Technology & It's Impact on our Planet Media Assignment.

1. Technology & It’s Impact On
Our Planet
SOCIAL IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
EMILY BRETT
APRIL 8, 2013
SHANE JONES

2.  Technology is transforming and evolving everyday.
Everyone owns some form of technology and it will
soon come to the point where it will be harming us
as a society and our planet more then it is doing
good. 5 sections I cover will be as follows:
• Automobiles
• Nuclear
• Communication
• Medical
• Computer Hacking and Exploiting

3. Automobiles
•Damage to the environment begins with
•CO2 from the combustion of fossil
manufacturing. Mineral extraction for the
fuels is harmful to the environment by
production of raw materials for automobiles
causing global warming.
start the impact to the surrounding
environment.
•Smog advisories during the hot
summer months cause shortness of
•At the end of a vehicles life, it is send to a
breath and further repertory issues for
scrap yard where only about 75% of the
some people.
automobile is recyclable which comes in the
form of steel.
•Most of the environmental damage is done
in the middle, with the use and driving of it.
•Pollution is created by the exhaust of the car
and with the supplying of fossil fuels.
•Delicate ecosystems are damage with the
extraction of oil and fossil fuels. Putting
wildlife at risk.

4. Automobile Pollution A list of major pollutants associated with
Automobiles:
Particulate Matter (PM) – Are fine airborne
particles. PM forms haze and can be lodged
deeply into the lungs. Soot and smoke from
exhaust pipes are examples of PM
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) – Nitrogen Oxide
and Nitrogen Dioxide. Directly affects lungs
and can irritate respiratory problems. Very
difficult pollutant to control.
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) – Gasoline and diesel
Summer day in New York City fossil fuels contains sulfur. When
Carbon Monoxide (CO) – Potentially very deadly burned, creates sulfur dioxide. Main source of
and odorless gas that is created from the SO2 is power plants and other industrial or
incomplete combustion of fuel. This gas impairs manufacturing facilities.
blood flow to your brain and other body parts.
Hydrocarbons (HC) – Contains carbon and
Some vehicles produced today are now being hydrogen. These are directly hazardous and
made fully electric or even hybrids of fuel and cause air toxics. HC is irritating to lungs and
electric. Which helps slightly cut down vehicle other tissue among the body. HC reacts with
exhaust and emissions. Nitrogen Oxides to create ozone smog.

5. o Although nuclear power plants have a benefit with slightly
decreased air pollutants. With that comes with other
environmental issues.
oRadioactive waste can remain dangerous for up to 250,000
years.
oThese plants emit radioactive material, imposing risk to
workers, their families, and surrounding communities.
Disasters
1957: Windscale, England. Core reactor caught
fire. Radioactivty spread through Britain
infecting many people.
1957: Kyshytym, Russia. Explosion at the plant
killed 10,000 people and having 270,000 people
evacuated.
1979: Pennsylvania, USA. Partial meltdown.
Cost US 1 billion dollars to repair.
2011: Tokyo, Japan. Tsunami destroys the
cooling systems. Causing multiple meltdowns.

6. Communication
Cell phones are one of today’s leading
devices for communicating with others.
Cell phones have a number of different
negative health effects on people as well.
Cell phones potentially increase the
possibility of brain cancer from low
frequency radiation that cell phones give
off. The possibility of cell phone addiction
with social media and games also can
reduce the amount of sleep a person may
get per night which increases stress and
exhaustion.
Is the next step implant chips underneath
the human skin?

7. Communication
 Modern communication methods is also destroying the English language.
 Some have said when typing a message, to not think if it as English, but a different
language on its own instead a degrading version of English.
 Social networking has caused in increase in cyber bullying, increases insecurities and
has also weakened friendships. Starting social networking at young ages may hurt
children by not developing proper communication skills among their peers.
 Using a cell phone while driving, weather it be texting or calling has been made
illegal in a number of different areas due to the amount of accidents and deaths that
occur while using a phone and being distracted.
 Google’s new invention “Google Glass” has
already been banned from use while driving in
a number of different states in the US due to
distracting drivers while driving and potentially
causing deadly accidents.

8. Medical Technology
Medical technology has come a long way. Although
most has been seen as positive, there are negative
impacts to our society as well with the increasing
complexity of medicine and treatments.
Although new medical drugs can help treat various
upcoming diseases, these can be highly damaging as
well to the human body as well. Whether it be overused
or using it abusively.
Pace makers are a new form of medical technology for
the human heart. But they are affect by radiation from
microwaves and other mobile devices that give off
radiation and negatively affect the user. MRI’s even act
negatively on them as well.

