“Is the technology accelerating to collapse the society?” Essay

We There was a time when folks used to live a very unpleasant life and had to work hard in the fields to produce foodstuff for themselves.

But for the last 100 years or so each of our quality of life has been gradually improving and today we certainly have sophisticated equipment that can do all that effort for us and make the existence relatively easy and comfortable. Undeniably, we are obligated to pay this most to the fast development of the technology. Yet , the growth of technology has become made possible because of cheap energy which started to be available rather less than 300 years ago when ever fossil fuels arrived to use.

Thanks to this abounding and relatively cheap energy provided by non-renewable fuels humans have already been able to exploit a abundant variety of methods which developed favorable conditions for the development of technology and improved their particular quality of life. Fossil-driven technology features particularly contributed to “the advancement mechanized agriculture” which has allowed an unimportant number of maqui berry farmers to “work vast tracts of land” and develop food by the bucket load.

Sufficient levels of food possess led to “a wild regarding population”: about 1800 world population was one billion; by 1930 it reached two billion dollars; by the start of the 1960s it absolutely was three billion; in 75 – several billion; in 1986 – five billion; and the world’s present population can be approaching half a dozen billion. Put simply, the improvement of our society has been based upon the development of fossil-driven technology. But the exhaustion of fossil fuels can be not far off and there is not any other power source which will be abundant and cheap enough to replace them. It means our society as we know it today is likely to break. (Price, David.

Energy and Human Evolution) “The Age of Exuberance is finished, population has recently overshot transporting capacity, and prodigal Homo sapiens features drawn over the world’s cost savings deposits. ” (Catton, Bill. Industrialization: Prelude to Collapse) II Through human history a large number of societies have prospered and collapsed; their very own collapses have got direct relevance to the concerns we deal with today. The ancient Cyber, for example , had been one of the most powerful and advanced societies with the past. 80 percent of Maya contemporary society consisted of peasants who practised intensive cut and burn up agriculture, growing mostly corn. (Heinberg, Rich.

Meditations in Collapse) Throughout the Classic length of Maya background which came about around A. G. 250 the Maya populace “increased practically exponentially” and reached the greatest numbers in “Page # 2” the eighth 100 years A. M. (Diamond, Jared. The Last Americans. Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization) One reason the historical Maya flattened was populace growth which in turn outstripped available resources. Whilst Maya populace was progressively increasing, the spot of farmland was decreasing as a result of “deforestation and hillside erosion”. One more was continuous warfare which peaked before the collapse as more and more Maya persons had to deal with over fewer resources.

These types of problems were exacerbated with a series of droughts. And the final reason for the Classic Maya fall was politics. The coming crisis was not acknowledged and responded to by the nobleman and hobereau.

It can be the result of the fact the Maya top notch remained fixated “on the short-term problems of enriching themselves, waging wars, erecting monuments, competing with one another, and extracting enough food through the peasants to support all those activities”, and would not focused on long lasting problems. (Diamond, Jared) they were doing not “have the leisure to focus on long lasting problems, insofar as they recognized them” Today there are many signs of the above-mentioned strands in the usa, the world’s leading power, which is also on the peak of its power and is affected by numerous environmental problems. Many parts of the United States, for example , “face locally extreme problems of water restriction” (southern A bunch of states, Arizona, the Everglades, the Northeast), forest fires which in turn result from “logging and forest-management practices” (intermontane West), loss of farmlands because of salinization, drought, and climate transform (northern Wonderful Plains).

It’s true that the environmental problems which exist nowadays in the United States are still modest compared to those of the rest of the world. But the concerns of ecologically devastated and overpopulated isolated countries have become American challenges as well. (Diamond, Jared) Globalization means simply improved around the world communications and transport systems and at present America is tightly linked to many overseas countries. Purposely or inadvertently, such things as terrorists, diseases (AIDS, SARS, cholera, West Earth fever), unstoppable numbers of legal and unlawful immigrants can easily travel or be delivered from the Third “Page # 3” Globe to the Usa.

Modern America depends noticeably on the remaining portion of the world and “political steadiness anywhere in the world” right now affects the USA and its control routes, international markets and suppliers. The ancient Maya were globalized only within the Yucata? d because of their vehicles which was slow, short-distance together low valuables capacity. We all live today in a globalized world because our transport is much more rapid and “has much higher shipment capacity”. (Diamond, Jared) Why past communities failed to assume and fix problems ahead of they developed, “still is seen operating today”.

On the one hand, it is obvious which the possibility of break is not really taken seriously simply by our politics elite and society. And even when this matter is recognized, “those in power might not exactly attempt to solve it because of a clash between their immediate interests and the interests of the rest of us”. Pumping oil, cutting down woods, and finding fish which can be dying out bring the elite money and prestige nonetheless it is “bad for world as a whole” in the long run.

On the other hand, when the issue is recognized and action is being taken it could be difficult for people “to acknowledge the intelligence of policies” that clash with some of our current rewards. (Diamond, Jared) III The scientific conclusion of many well known geologists, physicists, and expense bankers around the world as to the future of the present culture is certainly not encouraging by any means: “civilization to be sure it is ending soon”. (Life After the Essential oil Crash) The technology-driven economic system is seen as a a high intake of green and non renewable assets – coming from food to forests, from fresh water to soil – which are disappearing quickly. (Ehrenfeld, David. The approaching Collapse in the Age of Technology) Modern communities depend on technical development each part of our technology depends upon what energy which comes from non-renewable fuels; and they supply nearly 75% of the world’s energy.

