Technology and Environmentalism – An Overview

Reading five different articles on the role of technology in environmental movements, I have seen just how divisive an issue technology is. With BBC headlines such as “Nature and technology: friends or enemies?”, it is easy to boil down the issue into a simple dichotomy to take sides with, but there exists many, many opinions. Yet, most opinions could be broken down into 3 different categories:

First, there are those who are believe technology should be left separate from the environment. They see technology as an extension of capitalist growth and it only serves to concentrate more power in the hands of the wealthy. Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face, falls in this category. He writes, “The computer is a mechanism for acceleration, it accelerates economic activity and this is eating up the world. It’s eating up resources, it’s processing, it’s manufacturing, it’s distributing, it’s consuming” (Confino 2013). Famed Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess also falls in this category and believed technology to have the side effect of ecological degradation (Ferkiss 1994). 

On the other hand, there are those who see technological innovation as the premier driver for environmental solutions. They advocate for further research and development not just for better, faster, and cheaper technologies, but, rather, for new and innovative technologies. One of key leaders for environmental innovation is the Breakthrough Institute and its authors such as Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, and Alex Trembath (Trembath 2015).

Finally is probably the least outspoken group: those who support the use of technology but do not advocate for technological innovation, instead seeing most problems as political or social rather than technological. This is epitomized by Al Gore’s stance that, “we have everything we need now to respond to the challenge of global warming … we have all the technologies we need” (Trembath 2015). While this view is becoming more obsolete, it is still prevalent among many environmentalists who think resources are best spent improving our current technological situation rather than creating a new one.

One interesting trend is that over time, it seems the dominant environmental conversation has shifted from more of an anti-technological stance in traditional environmentalism to pro-technology to now, where technological innovation is being heralded as an environmental savior. This change seems to have taken place mostly through the embrace of renewable energy technologies. Before renewable energy became a huge concern, it was easy to vilify technology as breaking our ties with nature and our surrounding environment. However, with climate change becoming a huge concern, environmentalists had to embrace renewable energies and the development of solar, wind, biofuel, and other technologies. For a while this was enough, but now it is easy to see that Gore was wrong about having everything we need. While, in general, culture and politics have taken on climate change as a problem, not enough has been done yet to curb it. It has become obvious that new technologies must be innovated.

In my opinion, it is clear that through technological innovation can problems not only of climate, but also agriculture, urban planning, conservancy, and more, come to frequent and better solutions. Yet, it is also important to realize that technological advances only get you halfway; one still has to implement them in meaningful and widespread ways. There also are so many social, political, and economic factors that must be taken into consideration within and without technology. It is certainly no end all be all, but it is an ideal that I find optimism and worth in.

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