9. Important files and documents are no
longer just stored on paper. Almost
every corporation or company has and
uses computers. Whether it be for
storing information and documents or
promoting sales.
The rise of computers and the internet
in society have caused an increase in
cyber bullying with social media and
the ability to stay anonymous on the
internet. With business moving to more electronic
operations. This leaves them vulnerable to
attacks as well. Web sites are susceptible to
attack from hackers and can be taken down with
denial of service attacks and can cost a
company lots of money if they can’t make sales
from their website.

10. With the next step of communication and
medical technology possibly being the
implanted inside the human body or
underneath skin, this possibly leaves to the
next issue. Security. Security is a constant
issue with computer systems and websites
across the world.
If microchips start being implanted into
human beings with wifi or satellite
connectivity with MAC and IP addresses,
this could possibly lead to unauthorized
access from someone not intended.
Potentially hurting or controlling some else’s
body or causing a technological failure. Let
alone the possible radiation so close to your
body from something with satellite
technology, much like a cell phone.

11.  With alot of companies and even countries with so much information on their
networks, security is a very high concern. This can lead countries vulnerable
to cyber attacks and even possibly start them blaming each other for attacks
on other countries.
 A hacker group called Anonymous has been behind a number of attacks on
numerous sites in multiple countries.
• 2010: Anon. used DDoS attacks to bring down various Australian government websites. They then took down
the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry of Association of America
(RIAA) for attacking the popular torrent site Pirate Bay. Anon then targeted companies like Mastercard, Visa,
Paypal, The Bank of America and Amazon for blocking charitable donating for the website Wikileaks which
gave information about corrupt government activities.
• 2011: Anon used DDoS attacks again to bring down the Tunisian Stock Exchange and the Tunisian Ministry of
Industry due to the government attempting to censor the internet. The Egyptian government was also a victim
with this attack as well.
• 2013: Anon disabled the US Sentencing Commission’s website over the death of a freedom advocate Aaron
Swartz. Anonymous threatened to release critical government data.
This was just a brief history of attacks on certain companies and
government sites over the recent years. In the future this could lead to a
cyber war between countries attacking each others important
government documents.

12.  Alot of jobs have been
taking away from the
manufacturing industry with
the addition of computers
and robots.
 Robotics are taking away
jobs from manufacturing
and moving them to the
service industry.
 Robots are being created
with artificial intelligence
which can grow.
 Robots can complete tasks
faster and more efficient
then most humans.
Therefore, humans are not
needed.

13.  Summary of ways technologies may negatively impact our society
and planet.
 Automobiles:
◦ Emit lots of different types of gases harmful to our body’s and the environment.
Scrap yards of broken cars take up space, while only 75% of cars can be recycled.
 Nuclear:
o Nuclear power plants give off radioactive frequency that can harm people and the
environment around. Nuclear weapons in the wrong hands are very deadly to
society as well.
 Communications:
 Cell phones give off slight a slight amount of radiation that can be cancerous.
Usage of phones while driving have caused deadly accidents.
 Medical:
o Medical drugs can cause harm as well. Overdose or abuse of the drugs can easily
be fatal. Pacemakers can easily be disrupted by radiation as well.
 Computers:
o Valuable information is stored online now instead of paper documents. Robotics
are replacing humans in manufacturing jobs that have alot of repetitive actions.

14. WORK CITED
 - Cilla. Negative effects of modern medicine. January 25, 2008.
Retrieved from: http://www.helium.com/items/818752-negative-effects-of-
modern-medicine
 - Crawley, Kim. A History of Anonymous. October 24, 2011. Retrieved
from: http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/a-history-of-anonymous/
 - Guide to Green. Retrieved from:
http://www.greenercars.org/guide_environment.htm
 - Kanage. Modern Communication has Negative Impacts. October
17, 2011. http://techcommunicateneg.blogspot.ca/
 - Nuclear Power Effects. Retrieved from:
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/History/nuclear_power_s_effects.html
 - Suzuki, David. Nuclear Energy. Retrieved from:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-
change/science/energy/nuclear-energy/
 - Westbrook, Toni. Can We Grow Artificial Intelligence. October 5, 2012.
Retrieved from: http://spark.qualcomm.com/salon/can-we-grow-artificial-
intelligence