by V R Rutledge

Created on: June 19, 2008

Technology is a tool. Whether it can be used to alleviate poverty will be determined by the users, not the tool. While technology refers to the application of knowledge for practical purposes, Green Technology refers to the use of technology in ways that either help or at least do not damage the ecology. This field will eventually bring innovation and changes in daily life of similar magnitude to the "information technology" explosion over the last two decades. To say that there is a possibility of alleviating poverty with 'new' technology again begs the question. Poverty will be conquered not by some miraculous new device, but by the application of the devices we already have and the use of new technologies to promote the growth of currently inadequate economies worldwide.

Nanotechnology, using microscopic tools to perform almost any type of activity, has its own possibilities. The laws of quantum mechanics often cause dramatic changes in the mechanical, optical, chemical, and electronic properties of materials on the nanoscale. These properties lead to useful and enhanced applications of nanotechnology in environmental protection including sensors for improved monitoring and detection capabilities, treatment and remediation techniques for cost-effective and specific site cleanup, green manufacturing to eliminate the generation of waste products, and green energy technology for the creation of commercially viable clean energy sources.

We face a crisis, worldwide. The resources of this planet are finite and the use of them exceeds the value produced. We must, as a species, find ways to live on this planet that will not create a hazardous environment for us and our children. This means that Technology must be used to create a better world, or we will not have a world. We have only one choice, begin to work toward a planet without waste and want, or face a future which may not include the human race as we know it. Creating a better world is not only a good thing, it is rapidly becoming the only choice. We have the technology, now we must choose to use it. Whether we improve society at the same time remains to be seen.

With so much innovation on the horizon, it would be easy to say that poverty will disappear, but one must remember that, in order for anyone to be rich, someone must be poor. So long as we have greed and selfishness we will have the poor. We can hope that the level of poverty will eventually reach that place where no one will starve or be homeless and ignorant, but poverty will exist until those who have wealth are willing to surrender it.

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