Today we discussed the ideas we had for DinoSnore and incorporating each of our interests in the event. Afterwards we got the awesome chance to listen to Sabrina, a first year grad student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science. The main focus of the presentation was energy conservation particularly in developing countries. This is an interesting topic because it tackled an issue which many economists, climatologists, and politicians struggle to find a solution. Developing countries produce great amounts of harmful gas emissions which many blame to be the source of our drastic climate change (ignoring China and the USA), this is because their rapidly booming economy requires the burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. However this industrial growth story is similar to that of already developed countries. Environmental Engineers are trying to figure out how to make growing as a nation be environmentally friendly and cost effective. This is really complicated to do because such methods usually require a large down payment which many developing nations do not have. 

We then split into groups and used our own ideas to create our version of an environmentally friendly home. These homes included ways to use rainwater to grow roof gardens, novel ideas for insulation, solar panels, and geothermal heating, all while being cost effective. After presenting our group’s ideas for our homes Sabrina and the Bay & Paul Fellows discussed the issues with renovating the homes of middle and lower class families. We originally were talking about global climate change and the issues facing our world, but then we narrowed our conversation to homes and families who want to help in protecting the environment but who, similar to the developing nations, can not afford to pay the upfront costs of such installations.

Mairead Brennan
10-13-14