Elizabeth Hausler - United States & Indonesia

Elizabeth Hausler explains to Global X that she was finishing her Ph.D. in engineering at Berkeley when an earthquake hit India and killed 20,000 people. That's when she realized that "it's not the earthquake that kills people, it's the building collapsing."

She looked for a solution and launched Build Change to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and change construction practices permanently so that homeowners in seismically active developing countries can sleep at night.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• SocialEdge
• GlobalX
• Skoll
• GSBI
• SantaClaraUniversity
• ElizabethHausler
• Indonesia

[MsContinentJumper]

I think the point is to design safe, earthquake-resistant homes that are affordable and locally sustainable in developing countries. Given the number of developing countries that still use concrete stab roofs, I would say many builders and homeowners are not aware of the safest way to build an earthquake-resistant home.

[autopilotblues1]

As a developed society, we have developed technologies that use enormous dams to contain millions of tons of water, extracting electricity from the water flow to provide power for thousands of homes. We have created sewage systems and water piping systems that make up miles upon miles of underground passages, Heck, we have even crashed rockets into the moon to find a few gallons of water. Even after all of that, we still need to call a plumber when our bathroom springs a leak.

[stewartx5]

Why would Elizabeth Hausler possibly imagine others elsewhere in the world cannot figure these things out for themselves? In less developed countries, building construction is obviously more governed by finance and local materials than protection from isolated events like earthquakes. In other words, they know how to build a strong house or building (don't need her help - less developed countries built the pyramids), but most often just cannot afford to.