Introduction

Today, human civilization risks becoming overdependent on technology in almost all aspects of our lives. From simpler activities like communicating, learning, travelling and entertainment to larger endeavours across all professional industries, government and scientific research, technology makes our lives easier. As many of us enjoy the fruits of technology, we must also consider the cost. As a global society, most of us are utilizing our planet’s limited resources of energy in an unsustainable way.

Thankfully, environmental activists have been raising awareness about this issue for many decades now.While most of the world still heavily practises an unsustainable way of life, some people have been taking steps towards the answer. They are instigated by the reality that our planet’s limited resources like petrol won’t last forever and are weighed by the burgeoning pollution our society is causing. Because of a strong series of protests, movements and initiatives over the decades, this has become one of the biggest challenges of our generation. So, many people have been investing in ‘environmentallyfriendly’, ‘green’ or ‘alternative’ energy resources and also practising a sustainable way of life.

But even then, the people practising an environmentally friendly and sustainable way of life are still a minority because of two reasons: One, there is lack of awareness or education about this issue. Two, people respond to this crisis in different ways, in spite of knowing the problem well because they have different perspectives. Thus, the best step here maybe to continue to raise awareness in our society.

The Three Ways People Understand and Act to Save Our Environment

There are three main schools of thought or ‘worldviews’ in the discussion or efforts to help save our environment. One on end of the spectrum, people believe that human beings stand apart from other species and with enough technological innovation or ingenuity, we can overcome this challenge. On the other end, people believe that we are all part of nature, thus encouraging environmentally friendly practices and discouraging destructive or damaging practices. The last group of people believe that we have an ethical and moral responsibility to carefully make of use our planet’s resources and ensure to keep asidesome resources for others as well.

The best answer maybe a combination of these three diverse perspectives, ideally. But because people see this crisis and respond in different ways, we must also be careful in our efforts to raise awareness. Sadly, there are many myths and rampant misinformation promulgated within social media, creating confusion and further obscuring a commonly shared understanding of this issue. As this can become a sensitive issue, we need to look towards the facts. In tandem, we need to look at the bright potential within technology to support us in our efforts.

The Critical Role of Technology and Innovation in to Help Save Our Planet

On a general note, alternative resources of energy are becoming more and more popular around the world. In these methods, we harness renewable resources of energy from sunlight, wind and water to fuel our daily activities. They have proven to be a feasible alternative to fossil fuels because they produce sufficient amounts of energy affordably. Thus, they slowly and steadily standardized by various governments around the world.

Solar Glass: this is an innovative type of glass transparent enough to allow light indoors and also capable of converting sunlight into electricity,
Graphene: a recently discovered material that’s stronger than steel, thinner than paper and more conductive than copper. Its unique properties allow many helpful applications like transferring energy over large distances with minimal loss,
Plant-based and biodegradable plastic: Unlike commonly used plastics, these plastics are biodegradable, thus giving us convenience without harming our surroundings,>
Carbon Capture and Storage: An emerging class of technologies capable of capturing the excess amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and storing this safely, thus alleviating global warming,
Nuclear Fusion: This is an ongoing research to mimics the way our sun produces energy. Unlike the nuclear plants we already have, this method doesn’t produce harmful wastes. Instead, nuclear fusion produces enormous amounts of heat. So, scientists are researching ways to safely perform fusion through special magnets.

In sum, there is bright potential within technology to help save our planet. There are many statistics all clearly reporting that renewable resources of energy are slowly and steadily rising, thanks to forward-thinking organizations, scientists and individuals. But they may become mainstream only with another one to two decades. One of the biggest challenges here is achieving efficiency: producing sufficient amounts of energy efficiently. Another is raising awareness and educating people about this issue.

Thanks to many scientists and environmentally conscious leaders, common people as well as larger companies have tangible and practical ways to help protect and save our environment today. Let’s do our part to help save our environment.

Reversing climate change

The most serious damage humans are doing to the Earth comes mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, which is dramatically warming its climate. Burning these carbon-based fuels is changing the fundamental chemistry and physics of the air and oceans.

Every lump of coal or gallon of gasoline that’s burned releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There it heats the Earth’s surface, causing floods, fires and droughts. Some of this added carbon dioxide dissolves into the oceans and makes them more acidic, which threatens ocean food webs.

Climate change is a problem that will get worse until humans stop making it worse – and then it will take many centuries for the climate to return to what it was like before the Industrial Revolution, when human actions started altering it on a large scale.

The only way to avoid making things worse is to stop setting carbon on fire. That means societies need to work hard to build an energy system that can help everyone live well without the need to burn carbon.

The good news is that we know how to make energy without releasing carbon dioxide and other pollution. Electricity made from solar, wind and geothermal power is now the cheapest energy in history. Cleaning up the global electricity supply and then electrifying everything can very quickly stop carbon pollution from getting worse.

This will require electric cars and trains, electric heating and cooking, and electric factories. We’ll also need new kinds of transmission and storage systems to get all that clean electricity from where it’s made to where it’s used.

The rest of the carbon mess can be cleaned up through better farm and forest management that stores carbon in land and plants instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. This is also a problem that scientists know how to solve.

The Earth will certainly heal, but it may take a very long time. The best way to start is with everyone doing their part to avoid making the damage any worse.

Conservation and judicious use of resources

Water, air, plants, and other renewable resources are thought to be plenty, and one might even believe that they will not vanish. However, they will very certainly become scarce, even if they do not vanish. The rate at which the resources renew themselves is substantially slower than the rate at which they are demanded.

For example, we may believe that there is enough water and that we will never run out. However, the truth is that just 3% of fresh water on Earth is suitable for human use, while the remaining 97% is saline water. Water scarcity will occur in the near future if water is not properly utilised.

Natural resources are conserved due to their biological, economic, and recreational significance. The unplanned and excessive use of natural resources causes environmental imbalance. The exploitation of resources and their replenishment should be kept in a careful balance.

The management of resources should ensure an equal distribution of resources so that all benefit from the resources. Another factor considered when exploiting natural resources is the damage we cause to the environment while resources are used.

We must create a sustainable world which should last forever. Some of the strategies or ways to sustain continuous resource use include:

To practice the utilisation of energy efficiently.
Minimise the wastage of water.
To avoid the usage of plastics and other non-biodegradable materials.
To take care of the environment we live in.