It is time to be proactive!

I do not think that technology will be the only thing to save us, but I do think that it can have important benefits. I still chuckle each time in class when you talk about throwing giant mirrors into space and reflecting some of the harmful UV rays back towards the universe. This kind of technology to me sounds absurd, and of course, it is. Yet I also see a good and positive space for technology that would really be able to make a contribution to this planet. This could include car engines, making them run more and more efficiently. Also, the metro system has much room to improve, and could be made to run off much less electricity. However, I am even skeptical of thinking that we can have positive technological change. Researchers and scientists have been looking for the cure to cancer for decades now, with no avail.

It often seems to me that we are kidding ourselves to wait for an end-all solution; something that will stop the environmental damages to this planet with one simple invention. I do not think that environmental researchers are being given enough funding to pursue this kind of research, especially in the face of medical research paid for by large pharmaceutical companies. Who is paying for environmental research, Green Peace? So, with all this in mind, I think it is important to focus on the technologies we currently have to make little steps, and do as much else as we can in different arenas to end environmental degradation. Simply waiting for a technological cure will not be enough. We are going to need institutional changes, consumer changes and economic changes. So, for the purposes of this discussion I do not think that technology will save us, it has not yet! For the environment, that means that technological optimists should focus their energies in with the bio-environmentalists or social greens. Their call to technology is doing no good for this planet. In many cases, it has the opposite effect. The reading for Tuesday’s class demonstrates this with the rise of CFC use around the planet. Our superior technology finally backfired, after a large hole was noticed in the ozone in the 1970’s. Scientists had thought they found the premier aerosol, refrigerant substance in chlorofluorocarbons and other halons. We began pumping them into everything from refrigerators to hairspray. Then this technology was distributed around the world. So while the Northern countries had primary fault for the depleting ozone, developing countries were also starting to emit CFC’s into the atmosphere.

In this case, research was missing between the invention stage and the implementation stage. No one tested the harmful effects of CFC’s on the environment in a proper way, and thus their effects could have been life altering. I think this reading has shown us that technology needs to be tested thoroughly before being implemented. It also shows us the negative effects of technology in many cases. When it comes to the environment we cannot afford to procrastinate, and wait for technology to save us. What is going to save us are wide institutional changes, consumer and consumption changes and economic changes. While I do feel that technology can have a small, positive role in this process, I think that waiting for technology overall is irrational. As a planet we need to focus on what we can do now, not what may never even occur in the future. It is time to be proactive!