E Portfolio for Janhavee Deshpande

Paper 4
Draft 1.5

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference." Frost chooses the harder path to travel by and he says that that was the one event that changes and shaped him to who he is today. Nordhaus and Shellenberger might view this divergence as a contrast between the many environmentalists who choose to follow the path of selecting one problem as the cause of climate change, and themselves, two people who broke away from the mainstream to make environmentalism a broader coalition. Caroline Merchant would point out that the more worn path is the path that has caused more damage to the land and the path less traveled by is hom people should be living their lives by consuming less and controling what technologies they use. On the other hand, Nye would take more the more traveled path as it is the tried and tested one that seems to be working the best for people and nature. From my own point of view, I would take the path less traveled by. It would be much harder at the start to consume less and find a balance between what technology could be without causing even greater change to the environment, but eventually, it would become commonplace/the norm, making the "harder" path just as "easy" as the well worn path.

Nordhaus and Shellenberger comment on how activists have reduced "their own manifold interests to single essential causes and complaints." These people set their cause as the one thing that hs casued global warming. Norhaus and Shellenberger reject this idea, stating that "global warming is as different from smog in Los Angeles as nuclear war is from gang violence." It is a complex issue, which can only be changed through a large scale change, not individualistic issues. In their "Apollo vision," Nordhaus and Shellenberger want to jumpstart jobs that are related to green technology and clean energy. However, environmentalists in 2004 were not willing to put any support behind the idea, regardless of whether or not they thought it was a good idea or nto. However, their effort is seen today, when most environmental efforts focus on creating new jobs in clean energy and other green technologies. Their vision is no longer the "vice" it used to be.

Sustainable Abundance or Ecological Crisis?

As the population of the Earth increases, the size of the world becomes smaller. With more people inhabiting the available land, the effect of people’s daily choices and decisions changes the world’s carry capacity. In Technology Matters by David E. Nye, Nye discusses how technology could either mean “Sustainable Abundance or Ecological Crisis.” By stating that “the world’s carrying capacity is not a scientific fact but a social construction,” he means that the amount of people the world can sustain is related to how people live their lives. He explains how id people were to eat meat everyday and use organic fibers as clothing, the carrying capacity would be much less compared to when people eat mass produced food and synthetic fibers for clothing. At the same time, he points out how technology, mainly the industrial revolution has destroyed the land, making it harder for people to live in certain areas of the world. He also gives examples of European countries who are trying to reverse the destruction of land and species to make an area more habitable. Nye also shows a contrast between how technology is accepted now and was accepted throughout history. Nye states that people create limits in the world, but nature itself is limitless. I don’t agree with this; while people may confine themselves to certain material things, nature also has its limits, in that it does not exist in infinite amounts. In that sense, the world’s carrying capacity is a scientific fact, because there are only x number of people that nature can support before the pressure created through society will cause it to collapse.
Nye points out that the choices that people make affect the world. He illustrates that if “people in dry areas want green lawns and chlorinated swimming pools” then it will change the lifestyles of people and animals in the surrounding area. The region might become dryer because all the water will be displaced in order to keep grass healthy. In becoming dryer, the region might not support all the life forms that it could in the past, causing its carrying capacity to be lowered. In the same manner, this occurrence could affect the entire world if it were replicated in similar situations. Nye presents the example of Europe in fourteenth century. London was already facing problems from burning coal. Water and air pollution resulted from the overuse of coal. “As early as 1140 the French had difficulty finding 35-foot beams for building” shows how peoples need for wood in every aspect of their life. There were barely any forests left in Europe as the industrial revolution progressed. As the material available in Europe fell short, they colonized other countries for the supplies that they needed. This lead to air and water pollution around the world, altering the landscape across nations. The alteration lead to a change in how much the world could produce raw materials and products, changing the world’s carrying capacity.
The effect of industrialization in Europe is what caused the acceleration of change in the natural world. Nye states that “technological optimism may have reached its peak in the middle of the twentieth century.” Technology basically meant power over land and better living conditions. New technologies were adopted rapidly and were continually updated. The replacement of one machine by another led to changes in farming, industry, and domestic life. “Landscapes are part of the infrastructure of existence, and they are inseparable from the technologies that people have used to shape the land and to shape their vision” shows how the land changes as technology changes. With each technological change, the land was used in different manners. For example, New England farming was replaced by Midwest farming when the soil was found to be much better there. At the same time, the overuse of land led to things such as the Dustbowl, which drastically altered people’s lifestyles, changing how many people could survive in the world.
In today’s world, while technology is still accepted readily, there is more thought given to the effects of some technology on the world. While in the past, people have rapidly used up coal and wood without a thought to the consequences, people today understand that some technologies have drawbacks and should be used carefully. As Nye stated before, the peak of technology was in the mid twentieth century; it seems that right now the spread of technology has decreased from this “peak.” Nye says that this is “technological pessimism,” where new technology is negatively before it is seen positively. “Americans of the 1990s were no happier than they had been in 1957” shows how technology, which was supposed to create a better society overall, actually ended up creating no change except for an environmental one.
In saying that “the world’s carrying capacity is not a scientific fact but a social construction” Nye states that Nature does not have “fixed limits.” He states that “its [nature] limits are our own.” However, I don’t agree with his statement. While nature does seem limitless because it has not been fully explored, it does have limits. It does not continue on endlessly, also replenishing itself. “Its limits depend on how much its inhabitants want” illustrates the sentiment that nature will always be there, no matter how much people take away from it. This is not true. The more that people take away from nature, the harder it becomes for nature to replenish itself. If the inhabitants of an area decide that their limits are boundless, eventually they will find that the area they live in has bounds. It may take a long time to complete conquer every inch of resources available on the earth, but in the end, there will be a time when the limits of nature will determine the world’s carrying capacity.

