ITechnology is dynamic in its impact on the environment. It both solves problems and creates them regarding the health of the planet. Some technologies combat climate change while others use a lot of energy. Tech uses a lot of power to operate, but advanced technologies like artificial intelligence can help solve our energy and climate issues. It’s a complicated time, and there’s no answer to our problems yet but all we can do is move forward. Progress is not a straight line, but it’s necessary to do our best and keep an eye on all the technological advancements. Below are five technologies and their impact on the environment of our planet.
Cryptocurrency
The odds are, you’ve probably heard about cryptocurrency’s impact on the environment or at least the amount of energy it takes to mine bitcoin. When it comes to decentralized finance, cryptocurrency is at the top of the list. It is an encrypted digital currency, but when it is mined and not bought it takes a lot of energy. This is not good for the environment. However, oddly enough the fact that they are digital currencies leads to fewer trees being cut down for paper money. Trees are needed to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen to breathe. While mining crypto isn’t great for the environment, there are many companies working to make cryptocurrency more sustainable in general. Although when you purchase it, there’s no further impact on the planet.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most environmental impactful technologies we have today. It can do a lot to make our lives better, easier, and more efficient. It can create graphics, images, videos, and prose out of thin air. AI calculate numbers and analyze data very fast. It solves complex problems, but to do all that it needs a lot of power. Whether you are interested in artificial intelligence or not, one thing that can’t be ignored is how useful it is to solve problems. Technologies like AI might use a lot of energy, but they also might solve issues regarding climate change and mitigate the negative impact we have on the planet.
Electric Cars
Electric cars are lauded for being good for the environment. This is true in some ways. For example, the fact that they don’t use gasoline at all is very beneficial to the planet. However, the advancement in lithium batteries these cars use are not at all good for the environment. Lithium mining is not exactly environmental friendly. It’s necessary to make these cars work, but the environmental impact might be about the same. More studies need to be done to determine how these lithium batteries are harming our world.
Robotics
Robots use precious metals that can seep into the water after they’re mined, but the technology of robotics itself shows a lot of promise for mitigating the negative impact on the planet. For example, robots are helping the recycling process by separating garbage from items that can be recycled. They can even plant trees and help farmers survive droughts. Furthermore, robots can collect data in the field that may lead to environmental breakthroughs.
Cloud Computing
Lastly, we all love the benefits of using a Cloud service to securely store our digital content, assets, and files. However, the result of this is that there are servers running constantly to store those files. Overall, keeping servers on perpetually requires an enormous amount of energy that will inevitably have an impact on the environment and planet overall. Cloud computing isn’t the worst technology for the environment, but it is certainly not helping anything.
Technology is a complex thing. Progress can’t be stopped, and advancements will continue for years to come, but it’s always vital to tread softly and think a lot about how the advancements will have a negative impact on the planet. Still, it’s necessary to utilize technology to solve some of these problems. AI, machine learning, automation, and robotics can all play a positive role in the fight against climate change. It won’t be easy, but we need to use every tool at our disposal to mitigate harm to the natural world. When we work together with technology to solve these problems, maybe we can create a better, more sustainable world. We have to try, right?
