These days when you flick on the TV or peruse the internet it can be a depressing state of affairs when all you see is post after post or countless stories about the issues plaguing the environment today. From trillions of pieces of plastic littering the oceans to climate change excelling the rate at which the ice sheet of Antarctica is melting it can seem like the odds are stacked against us, but how can we – and are we – helping? With advancements in technology taking us further than ever before it’s no surprise that a number of these technological advances have been geared toward the repair of the environment and the planet we call home. Here are a couple of these progressive technologies and how they are aiming to help us clean up the planet.
The Ocean Clean Up
One of the biggest problems facing the earth today is the amount of rubbish that is stacking up in our oceans – namely plastic. Plastic isn’t just problematic in that it doesn’t break down and it clogs up waterways and harms wildlife on the outside but it also harms wildlife on the inside. These plastics break down over time into microplastics that fish (and then in turn, humans) eat. Not only this, but many other types of sea life mistake plastic bags for jellyfish or other food and then consume the bags, leading to huge knots of plastic within their stomachs which cause death. The Ocean Clean Up organisation have developed a new technology acting essentially as a type of wall which works with the currents of the oceans to filter out and trap all plastic floating in the water like a type of plastic net. It’s hoping that within 5 years of deployment, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii will have been cleaned up and recycled by around 50%.
There’s An App For That
While many may not think that apps on our phones can help the environment, the very fact is that they can! Apps such as Uber for example promote ride sharing which cuts down not just on the amount of cars on the road and the amounts of pollutants going into the air but also reduces the need for fossil fuels which are refined in massive fuel plants and dredged out of the earth in invasive and damaging ways. In this sense, Uber and other car sharing applications around the world are creating a decrease in all kinds of carbon emissions, which in turn help the environment massively.
Electricity – How It’s Used And Created
It’s no secret that using what the earth provides freely – wind, solar and tidal – are fantastic ways to create energy and electricity without needing to burn coals or fossil fuels. These days all of these forms of generating power are becoming more and more sought after with solar panelling being made available on a number of scales from huge corporate building tiles all the way down to small portable ones for everyday consumers to use to charge phones and the like. We’re now also seeing the advent of more development in terms of electric cars with more and more cities getting involved in installing charging stations.
So if you’re looking at ways you can use your everyday tech to help the environment, or you want to get involved in funding things like the Ocean Clean Up, hopefully this post will have helped you get an idea of some of the great ways technology is helping our environment.