More on technological environmentalism
James Graham left a comment on my previous post on this topic (no need to apologise for it James :) ).
James makes some very good points. Chiefly they boil down to a criticism of technocracy. In this he is absolutely correct.
Technology is a tool, it is not a panacea. That must always be kept in mind. Like every other facet of life it is subject to tradeoffs. Take nuclear power for example- It emits very low levels of greenhouse gasses which is a big plus. However there is the problem of nuclear waste. Personally I consider that problem to be almost taken care of. There are then other factors however- there’s a global security aspect - the waste is very dangerous in the wrong hands - can we ensure this will never happen? (probably not). Is the risk worth the gains?
There are other things where the balance of benefits is not clear. Road pricing for instance. If done correctly (a big if) then it should save millions which currently go to waste due to congestion. Are the costs worth it though? This government would use it as an excuse to spend more of our money on watching us. If that is the case then I believe the benefits are not big enough.
When it comes to technology we should remember that of itself it is neutral, it is neither good nor bad. What changes that is the way we use the technology.
Technology correctly applied will solve many many problems, but it can create many more.
We should not be afraid of technology, we should pursue it and look to it to solve problems, but we should always look at the tradeoffs we must make and decide whether the benefits are worth the costs.
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April 18th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Technogy has to be carrried out with care. But mostly the problems occur when used on a big scale and by commercial entreprises. I am not against private enterprise only the bigness, only excess profit. Commiunty projects are a much more efficent way of using technology and are the most efficent at using money since they are non profit making, or low profit making. Also the technology they chose is appropiate to the need of the region they are used in.