Earth. The third rock from the sun. The Big Blue Marble. Our world boasts a number of different names, but perhaps its most important one of all is “home”. Today, roughly 7.6 billion people populate the 195 countries of planet Earth, and while many of us differ in culture, religion and lifestyle, the state and survival of our home planet affects us all the same. And these days, one of the biggest factors affecting life on Earth is technology.
Advancements in technology have simultaneously made the world seem so much bigger—thanks to inventions like airplanes and telephones—while also making it seem infinitely smaller—following our forays into space. Technology has made so many things possible that didn’t seem so 10 years ago, yet not all of these advancements are worth celebrating.
Planet Earth and technology have a contentious relationship. Environmental pollution, disturbances to ecological systems, depletion of natural resource and global warming can all find a culprit in technology, yet many of today’s life-changing inventions and medical innovations would have been impossible without these advances. So, with Earth Day just around the corner on April 22, this is as good a time as any to discuss the highs and lows of this unlikely pairing.
An Era of Over Consumption
Perhaps one of the biggest side effects of this technological age is how it has changed the way we think about consumption. Today, we use technology at home, at work, at school and everywhere in between, which has resulted in the average American using 148,600,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy per day. That’s the same amount of energy found in 31,226 burritos, and enough to power the flight of a Boeing 747 from NYC to Washington DC!
In much of the world, people are addicted to their smartphones and various gadgets, which is not only breeding a culture of codependence, but is leading to an over consumption of the Earth’s painfully finite resources. What’s worse, we discard old gadgets the minute a newer version is released, which results in a huge amount of waste, which is slowly but surely engulfing our planet.
It’s not all bad news though, and technology has done much for the betterment of humankind. In fact, we are living in a time where technology is no longer simply affecting the planet, but it’s changing it in a truly fundamental way.
The Future is Now
Tech innovations are an important part of finding more sustainable practices to help our world. For example, reading newspapers online and sending emails instead of snail mail means that we are cutting down fewer trees. Similarly, the ability to work online versus in an office is helping us reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
Today, technology is advancing faster than ever before, which has lead to a number of nifty innovations:
- Japan is currently testing drones that can help pollinate the planet, thereby lending a helping hand to the birds and the bees.
- Teenager Boyan Slat figured out how to use the the ocean’s currents and barriers to collect, rather than chase, the trash in the seas. Over the next decade this could remove more than half the garbage floating in the Pacific Garbage patch (estimated to be 700,000 square km in size).
- China, the world’s most populated nation, is leading the world in solar power production.
- Now, more than ever, it is easy to form alliances through social media and personal websites, which is helping to advance global relations.
Until technology provides us with the ability to see the future (and would we even really want that?), there’s no way to know how things will work out between technology and our home planet. BadTechnology.Sucks, so to ensure future technological advances don’t harm the planet, it’s critical that we are all mindful of how we use (and, in many cases, abuse) technology.
Rather than dedicating one hour a year to fixing the Earth’s problems, let’s live every hour like Earth Hour. By making ourselves accountable for our impact on the planet, we can all help to ensure we can call Earth home for many years to come.
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Photo Credits: Shutterstock / GaudiLab, Shutterstock / baranq, Shutterstock / Suwin, The Ocean Cleanup
