Technology Alone Cannot Save Us

Technology alone cannot be the answer to the Earth’s present struggles. I find the Cornucopian belief that technology will progress enough to fix our major problems to be shallow. I personally have a difficulty in just sitting back and waiting for these life-changing innovations to pop up. And, if they do happen to pop up out of nowhere, then I don’t believe that they will rapidly integrate themselves into world policy because there will be too many obstacles. My disbelief is two-fold: technology is an aid but not an answer and implementation of technology is too difficult.

My mom used to always tell me that with every action there comes a reaction. I believe that this holds true for everything…including technology. Each new technological innovation also brings with it a negative by-product. With the burning of fossil fuels, there comes the depletion of stratospheric ozone. This is something that is very obvious to us right now, but at the time of the Industrial Revolution was minute if existent at all. Nuclear power creates a toxic waste, wind and water turbines kill the local wildlife, and electric energy ultimately leads back to coal burning for the most part. With these new technologies that we are developing, how will we know the exact long-term effects? What if something that we considered helpful is later discovered to have created a whole other environmental problem? The ecosystems around the globe are very fragile. A slight change of the long-term can amount to serious damage.

Also, I don’t believe that once a beneficial technology is created it will be implemented to the extent it demands to have any sort of dramatic effect. There are so many innovations around the world, and most of them remain with untapped potential. I understand the process of weeding our the less efficient and poor technologies, but I don’t ever see the process being completed by promoting one special technology to be implemented worldwide. As we’ve talked about in class, worldwide changes are difficult because opposition will exist until the environmental option becomes economically viable but that won’t happen until countries alter the structure of their economy. It is a vicious cycle that prevents the progression of green innovations from truly impacting the world market. I admit that it is grim, but I don’t see that changing rapidly.

In environmental terms, my impression is that in order for technology to “save us” it means that technology will support any lifestyle that humans want to live. I do not believe this is a possibility. Technology can only aid us in helping to resolve the environmental issues that we have created. The world has a chance to take advantage of the benefits of technology, because it is certainly not all negative. Ultimately, I place the responsibility in the world population. This is a positive; there is possibility for resolution. Without action from us, technology is merely there and for the most part inactive. Technology cannot be the catalyst that begins environmental progress; the world population needs to be the catalyst.