Impact Of Technology On The Environment

Technology is making distribution, processing, production, development, and exploration of natural resources and alternative resources more cost effective, and protective in regard to the environment. The Technology that we have today has given humans a way of reducing negative effects on the environment that we have caused; such as the depletion of natural resources, the burning of fossil fuels, and other behaviors which have caused negative environmental effects. One effective way for technology to have a positive impact on our environment is

The bizarre economy that we live in has affected us in many ways than our simple mind can fathom. After World War II there was massive push in innovation. Human were gifted with inventions like the Airplane, color T.V., polyvinyl cups, and precooked dinners. Nevertheless, these “gifts” came at an enormous cost. That cost was pushed onto the environment and people living in that environment. “The Market Economy” by Marge Piercy illustrates the movement in American aimed at bring attention to a global problem as well as an effort to save the planet along with the people living on it.

Did you know that there are 13 species of animals who we may have to say goodbye to in 2015, or an estimated 2.2 billion tons of waste is yearly dumped into oceans? There is no need to research the litany of environmental changes; news such as global warming, air pollution, or resource scarcity that choke environmental problems to appear daily on TV screens and in newspapers. Even with these particularly cautions, many of us are still facing environmental catastrophes with overly optimistic attitudes, ignoring how serious the matter is. This form of the unrealistic expectation is similar to the blind development in our technological society that engenders a series of environmental and economic problems. Paul Ehrlich, [1] a Stanford University

It cannot be denied that, in at least some areas, the invention and progression of technology has benefitted the human race. With the growing industrialization of the world in the last centuries the lives of many people have been made easier. But, this growth of technology is not without its consequences and people are not without their concerns. While industrialization has had its benefits, the environmental cost of this progress is immense, and the impact it has on nature can be hard to swallow. It may seem like talk of the environment is something to be left to scientists or activists specializing in that particular field, but they are

Paul Hawken addresses the effects of industrialization in the world today. He depicts that the environment is degraded by the economic systems who aimlessly utilizes resources for unintended purposes while at the same time releasing toxic chemicals into the environment. The economic system does not adopt the natural cycle of activities whereby wastes turn out to be food to some microorganisms in the environment. According to Paul Hawken, the economic system has played a negative role in disrupting the natural cycle. In a natural cycle ecosystems, there are no wastes since everything is fully recycled (Bunker and Hawken, 1995). However, a closer look at the other side of the economic ecosystem, things are totally different since everything seems to take an artificial path. If the economic ecosystem mimicked the natural ecosystem, pollution would not be a huge problem as it is currently. Floods and landslides would not be rampant in the world. Just like the ozone layer would have been intact.

Improvement of technology and its use has been the foundation for American economics. Although such innovation does create jobs, customs, and cultures that contribute to the American lifestyle, it can also create pollution that harms the environment and brings about environmental injustice. People focus on outcome effects of a certain project. Whether its main goal is for economic gains, to help improve the way American people live, or even if it is harming the ecosystem in any way, they will intervene. However, what people don’t pay attention to is the tool that is being used to accomplish such goals that can produce complications as it relates to the environment and injustice that comes with the utilization of technology.

The Industrial Revolution helped to improve the technologies of America, but these technologies had an opposite effect on our environment.

While industrialization has been strongly associated with greenhouse gas emissions, it is premature, however, to conclude that economic growth is the independent factor responsible to climate change. Neumayer (1998) contended that there is no sound scientific evidence documenting consequences of economic development on the environmental degradation in the long term (p. 4). There is also no linear association between economic growth and environmental deterioration, as maintained by Ferguson et al. (1996, p. 28) that the existing evidence “cannot be used to justify a view that economic growth (…) will automatically be good or bad for the environment” (cited in Neumayer 1998, p. 16).

We are steadily building and creating new devices and products that contribute to the pollution of the atmosphere. For instance, there are far more cars on the road then there are people, and I see no real progress in the actions taken in attempt to save the environment. The number of people contributing to the harm of the environment is far greater then the number trying to preserve it. In Lester Browns Document entitled

As this year’s presidential election came to an end, the people got to see first-hand what it’s like to have a president who acknowledges that pollutions issues and one that blatantly disagrees with pollution and suggests that the Chinese are responsible, as they are the “ones who created the theory”. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, people must understand that there is still a problem regardless of whether they choose to see it or not. The world has changed since the era of the industrial revolution; where everything was made fast in order to grow as a nation faster than others nations. Now, we have been immersed into this technologically driven world that is controlled by the next big thing that is going to come out; no one is worrying about those landfills that are at capacity and have no room for our old, yet still working, devices.

The relationship between the natural environment and human exchange is one that has been an ongoing battle of overconsumption and a regulation on natural goods. Human interaction during the Industrial Revolution spanning from the nineteenth and twentieth century has several contrasting principles. In the nineteenth century, the excuse of overconsumption was for industrial economic profit. Humans believed that over-using natural resource was acceptable due to the belief that natural resources were God’s gift to man, and God would replenish the natural goods. However, the overuse of natural goods results in smog, pollution, and water contamination which has various damaging health effects. In the 20th century, humans were more than aware of the effects that over-consumption produced, but neglected the environment for their own social status and profit. Nevertheless, during the end of the 20th century, scientific evidence led to widespread awareness of the effects occurring to the environment, prompting people to make policies to change and protect the environment. This caused humans to create a relationship with the government and restrict overconsumption. Ultimately, the first Industrial Revolution during the 19th century, the overuse of technology wasn’t perceived as harmful to the environment. However, in the second Industrial Revolution during the 20th century, over-consumption had external effects that were harmful to the environment, triggering intrusion from the

Technology has changed so many of the ways in which we live our lives, from the invention of the wheel to the advanced systems we use and take for granted everyday. Technology was once taboo in most house holds while people still clung to the idea that life was built on life experiences. Nicholas Carr stated in, Is Goggle making us stupid? "Back in the fourth century, BCE, Plato complained that writing (then a fairly new technology) was destroying peoples memory, yet he wrote dozens of books. For half a century, television has been accused of rotting our brains and making us fat and lazy, but most people depend on it for info, news and entertainment." Technology has changed our understanding of the way things work and

In this current scenario, people exist in technology era as well as they are living the development stage in industry, technology and all other aspects. Scientists continually exposed many accurate inventions which are very helpful to people in their day to day life and it makes their life easy and caused a big turn in everyone’s life. The computer and all other recent technological gadgets are best examples of new technologies. Whereas they have their positive influence on people`s life as a whole. But they also bring some types of pollution, which might cause a critical harm to the ecosystem. The environment is one`s health. Environment is air, water, and vegetable fruit which everyone`s necessity. Unfortunately, not all people consider the ecological issue as mandatory. In this era factors such as transportation, infrastructure, as well as newly developed technologies are considered as main aspects which improve standard of living but pollute the environment. Thus damage of environment is an inevitable result of rising standard of living. (Hramizi, 2013)

Technology is defined as anything that makes life easier. There are times where technology can make life easier just as a phone can make your life easier by allowing you something to use to stay in touch with those people that are around you. There are also times where technology can make life harder because it is used against nature and can ruin places. Some of those times are: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, China’s environmental degradation, World War II, and the second Industrial Revolution. These are all times in history where the environment took a turn for the worst because of the newest technology that was created and used.

The industrial revolution brought with it mass produced goods which were both inexpensive to make and purchase. Over time, it began to make more financial sense to merely toss out a used item and replace it with a new one. The down side to having access to relatively inexpensive goods is the lack of motivation to reuse / recycle goods. This has brought about a few environmental issues. These issues include the pollution of the air, water and land.