New technology: a threat or a promise?

Laurence W. & Xiang D.
King George V School
Hong Kong, China

In today's world, many of us rely on technology to do the most basic things in life. We communicate, consume and work using different types and mediums of technology which were all built up from knowledge and ideas from previous centuries. This is why technology has been an amazing promise to humanity and it is what innovates society to achieve better lifestyles.

However, this boom in development is also what has lead to the destruction of the environment. We are now beginning to experience the consequences of our careless actions and new technologies will have to be used to counter the effects and extent of climate change. Below I will outline how we will rely on technology in the mitigation of climate change.

The mitigation of climate change involves making active progress towards reducing the extent of global warming. There are various proposals all of which relate to the reduction in green house emissions by lowering energy consumption and using cleaner and more efficient sources. Many of these solutions incorporate new technologies or need further research in the future.

Changing lifestyles is a key element to hindering global warming. For this reason, technology can be incorporated into buildings to save energy and reduce emissions such as adopting energy efficient equipment like insulation and solar roofs. Transportation consumes up to of 28% of the total energy in some countries. High carbon emissions from cars, buses and airplanes have lead to the development of many new technologies particularly hybrid cars, electric cars and hydrogen cars. These cars allow much smaller fuel consumptions, incorporate higher battery storage capacities and energy recapturing systems during breaking. All of this brings a reduced reliance on fossil fuels and so reduce the carbon emissions. However, though there are large social benefits the vehicles are not without demerits. High production and fuel costs for hydrogen vehicles means few people can purchase this, equally electric cars have poor speeds compared to conventional cars so fewer want them. We are currently relying on engineers and researchers to answer these problems of inefficiency.

Recently, the use of biofuels has become more popular as an alternative to gasoline or diesel. Corn ethanol, cane ethanol and especially cellulose ethanol show highly promising results as alternatives for the future. Each technique of producing ethanol has a higher output of fuel than the input needed and at the same time gives at least 20% less carbon emissions. Technology is showing promising results to a cooler earth in the future, despite itself playing a large role as part of the cause of climate change.

By looking at these exciting solutions new technology can bring to mitigate the effects of climate change, it is suffice to say that new technology will, and should, be looked upon as a promise. Joseph Schumpeter, a renowned economist, popularised and used the term ‘gales of creative destructive' in addressing the outlook of the world's future. Technology, in our opinion, fits the model of creative destruction. What is promise without potential threat or risk? Technology, which seeks constantly to innovate and to improve, is key to the betterment of our world both today and tomorrow. Without technology, the world would never grow nor develop. We would enter an era of stagnation without any changes to our lifestyles. Therefore, technology always holds in itself massive promise - though it is the misuse of technology which may be a threat.

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