Working as a researcher gives you a front-row seat to see a study area’s possible futures. You could make way for things to become a reality, like designing systems that provide energy access to a locality through hydropower.
But then, like all projects, there are two sides to the story. While well-meaning designers want to share their dreams with people they think would benefit from the project, the very people they seek to serve might be thinking otherwise.
I’ve seen how local people resist hydropower projects on national news, and for some good reason.
From The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here:
When a dam is built, life downriver is forever altered. The most obvious change is that the volume of flowing water is reduced to a small fraction of what it was when the river was running freely. Once a river’s flow is reduced, its real estate available to fish, insects, and amphibians is also reduced. Crowding ensues, competition increases, resources become strained, and many of the river’s inhabitants die.
jessa 