The Eye of the Beholder: Technology

Technology is viewed as a necessity for maintaining our contemporary life. For some, it is the great mysterious entity that will eventually save us from the damage that we have caused. For others, it is the beast that has allowed all of this environmental destruction in the first place. I agree that technology has never been good for the environment and that farming and such has been gradually degrading the land since the first days of agriculture. The part I have trouble with is that technology may be destroying the planet, but we are the ones dictating how it is used. Right now, we are using our technology to over-fish our bodies of water and cut down our forests. But, it does not have to be this way. Technology will never be good for the environment, but we can at least try to stop the ways in which it is being used for blatant destruction.

I do not know if technology will save us or accelerate us on our path to total ruin, but I do know one thing: it is not going anywhere, so we better figure out a way to cope with it. We have reached a point from which we cannot retreat anytime soon. We have built technology into our lives. The question is, to what extent? No one wants to live without a computer. It is how we communicate, how we blog, how we learn, and very few will want to sacrifice that. Societal changes must be made to radically reduce consumption and the decline of the most destructive kinds of technology will hopefully follow. For better or worse, technology will be around for a while. We must decide how it will be used for the future. We have to be the ones to change, and demand change.