Technological Change and the Environment: Week 5

Its obvious that this "myth of progress" is just that, a myth. Both the state and corporations create this ideology in order to maintain their capitalist ways without public interference. As discussed previously, corporations have immense control over our media outlets, but this chapter takes it much further, explaining how corporations also control our technological trajectory, or research and development. The agricultural and industrial revolution gave way to a shift in power relations between humans and nature such that humans now believe they can do what they wish with nature in order to meet their "needs". That is, they can make"withdrawals" from the environment ( deforestation, oil extraction) as well as make "additions" to the environment in the form of pollution through the process of producing and distributing goods. Because the states goals are to increase military power and increase economic competitiveness they fund the research and development of corporations to continuously create new products to attain economic prosperity, regardless of the effect such research and development has on our social system-ecosystem dynamics. Clearly then, the state and corporations control the technological trajectory in such a way that it meets the needs of a few (elites), rather then the masses. Something needs to be done about this, but what? I feel the state needs to distribute research funding more equally so we are able to develop more sustainable practices, as well as create more stringent environmental policies that corporations must follow. Unfortunately, that wouldn't serve their immediate economic desires...so it seems as if we need to find a way in which we can still attain ecomonic and technological progress in a more environmentally sustainable way.