Technology: A prescription with serious side-affects

Technology is completely integrated in my everyday life.  To give you an idea of how ever-present it is, I will outline my typical morning routine: Wake up to the sound of my alarm on my iphone, hit the snooze button two or three more times until I finally decide to get out of bed and turn on the lights.  The room is stuffy and hot so I'll turn on the a/c while I'm up.  I then go to the kitchen to flip on the hot pot to boil water.  I pour water for tea and instant oatmeal for breakfast.  As I'm eating, I check my email on my laptop.  After breakfast, I'll get changed and head out of my apartment with headphones plugged in, listening to my iphone on the way to class.  This routine requires me to use 5+ different types of technology, from my personal phone and laptop to all of the devices installed in my apartment, just within the first 15-20 minutes of my day.  While all of this is going on I don't even stop to think about all of the technology that went into the creation of my iphone and macbook or the light fixtures and air conditioning unit.

While the American public generally views technology as being a positive force overall, it is important to remember that it can just as easily be turned into a negative one.  In this era, mankind can research and develop vaccines to save millions of lives, or use medical advancements to create biological weapons and wipe out millions.  These examples require certain motivations behind their implementation, but in the case of global warming, our techno-centric way of living has its negative consequences despite how positive we view its role in our lives.  There is a clear correlation between industrialization and the amount of carbon dioxide we end up putting in the atmosphere.  Whether we like it our not, technology is going to play a major role in the progression or regression of global climate change.  It has been predicted that if we continue to consume at our present rates, we may face an unsustainable Earth in our future.  The question we face is: how much am I willing to alter technology's presence in my life to slow the warming of our planet?  Global warming is a collective action problem, so if citizens of the world don't act as one, we shouldn't expect to see any results.

As we face the consequences of global climate change, methods to remediate the damage we've done may be found in future technology.  If this proves to be the case, then we may be able to credit human ingenuity in creating technological advancements to make the world a better place to live.  But we must not forget the negative impact high technological consumption has had on our planet through pollution, increased carbon dioxide emissions and many other planetary repercussions that come with global warming.  Either way, if a technological solution to global warming presents itself, we cannot return to our current state of consumption without harming the planet.