Technology – Environmental Protection and Consumption
As resources become scarce and ecological destruction increases, methods to reduce consumption, and improve technology to protect the environment become increasingly necessary for ourselves and our children.
The high rate of consumption of raw materials, such as petroleum and metals, will cause a shortage of raw materials in the foreseeable future. In addition, the damage to the environment caused by waste materials will have negative consequences for future generations.
So as to counteract this, we must adopt production methods that make economic use of raw materials and recycle waste products.
Economic production
Economic production includes designing products and manufacturing processes that are meant to limit the need and use of raw materials. Recycled materials can be incorporated into the process to decrease the use of raw materials.
Recycling left- over raw materials, waste products, and waste energy are other aspects of economic production.
Waste management and cleansing
There are many environmental protection procedures that can be employed to lessen the harmful effects of the manufacturing process. Filters can be installed to reduce the amount of hazardous substances in liquid effluents and exhaust gases. Chemical and physical processes can reduce or eliminate toxic materials. Catalysts, substances that speed up reactions, can be used to reduce emissions.
One example is the metal alloys in a vehicle’s catalytic converter that reduce the emission of hazardous sub- stances in the exhaust by converting nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide into nontoxic carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. Catalysts can also be used to neutralize poisonous substances. Scrubber systems remove particulate matter and dangerous gases from industrial exhaust streams.
One such technique uses limestone to change sulfur dioxide into gypsum that is recycled and used in drywall manufacturing. Environmental engineering is not implemented as often as it could be because it does increase production costs. Environmental protection processes can only reduce and slow down destruction, not eliminate it. The only way to achieve total environmental protection is to cease production.
TIMBER INDUSTRY
Wood is a renewable resource when managed correctly. Under a program of sustainable logging, harvesters take only the amount from a forest that can grow back over a certain time period.
Clear-cutting, especially in nutrient-poor tropical zones, destroys a forest’s potential for regeneration This leads to erosion that brings about poor quality grasslands or even deserts. The newly barren land also loses its ability to absorb CO. from the air and thus can no longer counteract global warming