Technology Can’t Save Us

Many people feel that technology will somehow save us. In actuality, technology has played a big part in getting us into the difficulty we face. Even though the social upheaval of a “population bomb” was predicted in 1968,⁴³ it did not come to pass due to the evolution of unforeseen agricultural technology developments. The “Green Revolution” of the 1950s to late 1960s boosted food production, more people could be fed, and as more people were fed, the population grew . . . in effect delaying the consequences of the already escalating numbers of people needing to be fed. Unfortunately, those advances in production also came with a massive increase in the use of toxic pesticides, fertilizers, and the monoculture of high yield crops, a very dangerous shift toward industrial agriculture, with its accompanying increase of pollution and soil degradation.⁴⁴

Technological advances have allowed our population growth to accelerate while at the same time creating new strains on the environment. In addition, we are now living longer. Global life expectancy has increased drastically for the last several centuries, mostly due to advances in healthcare. Scientific and technological advances have reduced the death rate in many parts of the world.

It was originally the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals that allowed humans to create settlements rather than migrate in pursuit of food sources. With the creation of settlements, towns became cities. People were freed up to build permanent structures and develop complex societies and “civilizations” came about. With civilization came an increase in population, manipulation of the environment, class distinctions, ideas of ownership, disease, and conflict . . . the world we find ourselves in today.

We can see a relationship between development of technology and population growth. As early as 6,000 BC, canals and dams were being built in Egypt and Mesopotamia, which allowed for expanded growth of crops and the ability to feed more people, and, with that ability came expanded population growth.⁴⁵ In the end, both Egyptian and various Mesopotamian civilizations ended up suffering from famine due to drought, as they were both dependent upon the rivers to grow their crops, and of course, there were wars of conflict over control of land and resources . . . issues that come with overpopulation.

Many issues of conflict and disaster are born from the single issue of overpopulation. We see that magnified in today’s world, with 7.8 billion people fighting over a limited supply of resources needed to sustain the very unwieldy number of bodies on the planet.

Researchers from Lancaster University in England say that over-reliance on promises of new technology to solve climate change is enabling delay on climate action.⁴⁶ Technological promises and hopes for new technologies downplay any sense of urgency, and the hope for new technologies cultivates complacency. When we are in need of extensive cultural, social, and political transformation to change our behaviors there is no time to waste on wishful thinking.

As was revealed in Jeff Gibb’s latest film Planet of the Humans (produced by Michael Moore), renewable sources, including solar, wind, and biomass, may not be as renewable as we are led to believe, and many environmental groups are now in bed with bankers, billionaires, and industrialists. Even if you don’t agree with all the conclusions of the movie, it does bring home the point that green energy cannot solve the problem of expanding resource depletion without less consumption and it highlights the imperative to explore and develop new avenues of green energy production.

Wind and solar are both intermittent technologies that depend on other technologies to back them up, which currently is gas or coal fired. Global figures from 2019 show that energy from wind (2.2%,) and solar(1.1%) remain at quite low percentages, although these sources are growing quickly. Fossil fuels continued to be the main energy source at 83.4%, 4.3% from nuclear power, .7% from biofuels, .9% from other renewables, and 6.4% from hydroelectric power, a widely used renewable source that comes with major environmental consequences.⁴⁷ International Energy Agency projections from 2019 indicate that renewables will provide nearly half of world electricity by 2050…an encouraging number, but still decades off.⁴⁸

We can see that technological advancements are an important avenue to pursue. Finding safe alternative energy sources is essential to our future. There are many good minds and hearts dedicated to helping us find better ways of reducing our negative impact on the planet. When I first began writing this book I was encouraged to hear that Bill Gates has been working on creating alternative building materials, and developing innovative sources of plant-based food supply, all of which sounded like a good idea until I listened to Vandana Shiva, the renowned Indian scholar and activist. She points out that so-called philanthropists, Bill Gates in particular, are increasing their power over our governments, and rather than supporting small farms and regenerative farming, are supporting industrial agriculture, the use of GMO seeds, the increase of control over food production, and the development of heavily processed fake foods engineered in a lab. There are 14 patents in every bite of an 'Impossible Burger,’ making it intellectual property rather than actual food. Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in the United States, which he uses as an investment vehicle. Also, his idea of solutions for energy production are based on nuclear energy, which involves problems that come with the mining of uranium, with chemical and radioactive wastes being released into the environment, and the possibility of accidents on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima. We must develop safer means of energy production. We need to draw on the wisdom and practices of the past while we explore innovative strategies and solutions for the future. What we cannot do is to continue with a “business as usual” attitude and promises of technological miracles. History shows that most technological breakthroughs take decades to reach the mass market. Even if new innovations show promise, they will likely not be deployable in time, since irreversible climate change is already upon us. As Paul Ehrlich said, “Large scale technologies take a long time to deploy. It is crazy to think some magic bullet will save us.”