Technology
and the Environment
Chapter 15
The Nature of Technology
• Langdon Winner and defining technology
• Three dimensions to technology:
• 1. Technological tools or apparatuses - the
physical devices of technical performance
» Machines
» Gadgets
• 2.Technical skills - all activities or behaviors that
employ a rational method of doing things
The Nature of Technology
• Langdon Winner and defining technology
• Three dimensions to technology:
• 3. Organizational networks associated with
activities and apparatus
• Technological change refers to changes in any of
the three areas:
» Apparatus
» Activities
» Organization
Technological Dualism
• Technological dualism refers to the fact
that technological change often has both
positive and negative impacts on people and
society
Technology and Global Inequality
• Technologies and the gap between the haves and have-nots
• United Nations report and the:
» Global Computing gap between rich and
poor nations
» Communications gap between rich and poor
nations
» On a global basis, only 18 percent of
possible users currently have Internet access
The Digital Divide
• The digital divide is the gap between those with
access to computers and the Internet and those
without
» Poor families in the United States are
less likely to be active on the Internet
» Access to computers and the Internet
at schools has decreased the gap
Controlling Technology
• Some critics of technology are convinced that it
has become an autonomous force in society
• Autonomous technology: Winner and others have
pointed out that technology has enmeshed us in a
complex web of dependency
• Most sociologists do not see technology as
autonomous: They argue that we have been drawn
into the momentum of technological change, but
are not sure where it is taking us
Automation
• Automation - the replacement of human workers
with machines
• Automation results in an increase in productivity
in the economy with a decline in the number of
workers to generate products
» Automation has resulted in a loss in
manufacturing jobs
Whistle-Blowers
• Whistle-blowers are employees who call attention
to the abuses of new technological systems
• Whistle-blowers often run the risk of negative
sanctions from their place of employment
» Loss of job
Identity Theft - A Global Crime Wave
in Cyberspace
• Identity theft refers to the illegal possession of
another person’s private account numbers and the
use of those numbers for fraudulent purposes
• Much of the effort to develop ways of fighting
identity theft focuses on increasing security for
critical databases in government and the corporate
sector
Bureaucracy and Morality
• Bureaucratic organizations, by the nature of the
system of organization, may produce unintended
negative results
» Hierarchical authority structure
» Division of labor and narrowly defined
roles
» Orientation to accomplishing specific
goals
• Workers in organizations may not feel personally
responsible for their actions
Bureaucracy and Morality
• Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience to authority
and overcoming moral obligations
• Should people be taught that disobedience to
authority under some conditions is necessary?
Technology and Institutions
• Technology has two major relationships to social
institutions
» The adaptation of social institutions to
changing technology
» The adaptation of technology to changing
institutions
• William Ogburn and cultural lag
» Cultural lag happens when two parts of a
culture change at uneven rates
• Fusion research is still in its early stages
Technology and Institutions
• Transhumanism
• Transhumanism is the very small but growing
social movement that advocates the ethnical use of
technologies to enhance human capabilities
• Transhumanists are fascinated by the idea of
the cyborg: a creature that is part human and part
technological systems
Technology
and the Natural Environment
• There has been an increasing concern about the
impact that technology has on the environment
• Speed of change in human civilization has been
occurring faster than changes in the natural cycle
of the environment
» Technology has accelerated the
process of change
Technology
and the Natural Environment
• Two major factors have led to an increase in
pollution and the depletion of natural resources
• 1.Accelerated technological and scientific change
• 2.Rapid population growth
Environmental Stress
• Environmental stress refers to what society does
to the environment
• Environmental stress results from the relationship
between three systems
• 1. The natural environment which is the
interrelationship between air, minerals and the like
• 2. Technological system which includes farming,
transportation and productive facilities
• 3. Social system which consists of our attitudes,
values, beliefs and social institutions
Origins of the Problem
• Environmental pollution refers to agents added
to the environment by society in quantities that are
potentially dangerous to the ecosystem and human
welfare
• Four concepts are related to the understanding of
the problem of environmental stress
• 1. Interdependence – interrelatedness of
