Just as the scale of artisanal brick making varies in different countries, so does the task of modernization.
A new report published by the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project, based at the University of Colorado Boulder, puts artisanal brick production on a list of priority targets for black carbon reduction.
"But the government also doesn't recognize artisanal brick making as an important employment-generating sector, which provides employment to more than ten million workers.
Investigators with the International Justice Mission, a human rights organization in Washington, DC, have also found extensive evidence of "debt bondage" among artisanal brick workers in South Asia.
Baum explains that emissions vary by kiln type and fuel burned, which makes it difficult to derive representative averages for the artisanal brick sector as a whole.
In addition to the environmental health impacts associated with artisanal brick kilns, these operations employ "the poorest of the poor, including, in many instances, women and children," Li says.
Leading the charge in Latin America, Bickel directs a Swiss-funded group known by its Spanish acronym, EELA (for Eficiencia Energética en Ladrilleras Artesanales) that aims to modernize artisanal brick making in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico.
Trucks and buses belch clouds of diesel exhaust, and on the outskirts of town hundreds of family-run artisanal brick kilns send plumes of oily black smoke into the sky.
Vinyl siding doesn't represent Greenpoint's cachet any longer; virtual doormen, rooftop farms, artisanal gin and brick-faced condominiums do.
So before it turns into another exposed-brick artisanal kombucha spot, here's a brief history of St. Jerome's.
