Independent work theme: Ecological problems student: Narzillo Abdulloyev ecology

ENVIRONMENTALISM AND TECHNOLOGY

Wait a minute, you might say, it is environmentalism against technology, for isn’t technology a fundamental source of environmental problems? This has been the position of deep greens. In fact, some trace all environmental problems to the beginning of agriculture, arguing that it was the shift from hunter-gatherer to farming that created what they consider the human cancer consuming the globe. Even moderate greens can be anti-tech, reflecting both skepticism about capitalism and the counter cultural ideology that characterizes most environmental discourse. Consider, for example, something as mainstream, as the precautionary principle, which holds that no new technology be introduced until it can be demonstrated to have no harmful environmental impacts. Taken at face value, this embeds within it a strong preference for "privileging the present" – that isattempting to ban or limit technological evolution – for the potential implications of all but the most trivial technological innovations can not be known in advance.