Green Politics/Technology

Green Politics and Technology

Green Politics posits the need for appropriate technology in the context of ecological relationships for the human species as well as all other native species-populations.

Technology - Many Greens perceive technology as a way to liberate humanity from the drudgery and boring grind of physical labor. In this sense, technologies have a liberating destiny for humanity. Greens still question technology ruthlessly, because technology is either appropriate or inappropriate.

Also, science, technology, and production are now fused in an attempt to continually increase production and consumption. As a result, inappropriate technologies flourish as this insatiable appetite for growth expands. Inappropriate technologies spread like plagues World-wide while commercial propaganda replaces vital information to extend inappropriate technologies.

Here's one way to understand inappropriate technologies: Firing a cannon ball to ring a doorbell is an inappropriate use of technology, not so unlike using nuclear energy to produce electricity. The cannon in this example also represents an inappropriate technology, many Greens will argue. "Its destiny is implied by its design."

Be that as it may, the cannon's influence ends at the doorbell. However, the technologies of genetic engineering, for another example, alter life forms. Like the cannon, genetic engineering has a destiny in its design; unlike the cannon, genetic engineering's destiny influences human and non-human nature well beyond the perceivable future. Ecological problems will probably grow exponentially because one in five non-indigenous (not native born) species, when introduced into a new habitat, dislodge indigenous (native born) species-populations.

Consequently, future generations may choose to ignore the cannon's destiny and deny it a place in their society. But, they cannot choose to ignore genetic engineering's destiny or deny it a place in their society, since our generation embedded altered life-forms in non-human nature. Ecological collapse will most likely occur if humanity fails to change its attitude toward nature. The same reasoning applies to other inappropriate technologies that risk life's ecological security, like nuclear energy.