How have technological
advances changed lifestyles, thus contributing to global warming?
Daniel Ziengs 10W
2014
Contents
Page 3
Introduction
Hong Kong’s Water footprint
Global Average water footprint
Page 4
Water and energy usage
Hong Kong’s transport problem
Transport and Global Warming
Page 5
China’s car ownership rates
America’s car ownership rates
Potential scenario
Page 6
Personal opinion
Conclusion
Page 7
Bibliography
Introduction
Our daily habits and
technological advances are destroying our earth, as we know it. Global warming
has been an issue in our culture for a long time, but the real question is, did
we bring it on ourselves? Technological advances have been changing our everyday
lives. Habits of people today are extremely different from people living fifty
years ago. Global, local and national scales will be investigated.
To really answer
this question we need to look at our advances and how they have contributed to
global warming. I will also be looking into the subject on a personal level,
analyzing and questioning with my opinions.
Water usage
is a leading problem in terms of energy usage and output. It contributes to
global warming via the amount of resources it uses to clean and collect the
water. Only few of the worlds water plants are environmentally friendly and
even these are not helping the current situation greatly.
Hong Kong’s
water footprint
Hong Kong
has one of the highest water footprints in the world; it currently stands at
per capita, 4745m3 per year 1. This is due to the ready
availability of water. Water is now safe to drink from the tap and is available
at all times on instant demand. This is one example of technological advances,
which have negatively impacted global warming, as it takes so much energy to
filter and package the water. What I think the problem for Hong Kong is, is
that we as people are too used to the instant demand of things, we cannot just
give that up.
Global
average water footprint
The world’s
global water footprint per capita is 1385m3/py 2(per year), Hong Kong’s is 4745m3/py.
As shown Hong Kong uses vast amounts of water compared to the global average.
This is partly because of Hong Kong being one of the most technologically
advanced cities in the world. Having a small population with ready available
resources, Hong Kong people are used to the stream of supplies and resources
that other countries are not.
Hong Kong, also under some care from China has perks of being a
country with its own system but is cared for under the supply of China.
Water and energy usage
Water is a leading energy user and produces a lot of emissions and
uses valuable resources. It uses resources such as coal, which although is in
abundance, it still produces emissions. Water is also the resource used in many
daily household appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines.
Dishwashers are a good example of technological advance, which contributes
negatively to the environment. Washing by hand was common in households and
restaurants until dishwashers came into high demand. Before dishwashers cleaners
in restaurants were paid up to HK$20,000 per year.
Hong Kong’s transport problem
Although, ready supplies are not the only reason for Hong Kong’s
huge amounts of energy consumption Hong Kong public transport is problem that
only keeps increasing. A poll of June 2013 has shown that there are 318
licensed vehicles per one kilometer of road 9. This is a staggering
statistic compared to America’s result of merely just 36 vehicles per one
kilometer of road 10. This is largely due to the population density
of Hong Kong, which is currently 6,620 people per square kilometer (2012 poll) 11.
People in Hong Kong use public transport because of the different
areas in which work and home are situated. Since public transportation is so
ready available due to technological advances people in Hong Kong are used to
using it so frequently, thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This is
yet another example of an advance, which is incredibly difficult to reverse its
pattern, it is an advance that only goes forward.
Transport and Global Warming
More examples of technological advances increasing the amount of
resources being used are cars. In Hong Kong it has recently become more popular
to own two cars, usually one personal car and another car provided by the
company. This is due to cars becoming cheaper and more available. A 2009 poll
has told that there are 540,000 registered cars in Hong Kong alone, and
although this is half of Singapore and one third of Taiwan, it is still an
immense statistic given the high population density of Hong Kong. In 2002,
there were only 354,000 registered cars in Hong Kong. Since 2002 there has been
a 55% increase in car ownership.
Cars produce about 50% of the worlds air pollution 14,
this includes greenhouse gases and various pollutants such as harmful VO2
gases.
China’s car ownership rates
China’s car ownership rates have also increased over the past
decade. In 2005, China had a seemingly small, 45 cars per 1000 people 16,18,
but in 2013 there were 183 cars per 1000 people 17. This shows that
China has had a massive growth rate in terms of car ownership/popularity. Since
China’s pollution is already a major problem, the increasing amount of cars is
only making it worse.
America’s car ownership rates
America is also an example of large amounts of car ownership.
Although matching statistics from previous years showing the amount of cars per
1000 people could not be found, a 2010 statistic has shown that America is
number three on the most cars per 1000 people, which stood at 797 cars per 1000
people 17.
Potential Scenario
A potential scenario, for example, owning two cars becomes more
popular. This will increase the amount of fossil fuels used. Thus producing
more emissions and greenhouse gases, which, in effect warms the earth up. This
is a serious problem and has serious effects for Hong Kong. Firstly since Hong
Kong already has bad pollution for southern china and the factories, more cars
are just one more thing that contributes to the thick pollutions already
surrounding Hong Kong. A way to tackle this problem is to implement a system
like Singapore and limit the number of cars in 1the entire city. This will keep
the pollution made by cars set a level that rarely changes.
Another solution is to increase awareness of energy conservative
cars. Although there are some energy conservative cars in Hong Kong there could
be more. Energy conservative cars are an example of a technological advance,
which contradicts the increasing amounts of pollution by providing alternate
energy sources. Since owning two or more cars is become more and more apparent,
one of them being an energy conservative car will be an important investment.
For example, a Prius (Hybrid car) would benefit the household. If a family has
two cars, one full gas car and one Prius, this mean the two cars only produce
75% of emissions compared to a family with two gas cars, seeing as the Prius
uses half gas and half electricity.
Personal opinion
My personal Opinion varies on the subject of technological
advances. Are they really one of the main contributors to global warming or are
they helping the people in ways unimaginable 20 years ago? Technological
advances have help many people in the past decade, cars help people commute to
and from work, water becomes more readily available, keeping people clean, thus
preventing disease. I personally think these advances have helped people enough
to outweigh the possible consequences that they cause. Although, these advances
could also be improved and have been improving, take for example, the hybrid
electric car. The hybrid cars can reduce emissions by 40-50% if everyone had
one, but this is not the case. I think people are too attached to what they
have already, (e.g big cars with bad gas mileage) that they are losing sight of
the consequences that are affecting our world today. People have become too
used to the ready availableness of items and resources that they are too
engrossed in consuming to step back and look at the damage that has been done.
The main problem with technological advances that are happening today is that they
are irreversible. The advances that we are creating and becoming used to are
only moving forward and cant be reversed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, technological advances have become a problem and a
solution for many things in this world. They have increased energy usage and
product consumption but have also benefited in ways that were unheard of 20
years ago, for example speeding up commuting and making water more available
for people. These also create problems as cars and water both use vast amounts of
energy and resources, both with side effects that contribute to global warming
such as greenhouse gases.
A course of action that has to be implemented is an action that
informs people of the damage they have been doing, an action that could reverse
the forward momentum of consumption. People need to realize what has been done,
what are the things that cannot be changed, and they also need to be informed
of the things they can do to help the already crumbling world we have. For
example, increased popularity of hybrid cars or making products that use less
water. These are all advances of advances that could help the world by
contradicting old habits without sacrificing functionality.
Overall, Advances have been taken advantage of to lead to energy
and resource usage, which are negatively contributing to global warming.
Courses of action need to be taken to contradict these advances in order to
save our planet from melting.
Bibliography