At the rate of consumption that we have today noted reserves of petroleum will be gone in about more than 30 years; natural gas in 52 years; and fossil fuel in some two hundred years. Plus the demand for strength is “expected to increase at an ever-quickening pace”. (Price, David) Modern day food development is precious fuel “Page # 4” and petrochemical powered; industrial fertilizers are produced from ammonia, which is made from gas; farming equipment such as vehicles and trailers are made and run using oil. Goods are made in oil-powered plants and factories and then distributed around oil-powered transportation networks.

In addition to transportation and agriculture which can be dependent on essential oil, “modern remedies, water distribution, and national defense will be each completely powered by simply oil and petroleum extracted chemicals”. Petrol is required for all plastics, most computers and everything high-tech products. Tin, iron, gold, metallic, copper, platinum eagle, etc will be each “discovered, extracted, moved, and fashioned using oil-powered machinery”.

We now have no way of producing even alternative systems of one’s without an abounding and reliable supply of essential oil as well as of scaling these to “the degree necessary to electricity the modern world”. (Life Following the Oil Crash) As we can see from these examples, essential oil plays the most crucial part among other fossil fuels in modern tools. However , an instant decline of oil production capacity can be observed in almost two dozens of countries plus more than half the world’s source has already been utilized. The global essential oil peak probably will occur prior to 2010 in fact it is expected to be “a bring about for global economic crisis”. (Heinberg, Richard) IV This points out that our present world is indeed proceeding towards a particular form of collapse.

Starvation, social strife, and disease could be “operative mechanisms” in the failure of the human being society. All are consequences of scarce methods and dense population and interact in complex techniques. (Price, David) Starvation is a direct consequence of the destruction of energy methods. Today’s thick population is dependent for its food supply “on mechanical agriculture and efficient transportation”.

Energy can be used in the production and operation of farm products and as well as with the transport of foodstuff to market. While using decrease of successful energy assets food will probably be bound to develop more expensive and “the group of friends of fortunate consumers to whom an adequate supply is available can continue to shrink”. Social conflict, disturbance, fighting, turmoil will be another important consequence with the rising “Page # 5” cost of commercial energy. Once goods will be plentiful and “per-capita access to goods is usually increasing”, social tensions are usually muted.

When goods become more and more scarce and “per-capita access to goods is decreasing”, ethnic tensions surface, government authorities often become authoritarian and goods are generally acquired by simply criminal means. (Price, David) Public health devices will be crippled by a deficit of resources, too. In the meantime, a dense population will encourage the pass on of infectious diseases. Through human history there are many instances of large and dense foule leading to the “appearance of contagious illnesses that evolved to exploit them” (smallpox, measles, the Dark death). Today, our inhabitants is extremely dense and all parts of the world are tightly associated by flights. All of this helps for new disorders such as AIDS to distributed rapidly all over the world.

Moreover, a virus as deadly while AIDS but “more quickly transmissible can appear any kind of time time”. (Price, David) We could go even more to state that environmental concerns, depletion of one’s resources and increased human population growth provide evidence that collapse has begun and everything we can perform is to enjoy it. It might occur little by little or quickly, be complete or incomplete, and controlled or disorderly. What we still can and really should do is to make a concerted work to manage this kind of collapse.

It could require alterations that must be executed by politics leaders plus the whole society: large-scale countrywide and worldwide cooperation is important in order to set aside essential resources to prevent dangerous competition for them as they turn into scarce. (Heinberg, Richard) These changes will be “well inside our human and technological capacity”. First and foremost, the speed at which resources are staying consumed and waste will be generated should be gradually decreased. Our reference use as well as the rate we are polluting environmental surroundings can be noticeably reduced if we shift to “proven more-efficient technologies”.

It is crucial that our females start producing these changes now while fossil fuels and also other nonrenewable assets still exist. They could be invested “into building a contemporary society and economy based on renewable energy, the very careful recycling of materials, as well as the equitable financial institutions required for a lasting society”. (Gilman, Robert. Reclaiming “Page # 6”. Politics) We should also give up striving for “continuous economic growth” and adopt “lifestyles of voluntary simplicity”. (Heinberg, Richard) BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1 . Precious stone, Jared. The final Americans.

Environmental Collapse as well as the End of Civilization, http://www. mindfully. org/Heritage/2003/Civilization-Collapse-EndJun03. htm (November, 16 2005) 2 . Ehrenfeld, David. The approaching Collapse of the Age of Technology, http://garnet. acns. fsu. edu/~jstallin/complex/readings/Ehrenfeld. htm (November, 17 2005) 3. Gilman, Robert. Reclaiming Politics, http://www. context. org/ICLIB/IC30/Gilman. htm (November, 30 2005) 4. Heinberg, Richard. Meditation on Fall, http://www. museletter. com/archive/154. code (November, 16 2005) 5. Life Following the Oil Crash, http://www. lifeaftertheoilcrash. net/ (November, 17 2005) 6. Cost, David.

Energy and Human Evolution, http://www. energybulletin. net/3917. html (November, 16 2005) 7. Catton, William. Industrialization: Prelude to Collapse, http://www. energybulletin. net/4632. html code (November, 18 2005).