By: Troy Backhaus

Social Impact of Technology

Technology Will Destroy Our Planet

How Will Technology Destroy The

Earth

For this presentation I will look at some of the

different ways that our modern society and

technology is destroying our planet.

I feel that technology itself is neutral and how

humans choose to develop, use, and dispose of

this technology is what is doing our planet harm.

We are building, expanding, and inventing at a

rate that our planet cannot support. We have a

finite amount of resources and should be doing

our best to preserve them for as long as possible

not burning through them as fast as possible

Evolution of Technology

The evolution of all forms of technology is

happening at such a rate that people are no

longer replacing just broken items but perfectly

good working items because something new and

improved has come on the market.

The rate at which technology is being created and

improved upon in unsustainable for our planet.

This technology is not being created responsibly

or ethically, made with harmful materials and

processes

Consumers are not disposing of these goods in a

responsible manner.

Resources & Materials

Every piece of technology ever created is made

of materials either natural or synthetic.

These natural materials need to be taken from

the earth, things like metals, aggregates, wood,

water and soils.

Synthetic materials are man made and often

contain materials that are harmful to humans and

the environment

More sophisticated technology requires tools and

processes

These can cause damage to the earth if not done

responsibly

Our want for cheaper and cheaper materials

Materials

Mining, forestry and oil are some of the basic materials needed to create the technology of our daily lives, but we are not extracting and removing these materials responsibly.

Deforestation Open-pit Mining Alberta’s Tar Sands

Manufacturing Conditions How products are made especially in 2nd and 3rd world

countries is unethical

The working conditions and manufacturing processes are

often unhealthy and unsafe

To keep product costs down employees are usually not

paid fair wages for the work they do or given proper

safety gear

Child Workers in Asia Garment Factory India Factory

work in China

Manufacturing Waste

The process of creating products often has harmful by-

products and emissions that have negative effects on the

natural environment.

Some of the industries that are most effecting the health

of our planet are; metal smelting and mining operations,

leather tannery, pulp & paper, textile dying, and chemical

production

Textile Dying Coal Refinery Untreated

Waste

One of the biggest downfalls of our modern society and

technology is the waste generated by our consumerism

Not much consideration is put into what happens to a

product when it becomes waste

This is leaving us with a lot of waste that is not properly

being disposed of casing pollution and damage to our

Earth

E-waste in Africa 25 day tire fire Modern

Nuclear War

From all of the topics I have covered so far I feel the biggest threat that technology has on our planet is in the form of nuclear warfare.

As of 2014 there were 4,000 active nuclear warheads and 10,144 total nuclear warheads in the world.

It was called the Tsar Bomba, this 50,000-kiloton hydrogen bomb was the largest nuke ever detonated and it’s considered the most powerful man-made creation in history.

When Tsar Bomba was dropped, the fireball had a 5-mile diameter that reached over 6 miles into the sky. From 62 miles away, the heat could still give you third degree burns. Windows were broken up to 560 miles away.

That equates to a mushroom cloud 8 times the height of Earths highest peak Mt. Everest

The damage Done

Hope For The Future

There is hope for the future and it starts with you!

The products you choose to buy can have a positive

impact!

Look for company's that have ISO certification

ISO is the International Standards Organisation for

things like sustainable energy and water and resource

conservation

Look for products that are fair trade certified

Fair trade is an organized social movement whose

stated goal is to help producers in developing

countries achieve better trading conditions and to

promote sustainability. Members of the movement

advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters,

Investing in Clean Energy

By converting from coal and nuclear power to

solar, wind and geothermal we can slow climate

change and global warming

If we become less dependant on fossil fuels there

will be less oil spills, and damage to the Earth

from oil extraction

Demand responsible and sustainable products

and policies from our global governments and

cooperation's

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http://elgarblog.com/category/environment/

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Ciencia, G. (2014, February 28). ¡Tu ropa es tóxica! … DETOX. Retrieved April

12, 2015.

"Federation of American Scientists: Status of World Nuclear Forces". Fas.org.

2014. Retrieved April 10, 2014

Wilson, M. (2012, April 20). Ingeniously Charting The Horrifying Power Of

Today's Nuclear Bombs. Retrieved April 12, 2015, from

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669575/ingeniously-charting-the-horrifying-power-

of-todays-nuclear-bombs

Hiroshima Panorama Project. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from

http://sun.iwu.edu/~rwilson/hiroshima/rama2.htm