For a long time, I've faced an inner problem: I love technology. Technology is amazing; it's essential to maintain the standard of living to anyone who has the ability to read this in that we've all benefited from rapid transportation like cars, advances in medical technology like vaccines and modern dental practices, and let's not forget our ability to harvest energy resources, which drives our modern society. That being said, I really love nature too. I think one of the most beautiful things I witnessed firsthand was the view from the top of a small mountain I hiked in New Hampshire. Nature is beautiful to look at, but it's also beautiful in that it's so effective for how "simple" it is. (Note, I don't believe that nature is "simple" or has simple processes and ecosystems, I'm just saying it's simple in the way that it requires a lot less knowledge an expertise to grow a blueberry bush than to design and produce a CPU or something like that) And, not only is it beautiful, but it's essential for everyone's survival (currently thanking the trees around coral gables for providing me with some air)
And so for a long time we've been presented this theme that as technology rises, nature declines; as we continue to build faster cars and smarter computers, nature pays the ultimate price. For a long time as well as still today, this idea is pretty accurate - we have to burn things like oil and coal to produce energy, which pollutes the air surrounding, which slowly kills the environment, we have nuclear power plants which can sometimes suffer meltdowns and spill radiation into the surrounding area. And that's all just byproducts from "good" technology. "Bad" technology gave us things like the atomic bomb, which did unspeakable things to the environment surrounding such as contaminating the soil and water supplies. In our quest to become a better, more advanced society, we've made some pretty big mistakes that have damaging impacts on the environment.
In my opinion, our human society grows and matures similarly to how an individual grows and matures. When we were very young and starting to get a grasp on the way things worked in the world around us, we broke a few things. And let's be honest, sometimes we just broke things for fun. I personally can't even remember the number of things I've broken in my search to figure out how something works. But, as I matured, I learned how to operate and do certain things without potentially damaging other people's belongings. I also learned that some things are not worth messing with unless I really know what I'm doing (a moment of silence for all the computers I broke/messed up in my earlier youth). And so what I'm trying to say is much like how I've grown and matured, I think the human race is starting to reach this certain benchmark of age and maturity in that we're realizing the fact that what we do has an effect on the environment. I think a more important fact we're beginning to learn is that nature and the environment is just as necessary for a healthy life as modern technology.
Now that we understand that we have to figure out ways for our technology and nature to play nice, imagine the possibilities. Imagine a society where technology is based on nature and is made to work alongside nature rather than against it. Imagine a society that understands a simple truth that nature and technology do not have to be mortal enemies. I see the relationship between humans (and technology) and nature as one of those things that have to get worse before it gets better. I really do believe that the worst is behind us, and we will begin to get better. There are so many interesting and innovative ways to cleanly harvest renewable energy resources and things like solar panels are becoming more and more efficient where in the words of theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku, eventually solar energy will become more efficient and less expensive to the point where it will meet the rising costs of oil and gas and cause people to switch over. This is only one (but a very big) example of working with nature instead of against it, but I believe as well as hope that this mindset will begin to catch on as we continue to progress. This idea of binding technology with nature is something that I find to be really interesting, so if anyone would like to discuss it further with me, either post a comment or send me a message so we can continue the discussion. Once again, Thank you all for reading.
-Carlos
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