Linkin Park and World Wildlife Fund campaign for cookstoves in Nepal to preserve endangered species

Linkin Park

Music for Relief, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Grammy Award-winning band Linkin Park have joined forces to raise funds to equip a Nepalese village with safe, green bio-gas technology. Why is this important? Because hundreds of poor families in the Terai region of Nepal currently rely on thousands of pounds of wood to do their cooking, which results in thousands of trees being cut down and the destruction of local wildlife’s natural habitat. This outdated method of cooking also causes women and children to become sick or to die prematurely from smoke inhalation from the wood-burning stoves. By switching to bio-gas, it would go a long way to prevent this and offer a sustainable energy solution.

California rockers Linkin Park founded the non-profit org Music for Relief to aid survivors of natural disasters and raise funds for the prevention of future disasters. Supporters who raise $565 (the cost of one bio-gas system and toilet) for the Cookstoves for Kumrose campaign will be eligible to win the chance to see Linkin Park perform live in an intimate venue in Las Vegas.

Nepalese woman using a sustainable bio-gas stove

The “clean cookstove” campaign riffs off the success of previous campaigns with Power the World, an organization that supports the UN Secretary-General to bring sustainable energy solutions to 1 million people throughout the world.

“It’s exciting to find a solution that helps on multiple levels,” said Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell of Linkin Park. “ The clean, bio-gas cookstoves WWF is implementing will improve families’ health, keep women and children safer and protect the environment. We hope our supporters will join us in providing technology for those living in the Kumrose village in Nepal.”

The beautiful Terai Arc Landscape of Nepal is home to a diverse range of ecosystems that support endangered animals including the rare Bengal tiger and 7 million Nepali people. Its inhabitants are among the poorest in the world, with half of the population living below the poverty line. Due to these impoverished conditions and the cost of electricity, the population relies on using wood for cooking—resulting in clear cutting of tress with devastating consequences for both people and wildlife.

Bio-gas offers a clean and cost-effective solution to this problem. It works by processing human and animal waste to produce methane that burns with a light blue flame for cooking – thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation in the region.

“We hope people are inspired to join this campaign to uplift an entire village by providing cleaner air, better healthcare, increased incomes for locals, while at the same time regenerating forest habitat for tigers, rhinos, and the many other species that live there,” added Shubash Lohani, Deputy Director of WWF’s Eastern Himalayas Program.

To learn more, sign the pledge for sustainable energy for all, or donate $10 for a clean cookstove by visiting powertheworld.org.

Click here to learn more about WWF’s work in Nepal and the Eastern Himalayas.

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