Improving the Environment with a Technological Silver Buckshot

Man-made climate change began with technological advances. But can the environmental crisis be solved by technology? You can find issues in every aspect of life that contribute to climate change, from food production to inefficient city landscapes to transportation to fossil fuel consumption to waste management, the list goes on and on. According to BBC, in 1927, one billion tonnes of carbon per year were released into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning and industry. In 2017, USA Today reported an all-time record year of 45 billion tons of C02 emitted. This huge increase in emissions is largely in part to our dependence on fossil fuels for our energy consumption, and pouring more money and time into technology for fossil fuels instead of renewables. This dependence, and our government stimulating the fossil fuel industry through deregulation and tariffs on renewable energy, has had detrimental consequences to our beautiful environment around us.

One of the largest pushbacks of renewables was in the first month of 2018 in the form of a tax, which CNN states as, “…a tariff, or tax, of 30% will be applied to imported solar panels, most of which come from China…” imposed by President Trump. China is the, “…primary country from which the U.S. imports solar panels” (Horowitz, 2018). This is a huge hit to the US increasing our use of solar, as it is much more expensive to produce in the USA than in China. Most solar panel jobs in the US relate to installation, not manufacturing. Over 260,000 Americans work for the solar industry, but because of this tariff, an estimated, “…48,000 to 63,000 American solar industry workers are out of a job this year” (Horowitz, 2018). This tariff has detrimental effects to technological advances in the Solar renewable sector.

However, companies and people are still determined to find solutions to the climate change crisis. Tim Kruger recently did a TedTalk in 2017 (shout out to Professor Suzie for showing me this), talking about his technological solution of removing CO2 from the air, while creating energy. Kruger makes a very interesting statement, “All of these ideas come with trade-offs. None of them are perfect, but many have potential. It's unlikely that any one of them will solve it on its own. There is no silver bullet, but potentially together they may form the silver buckshot that we need to stop climate change in its tracks.” You can check out the rest of the TedTalk below.

So, what are some ways that people are using technology to improve our environment around us? Some are obvious, like renewable energy such as wind power and solar power. And these technologies, despite setbacks like stated above, are become cheaper, more reliable, and more efficient because of technological advances. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, announced in February that they want to, “…diversify [their] economy and reinvigorate growth…by plowing money into renewable energy…” (Reed, 2018). They are set to build a solar farm, “…that would generate enough electricity to power up to 200,000 homes…” and will invest $7 billion to create more of these farms (Reed, 2018). 

Other ways, are very different. Like Kruger said, there is no silver bullet, and just increasing renewable energies will not stop or reverse the detrimental effects of climate change in its tracks. I interned at The Rediscovery Centre, a sustainability centre in Dublin, Ireland last semester. There I learned that almost all disposable coffee cups are not recyclable, due to a polyethylene layer that makes the cups waterproof, and can take up to, “…30 years to decompose…” (Cork, 2018). Some places can recycle them, but not many, and only 0.1% are recycled per year (Ferreira, 2016). Globally, about one million disposable cups are thrown away every hour, or 500 billion a year (Concious Cup, 2018). This type of huge consumption leads to higher production numbers of disposable cups, and huge waste issues leading to the pollution of the environment. Conscious Cup, a small grass-roots campaign in Ireland, has encouraged businesses to give discounts to customers who bring reusable mugs or cups to their businesses. By using a reusable cup, it cuts down waste which lead to pollution and decreases your carbon footprint. Many places, like Cork, are starting to ban them all together. However, this could be another technological advance we could pursue as a society, making our products that are heavily used recyclable, like disposable coffee cups.

Like many of the tech briefings before me, there are so many ways we can use technology to improve our quality of life, while also sustaining the earth around us. Haibo’s talked about autonomous trucks, and how TuSimple uses “…3D HD mapping technology to allow the truck to drive by itself…[reducing] emissions.” Siru wrote about how BitCoin Mining should be done in a more environmentally friendly way by using, “…reliable and renewable power sources for Bitcoin mining.” Alyssa’s tech briefing spoke about IoT in Agriculture, and how sustainable roofs could become a thing of the future, improving our agriculture environmental impact. Just like Tim Kruger said, it's going to take a silver buckshot, not a silver bullet to stop climate change. Every sector of the economy could use change to improve people’s lives and the earth. We only have to be brave enough to break our dependence on fossil fuels, and invest in the already proven, known technologies of renewables.

Questions to Consider:

1. Do you have any interesting examples of technological advances happening in the world of sustainability? 
2. What do you do to try to decrease your carbon footprint? 
3. Do you incorrectly recycle disposable coffee cups and not the lid (which can be recycled)? I didn't know you couldn't recycle them until I interned in Dublin. 
4. Do you recycle at home? 

Citations:

BBC. (2013, September 20). BBC News. Retrieved on March 30, 2018 from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15874560

Cork, Y. (2018, January 10). Yay Cork. Retrieved on March 30, 20198 from https://yaycork.ie/2018/01/10/cork-city-council-banned-disposable-coffee-cups/

Ferreira, J. (2016, August 1). Science Alert. Retrieved on march 30, 2018 from https://www.sciencealert.com/millions-of-people-put-their-coffee-cups-into-recycling-bins-but-they-re-not-being-recycled

Horowitz, J. and Gillespie, P. (2018, January 22). CNN Money. Retrieved on March 30, 2018 from http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/22/news/economy/us-tariff-washing-machines-solar-cells/index.html

Reed, S. (2018, February 5). The New York Times. Retrieved on March 30, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/business/energy-environment/saudi-arabia-solar-renewables.html

Rice, D. (2017, November 13). USA Today. Retrieved on March 30, 2018 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/11/13/global-carbon-dioxide-emissions-reach-record-high/859659001/