Ggr 222- Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies

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7. Feb. 1 Technology as problem

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Stearns, Peter N. (2007). "Introduction; Chapter 15: Global Industry and the Environment." The Industrial Revolution in World History. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press. pp. 1-17; 269-277.

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Technology:
(2 entities)

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for our purposes, defined as a combination of two things
. the physical entity (tool, instrument, machine)
. technique, the means of using that entity (organization of production)
Stearns p. 85: "new methods and organizations for producing goods"
Ehrlich and Ehrlich p. 118: "[technology] also includes the social, economic, and political arrangements that determine what is consumed, how, and by whom."
Sometimes referred to as a combination of "hardware" and "software."

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Industrialization:

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shifting economic base of a society from agriculture to manufacturing
agriculture --> manufacturing

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Industrial revolution:

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large-scale industrialization with attendant societal consequences
-Stearns p. 85: global process; different times in different places; 1760s; 1880s; 1960s;
-only agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago has had comparable impact on human society and on nature (thats why revolution)

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Farm:

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means of organizing agricultural production

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Factory:

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means of organizing industrial production

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The point I wish to make is that we cannot understand technology as a cause of the environmental problem if we look at the machine alone

-For technology to be cause...

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we also have to look at how it is used (or not used in the case of renewable energy technologies, Feb. 3 lecture). To stall revolution, the Egyptian government shut down the internet on January 28. The machine (internet) is a causal variable in that social dynamic, but so are such things as the norms of democracy or economic structure and high youth unemployment.

Technology as cause in that sense is relative to how its being used

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From this, I would argue we cannot see technology (the machine) as by itself an agent of social change (eg, invention of the printing press led to mass literacy led to democracy; McLuhan, "the medium is the message").

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Instead, the machine is one variable interacting with others.

How it was used creates the social change

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2. Technology in the I=PAT formula

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. see reader p. 115: technology as "enabler" - "underpins expanding consumption and is allowing a very large human population to be supported."

Enabler: Tech can increase supply --> demand --> pop growth

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. medical technology (plus organization of its use)

example of enabler

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reduces death rate, increases population

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. industrial technology (plus organization of its use)

ENABLER

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increases productivity of its worker, thus generating economic growth (Affluence) and per capita consumption

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rather than independently... The causes

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act as a mix.

combination of all causes creates the revolution.

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3. Introduction of new technology.(The stimulus)
. there is no consensus amongst academics on why technological change occurs;
eg, why China was an early leader then stalled, why lead then shifted to Europe -

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perhaps all we can say is it is an interaction between physical conditions (availability of materials; need) and culture

Stimulus: Physical conditions and Culture

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. that said, military application

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has always been an impetus to technological change; eg, the stirrup, the nuclear bomb

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. today, new technology

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spreads globally in a very short time; eg, inability of US and UK in 1945 to guard their secret of the nuclear bomb

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. technological change is not directly dependent on the empirical method (there were many inventions before the Renaissance)

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today it has spurred rate of technological development

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technological change is now the product of

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organized research in the military, corporation and university; the lonely inventor (Thomas Edison) no longer exists

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. like population and affluence

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the rate of technological change is accelerating

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. it is largely a one-way process;

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few technologies have been rejected once established (see reader, Japan and the gun); in 1970s, scientists briefly considered a moratorium on biotechnology, but that was abandoned

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. market application (profitability) is,

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beyond military use, a major impetus for technological change (and so universities are shifting from pure to applied knowledge);

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market will only use

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criterion of profit in selecting technologies which means only the state can use other criteria, such as environment impact, but as discussed below state track-record is not good

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4. Technology as problem
4.1 Basic problem:

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both as enabler and by itself, the machine driven by fossil-fuel power has vastly increased the power of humans to have an impact on nature
eg, 18th c. steam engine powering pumps to drain mines allowed expansion of coal mining, which provided coal energy to power industrialized production (resource consumption) and produced all the environmental impacts attendant on burning coal
eg, 19th c. internal combustion engine, powered by diesel or gasoline, combined with assembly-line factory system, resulted in motor vehicles, airplanes, etc. with all attendant environmental impacts

eg, 19th c. chemical industry development new synthetic toxic substances

eg, 20th c. nuclear energy: attendant problems, military and civilian electricity production problems

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4.2 The special problem: fossil fuel and nuclear energy technologies

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. combined with electrification, have provided the physical power needed for the current global rate of production, consumption and environmental impact

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. leads to

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need to reduce use of these energy technologies and increase use of renewable (Feb. 3 lecture)
. and need to reduce total global energy use through a shift to a steady-state economy (Feb. 15 lecture)

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4.3 Limits on our ability to rationally select amongst technological options

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. see reader p. 117: choice of technology makes a difference - bike ten miles or drive SUV ten miles to achieve same purpose has very different impacts

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those who benefit from introduction of new technologies

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hold power in the market

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market that decides which technologies are introduced

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, based on profitability not rational comparison of cost and benefit

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. state

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does little to evaluate potential social and environmental impacts before a new technology is introduced; chemical and nuclear almost none; biotechnology more

. current example of introduction of shale gas extraction in Canada and US; regulatory approvals will focus more on immediate pollution impacts than larger issues of fossil fuel technology

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4.4 Technology as a cause of alienation from nature
. farm

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domestication of wilderness; but still tied to natural rhythm of the day and season

. current tree-farms and fish-farms are continuation of that process: transformation of wilderness to farm

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. factory

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with electric lighting, allows decoupling from natural rhythms: see reader p. 91 re pace of industrial production

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. industrialization and urbanization

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constitute transformation of the rural to the city, within which we provide nature as the domesticated park

. see Leo Marx (1964) The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Idea in America for discussion of the way in which 19th c. industrialization disrupted the American rural identity

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8. Feb. 3 Technology as problem and solution

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Reading:
Ehrlich, Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich (2004). "Chapter 5 Technology Matters." One With Nineveh. Washington: Island Press. pp. 138-180.

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Technology as solution to the environmental crisis is attractive

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, because simply changing the machinery allows us to continue doing the same things, and to get the same benefits, while reducing our environmental impact. The alternative, changing our wants and behaviours, is much harder to achieve. However, changing technology is hard to do ( because it is not just the machinery) and, by itself, not enough.

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1. Increasing energy efficiency

. 1973 and 1979 oil price increases

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sparked considerable efficiency gains (plus behaviour changes such as lower thermostat, lower speed limits) but were then abandoned

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. current incentives are weak:

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regulatory standards for buildings and appliances have brought about improvement, but have not met potential

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as seen by slow pace of carbon pricing

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governments face a political problem when trying to use the most power incentive for efficiency improvement, cost of energy