Janhavee Deshpande
WR 100 H7
September 13, 2009
First Draft

Technology: the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment. Today, people correlate the word technology to machines and things that run on electricity. But does it control us? This is the question posed by David E. Nye in his book Technology Matters. He discusses the deterministic aspect of technology, noting how people assume that new technology is “inevitable.” It is this idea that Ralph Waldo Emerson points out by explaining that technology will “ride mankind.” However, Nye rejects this idea by using historical examples as well as theories made by others to show how humans are in control of technology.
Emerson believed that technology would overpower humans, and humans would be crushed in its onslaught. Like Stewart Brand stated, Emerson believed that technology was like a steamroller, inevitable and destructive. However, Nye shows how the Japanese, Amish, and Africans rejected technology that today is essential for most people. In the 1500s, the Japanese adopted guns from the Portuguese, but soon removed them from their society. Guns, while working just as effectively as traditional weapons, did not have the same value as swords and arrows. The samurai abandoned guns as weapons, and for hundreds of years, Japan lived without the same technology that played important role in events as grand as the American Revolution. This example clearly refuted the claim made by Emerson, showing that technology did not control humans, but that humans controlled whether or not technology would affect their lives.
The Amish are another example that Nye uses to counteract Emerson’s thoughts. The Amish rejected technology, choosing to live without electrical light, cars, and powerful farm machines in a technologically advanced America. Their choice to live without things that most people find necessary for life in America has not hindered them. As Nye states, “these choices make the community far more self sufficient than it would be if each farmer annually spent thousands of dollars on farm machinery, gasoline, and artificial fertilizer, all of which would necessarily come from outside the community,” which shows how as a community the Amish have stood up against technology and the change it brings. In this case, the “thing” that Emerson states will “ride mankind” has been thrown to the side by a conscious effort by humanity. It goes to counter the argument as technology being deterministic.
Nye also goes to show how people in Africa went against the use of the wheel, which is probably the most significant technological advancement created by mankind. The wheel was not useful in Africa because would not only get stuck in mud, but it would also not be able to function over rough or watery terrain. Nye points out that for Africans, camels were a far more useful option as a mode of transport. While the rest of the world was entranced by the wheel and its attributes, the society in Africa rejected it simply because it did not suit their purposes. They chose what they would use from the technology available such that it would best agree with their needs.
“Most specialists in the history of technology do not see the new machines as coercive agents dictating social change and most remain unpersuaded by determinism” refutes Emerson’s claim that technology controls societies and cultures. For thousands of years, humans were able to survive without electricity, but now people who have it are not willing to give up the convenience it offers. Historians explain that technology feels deterministic because of choices made by past generations in regards on how to live life. One example that Nye gives pertain to the codes that require buildings central heating or air conditioning. This was a decision that came into effect long before people understood the potential harm that is caused to the environment by these systems. In this sense, people feel that technology is deterministic because they “come to feel trapped by choices others have made.”
If Emerson’s views on technology were proven to be true, then not only would the same technology exist everywhere, but it would have the same effect around the world. Nye illustrates the problems with this idea by showing the use of television in different areas of the world. In America, it was and is used to raise awareness of the community around a person. It is also used more for entertainment than education. In the Arab countries, television is a means to control the land. It is controlled by the government and only shows propaganda of the government. This vast difference between how the technologies are used goes to show how in either case, humans are the ones controlling it, not vice versa.
Technology is what people make of it. It’s all based on how humans use the tools they have. Many people assume that in the future, technology will control mankind, but in reality, Nye’s view on whether technology controls us holds true. For example, someone living in the Midwest, a car would be essential. The distances between one house and another are far too great to walk in a reasonable time. On the other hand, a student who goes to Boston University would not use a car because it is much easier to walk the streets. However, in most cases, technology makes living and communicating in a society much easier. It is because of this that people don’t want to give up technology, and sometimes feel that it is taking over their lives. In the end, it is the choice that humans make that causes technology to become a vital part of their lives or an trivial part of their lives.

Works Cited:
Nye, David E. Technology Matters: Questions to Live With. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT, 2007. Print.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing.” (1846) Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, Boston, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company: 1899