OPED

 American Energy Use: The Effects of Technological Consumerism

Recently on a business tour, my tour group was asked the question: Is the world getting better or worse? With the slide being filled with pictures of SpaceX rockets, satellites, and futuristic electric vehicles, my group and I all subconsciously understood that this question was in the context of whether or not technological advancement was for the betterment of humankind. While the internet allows us to learn faster than ever, cars allow us to experience mobile freedom, and indoor AC allows us to be more comfortable than ever, these technological advancements promote us not only to consume a detrimental amount of energy, but also to become concerningly comfortable in excessive energy and technological consumption.  

But that is not to say technological progression and how rapidly it has progressed is not amazing in itself; it is amazing how quickly humans have been able to develop into the world we know today. Technological progress throughout the past two hundred years has reached impressive achievements in an extraordinarily small amount of time relative to mankind’s existence. To put this more into perspective, throughout humanity's extensive three hundred thousand year existence, modern industrial cars have only existed for the last two hundred years, and the fact that we strive to improve and have been able to exemplify this desire for improvement over the last two hundred years is changing the world for the better. With the introduction of the internet, global communication, and the spread of culture and information, this spread of technology, creativity, and a desire to improve is not plateauing any time soon. 

However, while this advancement is truly inspiring to see and experience, this rapid advancement comes with a new and more detrimental mindset: America’s excessive technological use and excessive consumption is normal and reasonable. We are becoming increasingly comfortable with this idea, but when looking at the numbers closely, our comfort is extremely dangerous. To illustrate this, my world history teacher, who was formerly a college professor in my hometown, introduced me to an activity that compared American energy consumption to the energy consumption of other countries. It began with a series of bubbles, lines of various questions, and each with points marked beside them. Each question tested the class’ energy consumption in a certain field whether it was in transportation, home energy, or food. After our activity, the accumulation of worksheets revealed that on average, in a private school class, if everyone in the world were to live their lives like my class, humankind would require 34 Earths, ultimately illustrating America’s overconsumption. Furthermore, while other countries utilize public transportation, motorbikes, and energy efficient fans rather than AC, Americans rely on our heavy cars, long commutes, and the perfect room temperature of 70 degrees. Our comfortable energy use is especially dangerous in the way that it disproportionately affects those who are either more energy efficient or off the energy footprint grid like Tuvalu and the Soloman Islands, and oceans away from the main consumers. 

In regards to whether or not technological advancement is improving lives or destroying them, this comfort in consumption ultimately stemmed from humankind’s first breakthrough in technological advancement: the period of post-industrialization. With technologically advanced factories and systems promoting the mass production of department store products, extravagant shopping experiences, and the automotive industry, America experienced its first taste of technologically driven consumerism. In other words, the creation of our consumer sector was inherently due to humankind’s technological advancements, and it has grown to be extremely excessive and far from what is considered sustainable for human kind since then. 

However as I said before, technological progress ultimately has been driven by a desire to improve; While there are many who are comfortable with our unclean energy, there are also others who strive to improve our energy problem whether it is through nuclear energy, solar energy, or factories aiming to become carbon neutral. Furthermore, while our hungry need for consumption will continue to grow, perhaps technological advancements will take a turn towards revolutionizing our consumption towards sustainability.