The Overhyped Savior

When I think about technology and whether it will provide a solution to our environmental problems, I am drawn back to our earlier discussion about the presidential candidates and the visions they have for America's environmental future. If there is anything both John McCain and Barack Obama have in common, it is their belief that technological innovation will be our savior, and will help correct centuries of wrongs which the developed world inflicted on our planet's stability. In fact, both candidates represent the mentality which currently exists in the United States, that through science and technology, we will be able to save the world before it is too late. Of course, I cannot help but scoff at the collective mindset, and I am not convinced that technological innovation alone will save the planet and put us on a path to maintaining a constant state of sustainable development.

Do not get me wrong-- technology is a beautiful thing, and many technological advancements will help us inch closer to solving many issues which plague our environment. Hybrid vehicles, for example, currently reduce our need for oil [though it does not eliminate that need]. Solar and wind power produce energy without relying on non-renewable resources extracted from the earth. Fluorescant lighting, mentioned here several times before, are far more energy efficent than incandescant bulbs. All of these are useful technologies which will help us slow down our impact on the environment, perhaps even put it at a stand still if enough people are willing to utilize them.

But we cannot rely on technology as a savior while we continue to live in a consumeristic society. As useful technology advances, useless technology is prone to advance as well. For every Toyota Prius we see navigating the streets of Washington, DC, there are dozens of iPods nestled in the pockets of our commuters. For every wind farm which is erected, hundreds of sixty-inch plasma screen televisions will be sold to consumers with a little extra cash to throw away. And as technology evolves, and the iPod gives way to the next generation music device, those obsolute technologies will eventually find themselves buried in a landfill somewhere, releasing toxins into the environment and taking up space which could be used for something worthwhile, such as housing and farming.

Perhaps technology will save us. Perhaps, decades from now, scientists will invent something so revolutionary, so extraordinary that human kind will be able to put its faith into it as a true savior of the environment. Perhaps we will figure out a way to utilize other planets as places for our trash, or maybe we will discover a renewable source of energy so powerful and clean, our energy needs will be met for centuries [such as Helium 3, which Chinese scientists are hoping to extract from the moon by 2030]. But for now, we cannot place all of our stock in technological innovation if we want to save the earth. We must rely on the legal system, international cooperation, and personal lifestyle changes to work coincidentally with technologicy if we hope to truly reverse our impact on the global environment.