Question

Technology has the potential to both solve global social problems and make them worse. For example, technological devices that can interact with the environment have the potential to reduce world hunger by helping to increase food production in developing countries. However, some technological advancements—such as weapons of war and automated assembly lines—can threaten life through armed conflict, and pollution of the environment can increase poverty by eliminating jobs.

Do advancements in technology pose any direct and/or indirect threats to the global environment? Choose one advancement and provide two examples of direct or indirect threats in your explanation.

Answer 1

With the current advent of technology in every field from agriculture to manufacturing to healthcare, technology has become pervasive in our lives. While there are positive effects, it is also bound with some negative effects on the environment as well as human population directly or indirectly. For instance, large scale manufacturing has led to increase in air, water, noise pollution and carbon emissions. Natural resources are being depleted as more trees are being cut to acquire more land for urban development. This has led to global warming and climate change across the planet

Use of Genetically modified crops has also potential to harmfully impact the environment in which it grows - it changes the properties of the soil, water in which the residue discharges, long term consumption can have side effects for humans and animals leading to changes in their genome, and changing the genetic material of insects and pests as well as they change too and become resistant. This can have a huge impact on the environment as well as the entire population on earth.