Last Wednesday, I attended the Rose-Becker café on technology and sustainability. Professor Blalock talked about the disconnect between the general feeling of wanting to solve issues of climate change and our willingness to act on it. When asked, most people in the room responded that they or their families did not own environmentally-friendly vehicles despite believing in environmental causes. However, it’s difficult for most families to afford buying such expensive vehicles and most would not think to spend that much money up front when they have perfectly working vehicles. Further, the proposed solution of using loans is not a viable option for every family either. I know that my family at least would not be in the position financially to do so.

Professor Blalock also talked about his work in Uganda to bring more environmentally-friendly and safer cooking stoves to rural families. The product had disappeared within 5 years and they were still using the same unsafe cooking stoves. Professor Blalock argued that it is because people are unwilling to change their bad habits that we are unable to create greater environmental change. However, I think that while environmental concerns are important there are more immediate concerns for individuals in rural areas and for the country as a whole. Awareness of environmental concerns will come with technological development but this development has to come from within the community rather than from outsiders from Western countries.