everything
Origins of the Problem
• Four concepts are related to the understanding of
the problem of environmental stress
• 2. Diversity - existence of different life and life
support forms - the greater the diversity, the
healthier the environment
• 3. Limits - three limits
» Limit to the growth of an organism
» Limit to population size as it relates to
the carrying capacity of the
environment
» Finite limit to the Earth’s resources
Origins of the Problem
• Four concepts are related to the understanding of
the problem of environmental stress
• 4. Complexity refers to the intricacy of the
relationships that constitute the ecological web
• The major difficulty with dealing with
environmental stress is:
» The number of problems there are
» How the problems are interrelated
Air Pollution
• Primary types of air pollutants:
» Organic compounds (hydrocarbons)
» Oxides of carbon
» Nitrogen and sulfur
» Lead and other metals
» Particulate matter
• Major source of carbon monoxide pollution is
exhaust emissions from automobiles
Air Pollution
• Effects on Human Health
• Air pollutants are related to the following health
problems
» Bronchitis
» Emphysema
» Lung cancer
» Eye, nose, and throat irritation
Air Pollution
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Economic Effects
Accelerated property deterioration
Crop loss
Loss productivity due to worker illness
Ecological Effects
One ecological impact has been the effect that the
use of fluorocarbon gases have had on the ozone
layer in the atmosphere
Air Pollution
• Ecological Effects
• Depletion of the ozone could cause:
» Increase in skin cancer
» Crop failure
» Change in the world’s climate
• Acid rain is another problem - refers to rainfall
with excessive concentrations of sulfuric dioxide
Air Pollution
• Ecological Effects
• Acid rain is largely the result of pollutants from
utility and industrial plants
• Acid rain is especially harmful to
» Physical structures in cities
» Forest and plant life
» Aquatic life
Air Pollution
• The Global Warming Controversy
• The “greenhouse effect,” or the increase in global
temperatures
• Greenhouse gases are due in part to an increase in
the burning of fossil fuels
• Radioactivity
• Nuclear power plant accidents
Water Pollution
• Water moves through a hydrologic cycle of
continuous purification and use
• Affecting the hydrologic cycle leads to two major
problems
» The amount of water available could
be insufficient to meet demand
» The water available could be polluted
Water Pollution
• Sources of the problem
• Increased demand for water by consumers and the
dumping of pollutants into the water system
» Urban dwellers
» Industrial users
» Farmers
• Another form of water pollution is thermal
pollution
Solid-Waste Disposal
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Dumping of solid waste into the environment
Two major sources
Through the consumption process of goods
Through the production process of goods
In 2005 we disposed of over 410 million tons of
waste
» Landfills
» Incinerators
Solid-Waste Disposal
• Environmental Racism, Environmental Justice
• Environmental racism refers to the concentration
of minority group neighborhoods around landfills
and toxic dump sites
• Toxic Wastes
» Plastics
» Pesticides
» And other chemical products
Solid-Waste Disposal
• Radioactive Wastes
• By-products from nuclear power plants and other
sources
Other Hazards
• Land Degradation
• Deforestation of tropical rainforests
» Clearing of rainforests for commercial
use
• Desertification
» Overgrazing of land
» Dependence on wood for fuel
» Depletion of minerals from farming
Other Hazards
• Noise pollution
» Noise pollution from technological advances
• Chemical Contamination and Globalization of
the Food Supply
» Plastics and synthetics
» Vinyl chloride
» Chemical contamination of the global food
supply is a growing social problem
• Large Scale Engineering Projects
The United States
and the World Environment
• The United States and consumption
• Affluence and pollution
• The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population
and consumes 25 percent of the world’s fossil fuel
• The U.S. produces 72 percent of the world’s
hazardous waste
Social Policy
• Policy on Global Warming
• United Nations and the Kyoto Protocol
» Reduction in carbon emissions
• United States under the Bush administration did
not ratify the agreement
Social Policy
• Pollution Credits
– The creation of markets to buy and sell pollution credits
is a more conservative antipollution policy favored by
the Bush administration and by many experts on global
pollution problems
• Science and Policy Making
– There has been a great deal of conflict between the
nation’s scientists and the Bush administration
Social Policy
• Appropriate technology is smaller-scale
technology
• Small scale technologies and reduction of
environmental damage
• The appropriate technologists are often accused of
advocating an impractical retreat to a simpler way
of life
• Appropriate technologists reply that they do not
oppose all technology, only large-scale technology
that has unfavorable social consequences