B. Effects of Technology on the Natural World

As with technology's influences on culture and society, the effects of a technology on the environment can be either positive or negative. Since the Industrial Revolution and the rapid growth of human populations, the potential for technology to have a major impact on the environment has grown. Consequently, an essential aspect of technology and engineering literacy is an understanding of certain key principles about the effects of technology on the natural environment and of the many important efforts that people have made to preserve natural habitats, reduce air and water pollution, and maintain a healthful environment.

Individuals who are literate in technology and engineering should be aware of methods that have been developed to reduce the environmental impacts of technology. For example, an important step in designing a new product is to take the product's life cycle into account. Such an analysis may start with the raw materials that need to be mined or grown, the industrial processes and energy needed to manufacture the product, the transportation technologies required to get it to market, and its eventual disposal when the product is no longer needed.

Other ways to reduce environmental impact include the use of communication technologies to allow people to work at home rather than to physically commute, the use of computer models to optimize industrial processes in order to conserve energy and reduce waste, and the expansion of alternative energy sources such as wind power.

In finding a balance between technological development and environmental protection, a key overarching principle is that one should attempt, when possible, to find sustainable solutions. As defined by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, sustainable solutions are those that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Key principles in the area of Effects of Technology on the Natural World that all students can be expected to understand at increasing levels of sophistication are as follows:

• The use of technology may affect the environment positively or negatively.
• Some technological decisions put environmental and economic concerns in competition with one another, while others have positive effects for both the economy and the environment.
• Reusing, recycling, and using fewer resources can reduce environmental impacts.
• Resources such as oceans, fresh water, and air, which are shared by everyone, need to be protected by careful planning and regulation of technological systems.
• Some technologies can reduce the negative impacts of other technologies.
• Sustainable solutions are those that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987).

At the fourth-grade level students are expected to know that sometimes technology can cause environmental harm. For example, litter from food packages and plastic forks and spoons discarded on city streets can travel through storm drains to rivers and oceans where they can harm or kill wildlife. However, such negative effects can be lessened by reusing or recycling products as well as by reducing the amount of resources used in producing the products.

Eighth-graders are expected to recognize that technology and engineering decisions often involve weighing competing priorities, so that there are no perfect solutions. For example, dams built to control floods and produce electricity have left wilderness areas under water and affected the ability of certain fish to spawn. They should be able to analyze such conflicts and be able to recommend changes that would reduce environmental impacts. For example, students could study the trade-offs involved in using paper or plastic to carry groceries or research the causes and effects of acid rain on forests and the costs of reducing those effects. They should know that designers can reduce waste by taking the entire life cycle of a product into account during design. For example, students should be able to discuss what a community could do when its landfill is close to capacity or find ways that designers of new products could reduce waste by considering the life cycle of a product.

By twelfth grade students should have had a variety of experiences in which technologies were used to reduce the environmental impacts of other technologies, such as the use of environmental monitoring equipment. Students should be able to analyze the effects of different technologies on the environment—for example, by using data on the environmental impacts of power plants that use different types of fuel to inform decisions on which types of new power plants to build. Students should also be able to analyze complex human activities, such as energy generation, and propose sustainable solutions. Students could, for example, research the environmental impacts of energy generation and create a presentation to a United Nations council on the trade-offs of various solutions.