Shadow of Technology

A few years ago, I happened to read the book Entropy written by Jeremy Rifkin. I was shocked that the modern technology have destroyed nature and had bad impact on the world. Before I read this book, I had known that everything is a double-edge sword so that new technologies have pros and cons. However, I did not understand why new technologies could have negative influence to the earth where I am living. The key point of this book is to make people realize that modern technologies have transformed useful resources into a useless form of resources quickly. The speed and volume of these wastes and useless resources have been increasing as time goes by. For example, people created cars to get to the destination quickly; however, a problem like a bottle-neck is created as well. Did people expect this problem before they create a car? The answer is more likely to be "No."

Since I am interested in future trends, I like authors like Thomas Friedman, Jeremy Rifkin, and Peter Drucker. What they insist is that people should think about alternative solutions that are mutually beneficial to humans and nature. If technologies we take for granted are considered as threats in a long term to us, what business models or organizations' mission are supposed to be ideal? As Jeremy Rifkin mentioned in the book Hydrogen Economy, we need to find ways of creating innovative solutions that allow technologies to have a positive impact on nature.

According to Europe Commission, it will achieve the followings:
-A reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions of at least 20% below 1990 levels.
-At least 20% of EU gross final energy consumption to come from renewable energy sources.
Sources: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/introduction

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Developed countries have started to change the conventional ways of using energy because they realize that new technology developments do not always bring good results. Also, to adopt to new technologies, we should spend more energies that cannot be reusable. In the United States, this movement should be followed soon or later. If you see the chart provided by U.S. Department of Energy, the United States spends a lot on oil. To decrease the speed of consuming energy, we should think about the balance between profit-driven technology and Eco-friendly technology.