While the main focus of the Mapawatt Blog is on personal home energy and water conservation, occasionally you may notice a blog on general sustainable issues. The goal here is to help you learn more about sustainability in hopes that you can apply some of those things to your daily life. Every once in a while I also blog for the sustainable business blog, Triple Pundit.
My latest post on Triple Pundit looks at Microlending, the practice of loaning the poor a tiny sum (usually less than $100) in hopes they can put the money to work and begin the climb out of poverty. While microlending (or microcredit) has been hailed as a wonderful solution, a few papers that are to be released soon out of MIT's Jameel Poverty Action lab reveal that microlending may not be affective as once thought.
I also mention a book I'm reading "Three Cups of Tea" which is about Greg Mortenson and his effort to build schools in some of the world's poorest and remote places on earth. In the article I suggest that maybe focusing on education in third world countries before we focusing on giving the poor money may produce better returns and a more sustainable path forward.
Check out the article and let me know what you think.
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