a farce and "solutions" to it that use taxpayer money should be disregarded as foolish. Changing the weather is not a priority and not worth the time and money spent on it.
