Raising Awareness about Technology’s Bright Potential to Save Our Planet

Today, human civilization risks becoming overdependent on technology in almost all aspects of our lives. From simpler activities like communicating, learning, travelling and entertainment to larger endeavours across all professional industries, government and scientific research, technology makes our lives easier. As many of us enjoy the fruits of technology, we must also consider the cost. As a global society, most of us are utilizing our planet’s limited resources of energy in an unsustainable way. 

Thankfully, environmental activists have been raising awareness about this issue for many decades now.While most of the world still heavily practises an unsustainable way of life, some people have been taking steps towards the answer. They are instigated by the reality that our planet’s limited resources like petrol won’t last forever and are weighed by the burgeoning pollution our society is causing. Because of a strong series of protests, movements and initiatives over the decades, this has become one of the biggest challenges of our generation. So, many people have been investing in ‘environmentallyfriendly’, ‘green’ or ‘alternative’ energy resources and also practising a sustainable way of life. 

But even then, the people practising an environmentally friendly and sustainable way of life are still a minority because of two reasons: One, there is lack of awareness or education about this issue. Two, people respond to this crisis in different ways, in spite of knowing the problem well because they have different perspectives. Thus, the best step here maybe to continue to raise awareness in our society.

The Three Ways People Understand and Act to Save Our Environment

There are three main schools of thought or ‘worldviews’ in the discussion or efforts to help save our environment. One on end of the spectrum, people believe that human beings stand apart from other species and with enough technological innovation or ingenuity, we can overcome this challenge. On the other end, people believe that we are all part of nature, thus encouraging environmentally friendly practices and discouraging destructive or damaging practices. The last group of people believe that we have an ethical and moral responsibility to carefully make of use our planet’s resources and ensure to keep asidesome resources for others as well. 

The best answer maybe a combination of these three diverse perspectives, ideally. But because people see this crisis and respond in different ways, we must also be careful in our efforts to raise awareness. Sadly, there are many myths and rampant misinformation promulgated within social media, creating confusion and further obscuring a commonly shared understanding of this issue. As this can become a sensitive issue, we need to look towards the facts. In tandem, we need to look at the bright potential within technology to support us in our efforts. 

The Critical Role of Technology and Innovation in to Help Save Our Planet

On a general note, alternative resources of energy are becoming more and more popular around the world. In these methods, we harness renewable resources of energy from sunlight, wind and water to fuel our daily activities. They have proven to be a feasible alternative to fossil fuels because they produce sufficient amounts of energy affordably. Thus, they slowly and steadily standardized by various governments around the world.

In addition, there are certain ‘specific’ innovations having very bright potential to help us here. Some of these are: 

• Solar Glass: this is an innovative type of glass transparent enough to allow light indoors and also capable of converting sunlight into electricity, 
• Graphene: a recently discovered material that’s stronger than steel, thinner than paper and more conductive than copper. Its unique properties allow many helpful applications like transferring energy over large distances with minimal loss,
• Plant-based and biodegradable plastic: Unlike commonly used plastics, these plastics are biodegradable, thus giving us convenience without harming our surroundings,
• Carbon Capture and Storage: An emerging class of technologies capable of capturing the excess amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and storing this safely, thus alleviating global warming, 
• Nuclear Fusion: This is an ongoing research to mimics the way our sun produces energy. Unlike the nuclear plants we already have, this method doesn’t produce harmful wastes. Instead, nuclear fusion produces enormous amounts of heat. So, scientists are researching ways to safely perform fusion through special magnets. 

In sum, there is bright potential within technology to help save our planet. There are many statistics all clearly reporting that renewable resources of energy are slowly and steadily rising, thanks to forward-thinking organizations, scientists and individuals. But they may become mainstream only with another one to two decades. One of the biggest challenges here is achieving efficiency: producing sufficient amounts of energy efficiently. Another is raising awareness and educating people about this issue. 

Thanks to many scientists and environmentally conscious leaders, common people as well as larger companies have tangible and practical ways to help protect and save our environment today. Let’s do our part to help save our environment.