Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

How to light a cigarette or make a fire in the woods during a cold damp night without using oil, gas or smashing two stones together? Here are a few green lighters easily available. Let the sunshine light your fire… Butane, pressurized liquid gas or matches used to light a cigarette…Smokers are also to blame for climate change and resource waste. But with solar energy they now can get rid of their old lighters.

Solar powered ones can take various forms, either a tiny parabolic burning mirror or that of a powder compact with a mirror inside. Easily available, you can buy one from 4 euros upwards on the Internet… Just remember to be cautious, because just like some solar cookers may be dangerous, some lighters (on another scale) could be harmful.

Parabolic Solar Lighter

Powder Compact Like Solar Lighter

A renewable lighter called “fire piston”

The fire-piston is a another type of clean lighter that can be used endlessly. The tool was invented by South Asian people probably long before its discovering by Europeans around the mid 19^th century, and may now attract the attention of campers or cleantech-addict smokers.

Even some adventurers strongly advise you to get one. Like Lee Stoud aka Survivorman (1), a man whose TV show features him going in remote areas and trying to survive with almost nothing but a few little things in his pocket such as Swiss army knife and… a fire piston. Just like solar lighters, it can be found on the Internet. But no need to be a scientist to make one. You just need two things : a piston rod (or a piece made of wood or plastic) and a cylinder. The piston must be rammed quickly into the sealed cylinder (or vice-versa) with a single rapid stroke and removed as quickly. The compression causes the temperature to rise rapidly to 260 degrees Celsius, about 500 degrees Farenheit. This is hot enough for the tinder on or in the piston face to ignite. Then it must be placed on any flammable material so as to start a fire. That’s it ! You’re the perfect caveman.

(1) http://lesstroud.ca/survivorman/home.php