I enjoyed the way Professor Blalock began his talk with an extensive analogy involving a Prius and our majority decision to not own one and our reasons for doing so, despite the fact that we are all aware of how much better it is for the environment. He then linked this analogy to the specific issue of cooking stoves used throughout rural, underdeveloped areas in Africa.

Based on his experiences trying to convert people living in such areas to use cleaner stoves, his discussion was interesting in terms of the thought processes/habitual behavior behind such people and their decisions to not use cleaner stoves despite having information that clearly advises against it. Considering this specific situation in a broader, more general sense, it was enlightening to think about how applicable it was in our seemingly environmentally-aware society.