Technology advances make life better for everyone?

Technology plays an important role in a large majority of our lives nowadays. Our quality of life has improved thanks to advances in technology, such as smart phones, tablets, GPS and medical treatment. Those technology advances make our lives more convenient and better as we can easily to access to the information we want. However, they also have their downsides that make our lives worse in terms of mental health, invasion of privacy and morality.

The daily lives of people are gradually managed by the Internet and mobile technology. It is known that people have become addicted to websurfing and checking facebook all the time by using their cell phones or computers. As a result, they are spending less time with their friends and family. There is a decline in social and physical relationships. In addition, people tend to use emails and text messages to communicate instead of saying it in person. Studies have shown that the superficial nature of relationships on the web, people lose their ability to interact in real-life. They have poor socialising skills, which further isolate them.  As they become more isolated, they are at increased risk for health problems.

The other drawback is that the advanced technologies have compromised the security and privacy of individuals. Anything can be found out about personal information on the internet. For example, identity theft takes place in online banking, e-mails and online shopping. People use these new technologies to tap your phone lines, read your emails and know by GPS where you are by tracking your mobile phone. Therefore, it would become a scary world if people do not take some precautions and protect themselves from privacy breaches.

Above all, sometimes the more technology advances the more ethics and morality will be lost. For example, cloning technology has been a critical issue. It can prevent the transmission of genetic disease. However, one of the ethical concerns is that clones also have their lives. Clones would have the same needs as non-clones of their species. It is unmoral to demand cloned humans to serve non-cloned humans as slaves. 

Although technology advances do have some positive effects and make our lives better in some ways, the downsides of them also cannot be neglected. If the advanced technologies are being used in improper ways, it will have a strong impact on human being, such as affecting mental health, invading people’s private lives and losing morality.

The Drawbacks of Using Nuclear Energy

Many people know resource scarcity is a major problem we are facing today. According to the statistic, the world energy demand is projected to grow by 50% by 2030. The main question and debate is whether nuclear energy should be included as a major component of 21st century plans to combat global warming and to help us meet the growing energy demand?

Nuclear energy is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity by uranium. There are now over 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries. France and Japan together account for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity. Nevertheless, there are many countries where still remain opposed to nuclear energy such as Australia, Denmark and Italy. In fact, nuclear energy is the source with many further problems such as the nuclear waste storage problem, the security of the nuclear plants and the supply of uranium.

Many people say that nuclear energy is a clean energy and emits relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide that has relatively little influence on global warming. However, they ignore the fact that nuclear energy will produce lots of radioactive waste which is still an unsolved problem. There is no complete reliable way to store radioactive materials. The radioactive waste is extremely dangerous to human health and remains for several thousand years. Whenever nuclear waste is buried, risks are created for future generations. Moreover, digging massive holes in mountains, transporting nuclear waste to these designated waste areas, and monitoring the waste areas for radiation leakages all cost significantly.

On the other hand, the truth is there are many nuclear plants in the world; most of them are in good safety record and being upgraded regularly. However, it is technically impossible to build a plant with 100% security. A small probability of failure will always last. For example, the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on April 26, 1986. It exhibited the failure of government planners, and an inherent danger of nuclear power. Some people may argue that the technology has been improved so as to the safety and security of the nuclear plants has been improved as well. However, despite a generally high security standard, accidents can still happen. Let look into a more recent case, the failure of cooling systems of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl. 140,000 residents within 20 km of the plant were evacuated. The total amount of radioactive material released is unclear, as the crisis is ongoing.Thus, the consequences of an accident would be absolutely devastating both for human being as for the nature. This disaster prompted a rethink of nuclear energy policy in many countries, such as Germany. The government of Germany has decided to abandon nuclear energy and take all nuclear reactors offline by 2022.

Some people may think that nuclear energy is an effective and efficient way to generate electricity because it can generate a high amount of electrical energy in one single plant. However, Uranium is also a scarce resource. Its supply is estimated to last only for the next 30 to 60 years depending on the actual demand. In fact, fossil fuel associates with Uranium mining and enrichment process also produce carbon dioxide that accelerate global warming. Apart from nuclear energy, there are more environmentally friendly methods to generate electricity, such as solar, wind, tidal and wave energy.

In a nutshell, if people want to reduce global warming and energy instability, nuclear energy might not be a good way as there are substantial drawbacks of the nuclear energy generation, such as the nuclear waste storage problem, the security of the nuclear plants and the supply of uranium. As there are many other environmentally friendly methods for supplying energy, nuclear energy is not the only way to solve the problem of resource scarcity.

Atomic Bombs in Japan

In this photo, you can see there is huge mushroom cloud which is generated by atomic bombing. During the World War II in 1945, Japanese government ignored the warning for urging surrender by the United States. The first atomic bomb, Little Boy, was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, and three days later there was another bomb, Fat Man, dropped in Nagasaki. These two bombs had a tremendous effect on Japan. The intense blast and radiation destroyed anything even remotely nearby, killing or injuring more than150,000 people at the time. This result was grievous as most victims were civilians and they were innocent. The decision of the U.S. to drop the bombs is still controversial to date. Although it is a sad fact that all war is inhuman, the U.S. was not necessarily to achieve the victory in such an immoral way. Even if this action caused Japan to surrender and ended the war, the far-reaching influence of atomic bombs should be pondered.