The diagram I’ve created to illustrate the various systems at work in the video focus on the benefits of the biogas generator on the surrounding ecosystem and social system. The main influences on the social system include benefits of opportunities for women and children specifically, as well as a positive impact on farmers in the rural regions around Bangalore, India. Key to this diagram is how technology enables the installation and use of the biogas generators and how the products of that system feeds back into the technology in the form of children able to study and assume roles in the burgeoning technology sector in the city. Other factors that influence the balance of the two systems are the opportunities for farmers and women to earn a living. Use of the biogas generator enables families to amass compost to be sold to local farmers. The farmers pay the women (thus helping the families financially) and are able to produce more crops of higher quality to be sold. Trees are considered in this diagram though their direct impact is not mentioned in the film. By reducing the need to use wood from trees for burning, the surrounding ecosystem in benefitted by a more diverse array of plant life. More trees not only means better soil for farmers, it means better conditions for consistently obtaining potable drinking water for everyone in the area.

The diagram I’ve constructed and the diagram used in the reading are similar in that they both chart the benefits and interdependence of the various parts of the ecosystem and social system. My diagram does not include the issue of a greater population because the point was not included in the film. I am not aware as to whether the population in the specific region referenced in the movie is significantly influenced by the need to gather wood for burning.

I feel it is important to address in the diagram the impact of the opportunities afforded the children in the video. Without the worries of health and missing school and time for school work to gather wood for fuel, the family has a greater chance of improving their lives by taking advantage of vocational opportunities that education makes possible.