Biogas Diagram- Julie Cardillo

biogas_jlc6217

The core ideas behind my system diagram were to show the benefits of the biogas generator and the interactions between the social system and the ecosystem. The concept of landscape comes to mind when thinking about social system and the ecosystem of the Indian village. The main issue shown on my diagram was that women cooking had negative effects on the environment (i.e. wood collection caused deforestation) and even negative effects within their own system (i.e. health issues). The concept of biogas and the biogas generator solved those issues by using cow dung as its power source. This eliminated the demand to cut down trees for wood (deforestation) and the need for children to collect the wood. Also, my diagram shows how the women make a profit selling the compost from leftover cow dung. As long as the villagers cook with biogas, this village will most likely leave its resilience state and move onto being stable.

In comparison to Marten’s figure, mine is set up is similar. For example, we both show biogas in the social system and biogas generators in the ecosystem. However, it seems like he focuses on larger concepts (i.e. human population), while I focused on smaller concepts (i.e. women and children). I believe that the reason why there are similarities and differences between my diagram and Marten’s is simply because of perspective. In other words, Marten and I interpreted some aspects similarly, while other aspects he and I interpreted differently. What I think can be learned by comparing the two diagrams is that it is important to have multiple perspectives. The reason why is because by looking at Marten’s diagram, I was able to consider things that I probably would not have thought about prior to the comparison. As a result, I now have a better understanding of the linkages between the social and ecosystems shown in the movie.

2 thoughts on “Biogas Diagram- Julie Cardillo

  1. Hi Julie, my name is Alyssa. I loved your diagram because it was very inviting and colorful but also had some really great information in it. I agree that the Indian village environment can now become more stable because of the new technology. When comparing my diagram to Marten’s, I found the same differences you found with yours. He did use broad categories but also connected them specifically to other things. I also really liked your ideas of the different perspectives and how helpful that can be. Here’s the link to my blog post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/26/module-2-alyssa-massaro/

  2. Hi Julie,
    My name is Chris and I really enjoyed looking at your diagram. It was very colorful and had many different details and interactions which made it very interesting to read. You discussed some of the same interactions as I did in my diagram such as the effect on health issues that the bio generators would have. We also both showed how the use of cow dung would help benefit the people in India. Our ideas were pretty similar, however you had a few more details which I found to be very interesting. Here is the link to my blog so you can check it out.
    http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/25/module-2-3/

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