Technology is one of those things that has advanced man as never before. They improve your life, make you earn more money, you can communicate faster with others, today we can even transport ourselves in cars without a driver, it all seems like a science fiction story. But… Have you ever wondered about the relationship between technology and the environment?
How technology affects the environment is something we can’t avoid, it’s right in front of our eyes on a daily basis. The direct relationship that technology has with the environment occurs in all areas that concern human beings: health, food, drink, sport, and even the air we breathe.
Technology and Environment: What is the relationship?
While we have talked before about clean technology, where we saw a portion of what technology and the environment is, today we will address the issue head on, try to answer the relationships and how technology influences the environment.
Ancient times: a minimal and necessary impact to survive
To begin with, it is convenient to start reviewing a little bit about the history of technology, as we saw before, man started using technology from ancient times. With the appearance of the first man-made tools, technology appeared.
Although it was a rudimentary technology that allowed him to hunt his prey, it was a great advance for that time, it allowed him to feed and even dress thanks to animal skins. At that time, perhaps we can say that we saw the first relationship between technology and the environment
Environmental impact of technology on our environment
What is the environmental impact of technology in the world we live in? What disadvantages have been brought about by the abuse of technological advances?
It is historical how man has affected nature due to the changes we bring about through technology. We demand so much from her that it is tremendously frustrating to see how we are squeezing our planet day by day.
But this is really proportional to the way in which the environment gives us back its reactions to our demands, that is to say, it is also charging us a large fee with different natural phenomena such as tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, unbearable heat waves, freezing cold, etc.
Different technological changes, and scientific advances that have emerged from the study of the phenomena of the earth, are also being the same cause of the destruction of natural resources in different ecological environments.
Advantages of technology applied to the environment
Despite what we have talked about the environmental impact of technology in a negative way, there are also advantages of its use for ecology, we see what they are:
- Weather forecasting
Today thanks to technology we can predict tsunamis, hurricanes, thunderstorms, measure the intensity of earthquakes or predict fire risks in different areas. There is no doubt that this is one of the things that most affects the inhabitants of the earth, and that without technology the different natural phenomena would surprise us in an unpleasant way, as it happened in ancient times.
- Social campaigns and ecological movements
Today, thanks to the rise of the Internet and social networks, there are many ways to encourage different ecological initiatives. Getting together with others who are also fighting to conserve the environment and protect it from pollution has become increasingly.
Recycling is getting easier
There are thousands of pages of ecology dedicated to teaching people how to recycle materials, conserve natural resources by reusing things in the process. Today you can learn how to recycle almost any material, both at home with small “homemade” or amateur recycling ways, as well as creating machines or promoting industrial recycling.
- Abundance of renewable energies
In the modern era in which we live, there are dozens of types of fuel that are not based on fossil fuels, that is, that do not require oil derivatives to function. By this we mean non-polluting energies such as solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, hydraulic energy or tidal energy.
Technological advances and environmental awareness
There is no doubt that man has surpassed himself immensely in breaking with the initial limits with which he came into the world in antiquity. On the one hand we see the technological advances as a natural and evolutionary growth on the part of man and his intellect.
And on the other hand we have a negative impact of technology, as the main factor of the dehumanization of man, the lack of communication between his peers, the advance of poverty and the increase of the gap between those who have much and others who have nothing.
But there in that last sentence it is all locked up, technology is not to blame for the negative environmental impact, but who has used it. Due to the obesession for money, fame and power, man abuses technological resources, he does not measure its consequences in the different social, economic, political and even less environmental fields.
Environmental Technology
Another great advantage of technological progress has been the creation of environmental technology. This technology, also known as clean technology or green technology, is a type of energy that does not harm the environment, that is, it is 100% renewable.
There are many subcategories within environmental technology, among which we can find:
- Reuse
- Renewal
- Recycling
- Compost
- Water purification
- Organic waste
Many of these subcategories have a direct impact on the environment, while others aim to raise awareness of the damage we do to the planet, and thus generate changes in our behavior as responsible human beings.
There is no doubt that one of the major objectives of environmental technology is the reduction of carbon dioxide and sulphur emissions, allowing the levels of greenhouse gases to be lowered, the melting of the poles, as well as the global warming that is a consequence of all this.
Does environmental technology really work?
There are various opinions on environmental technology. Some believe that the use of technology even for environmental purposes creates irreversible disruptions in the environment.
The different types of technology that have emerged have greatly helped human beings in various aspects, they have improved their health, food, forms of transport, and general quality of life, but they have affected the environment tremendously.
The technology used and developed without supervision, the same one that has helped so much to the man, is and will be the cause of the biggest environmental disasters that has faced the humanity. If it is not regulated, measured and used in a moderate way through the so-called green technologies, it will only be the main cause of the extinction of life on earth.