Technology

Technology has its benefits. Innovation and invention have been the driving forces in creating a lot of change in the past hundred years. Not all of that technological change has been good, in fact many argue that most of the ecological harm created in the past century has been due to the technological advances. Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, the creators of the I=PAT equation, were not believers in the benefits of technology, pointing to all the harm caused by technology throughout the past decades.

While I tend to be more of a cynical person, for some reason I have this uncanny ability to be hopeful about technology "saving us" from our environmental harm. Since humans are so innovative and creative, I can only imagine that the human mind can be put to some good use, and be able to come up with some creative solutions to environmental issues. While I do not expect a miracle or a solution which will take away the century of destructive environmental human behavior, I do believe (or maybe hope) that technology may help solve some of the environmental issues currently facing our world today.

I do not believe that technology can necessarily "save us". Technology can help prevent further problems and additional harm caused to the environment, and perhaps come up with some creative solutions to problems already harming the earth. Unfortunately nothing can fix the immense amount of damage humans have already done to the environment, and therefore technology will not be able to "save us", as many environmental problems are so beyond repair that they will directly affect future generations. Hopefully technology will be able to help improve the lives of our grandchildren while still maintaining the environment.

Amanda