End of first day in Mukteshwar - March 12

The time spent in Mukteshwar has been equally interesting to my time in Jagdishpur far below. I was struck by how cool it is here this time of year; temperatures not getting above 70 or so during the day, and falling into the low 40s at night. When the sun goes down it is really cold, and the buildings we stay in are without heat. They do not retain any heat, so whenever the sun is out we follow it. When inside, we make up for the cold by covering up in layers of clothes and several thick woolen blankets. Then, in the morning, the warmth of the sun feels really good. I have been enjoying the running, taking in great views of the snow-capped mountains in the distance, struggling with the altitude at times when the road climbs, and occasionally catching sight of animals such as monkeys or martens.

During the day, we visit sites where our research counterpart TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) has disseminated improved stoves, or talk to households in villages that have not yet seen them. These are both informal conversations and formal focus group discussions. It is hard for me to follow everything, but having Subhrendu (co-PI from Duke) here is a huge benefit since he speaks Hindi and can get past all of the partial or "after-the-fact" translations. We are trying to figure out precisely what our interventions will look like, and that takes some work and thinking about complications like whether our contacts and partners working in different villages will get along.

But it remains clear that getting people to adopt improved stoves is not an easy problem, despite the global climate change community talking about this intervention as "low hanging fruit" to combat climate change. Indeed, promoting energy conservation in the rich world seems much easier, though political will is lacking.

In any case, here is an interesting study that is going to take alot of energy and investment to get right.