Is our planet in trouble

Can technology save us from ecological overshoot? Gilding argues that our present obsession with using capital, technology and human skills in pursuit of more consumption and growth has the earth operating at approximately one and a half times its resource capacity. The evidence for this is manifested in different areas from highly indebted economies, rise of public protests such as Occupy Wall Street and the youth riots in London, climate change for example we are in presumably the hottest decade ever and so on. Diamandis, on the other hand, disagrees with Gilding that the earth is on a doom march towards its end. Diamandis does acknowledge that the world does indeed face numerous challenges; however, advancements in technology by virtue of Moore’s Law, increase in the number of people entering into the Internet and increased funding of innovation by techno-philanthropists are some of the factors that will lead to the development of solutions to these global challenges.
The arguments raised by Gilding and Diamandis have their merits and demerits. Gilding looks at situation from a more conservative perspective and uses pessimism or more rightly fear to push us towards incorporating environmental sustainability in all our endeavors. Diamandis on the other hand is more liberal and uses optimism or opportunities to push us towards seeking innovative solutions to facing our current global challenges. Ultimately, though, we do agree with Gilding that we have to incorporate environmental sustainability in all our endeavors. The unarguable fact is humanity does need what nature provides (“ Footprint Basics – Overview”). We do need resources derived from nature to build the technology needed to face our global challenges. So, yes, technology can save us from ecological overshoot however we do need the ecology first in order to build the technology.
Works Cited
Diamandis, Peter. Abundance Is Our Future. TED2012, 2012. Film.
“ Footprint Basics – Overview.” Global Footprint Network. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.
Gilding, Paul. The Earth Is Full. TED2012, 2012. Film.