Technology Impact

The Impact of Technology In the twenty-first century, technology is developing faster than the rainforest is recovering. Technology has become an important part of daily life for most people. It solves various problems, but tends to create others. People spend a lot of time using technology that they may forget about the effects it may have on the environment. Since the main goal of technology is to be more efficient, companies are developing products that meet the efficiency standards. Companies are creating efficient products and components that help reduce their effect on the environment. Technology is more efficient today and will continue to change. Though technology is still developing, it will eventually start to show diminishing …show more content…
Technological breakthroughs have been made in every field from medicine to transportation. On average, pieces of technology are getting smaller and more powerful. These changes are happening because of a better understanding of how to utilize different components and the manufacturing process has also become more efficient. The strides in the different fields have created a lot of positive and negative results which not only affects the environment, but also the consumers as well. Some people believe that technology and the development of it is creating a lot of irreversible changes to the environment while others believe that making technology more efficient is the only way to prevent the destruction of the environment. Factors that that affect the advancement of technology development include the barriers to enter the market, production methods, efficiency of the technology, and people hesitant to make the switch contribute to the difficulties in trying to reduce the amount of pollution created and the sustainability of the world. These factors contribute to the ongoing debate of how technology is applied and how it impacts the …show more content…
Products nowadays are created with the idea of efficiency in mind, but might not take the environment into account. In the article Energy Science, Engineering and Technology: Battery Manufacturing and Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, by Bill Canis, the process of obtaining lithium in order to make Li-ion batteries is described along with characteristics of desirable batteries. Canis an expert in Industrial Organization and Business explains that lead-acid batteries used to be the main types, but now metal-hydroxide and Li-ion batteries are being developed because they are much more efficient. He adds that lithium is a naturally occurring element projected to be in abundance. Canis adds that batteries need to be dense in power and energy, which is difficult because power and energy density often trades off. These factors are especially important when making things such as hybrid vehicles. In the article Environmental Impacts of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles - a review, by Troy Hopkins, Hopkins disagrees with Canis and says that the byproducts from processing and creating batteries are toxic. He cites sources of environmental reports and studies to show evidence of toxicity in the process. Hopkins adds that making electronics require assorted components which makes recycling harder and creates environmental