Future Predictions for the Role of Our Technology

¶ … global warming seems clear. Europe has been sizzling for the last few summers, in buildings and in an infrastructure ill-equipped for sustained 90F degree weather. The polar ice caps are melting. The maple syrup industry, dependant upon the cold has moved from increasingly sultry Vermont to Canada. Weather systems are growing more severe, and there are greater seasonal fluctuations in temperatures as the climate becomes less stable. Finally, average global temperatures are eking up, slowly, year after year.

Environmental Pollution The difficulty of addressing the issue of global warming is that it requires a global effort. For one nation to have an environmentally friendly policy is ineffectual, as a single nation cannot clean the atmosphere of the entire globe, no matter how 'green' it becomes. This means that political enemies must compromise, even if they have other differences of policy. But the problem of the developing world remains.

Nations like China and India have not participated in the economic prosperity of the industrial revolution, and wish to prosper -- and often pollute -- to increase the living standard of their nations. How can the developed world in good conscience tell them to slow their efforts at globally unsustainable, polluting growth? Technology and Natural Resources 1 Technology has given us mass production, making everything possible from inexpensive clothing to affordable cars. It has given us electricity and a 24/7 society.

It has also 'given' us polluting cars, toxins in the products we consume that do not break down, and a disposable society of ever-increasing landfills. Technology has moved faster in its ability to mass-produce what we consume than it has found ways to make us.