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Geography- The Technological Fix (CASE STUDIES)

Terms in this set (59)

India: a mobile nation
• 1998 India had 22 telephone landlines per 1,000 people
• Since 2000, mobile phone use has grown from 3.5 mobile per 1,000 Indians to 230
• 2007, 7 million Indians were signing up for mobile phones each month and the number of users doubled from 100 million to 200 million in a year
• Growth fuelled by:
o Cheap handsets and sign up costs
o Bottom-up innovation, such as villagers using car batteries to charge mobiles where electricity is absent
• Benefits:
o Families split up by rural-urban migration can stay in touch
• Access to information they need to maximise their economic output and minimise their risks
Death by DDT
• 1939 DDT was used to control malarial mosquitoes and was quickly adopted as a farm pesticide
• 1955 the WHO started a global malaria eradication programme based on the use of DDT
• DDT reliance began to appear in mosquitoes
• 1962, DDT blamed for growing toll of wildlife deaths through the process of biomagnifications
• DDT banned in USA in 1972 and UK in 1984
The ozone hole
• CFCs developed in 1920s
• CFCs used for:
o As refrigerants- cooling equipment
o Provided a good propellant for aerosol spray cans
• Early 1970s concern growing that CFCs depleted stratospheric ozone
• 1985- British scientists discovered the ozone hole in the stratosphere above the Antarctica
• Actions:
o Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out the use of ozone-depleting CFCs
China: fixed on technology
o Desire to quickly modernise the Chinese economy
o China's leaders are trained engineers
• China's drive to modernise has reaped enormous gains in terms of annual GDP growth of between 8% and 10%
• Projects
o Three Gorges Dam

o Shanghai Maglev

o South-North water transfer project
Energy Microgeneration
• Households
o Bottom-up projects
o Small-scale
• 2008, around 100,000 micro-generation systems were installed in the UK, compared with over 1 million in Germany
o Energy from sunlight usually to heat water
• Microgeneration in UK is low:
o Initial costs are high
o Many sites not suitable
• Estimated that 10 million sites in UK can benefit from Microgeneration
o Could cut carbon emissions by 5%, or 30 million tonnes per year
• Solar thermal panel provides hot water. Most popular green technology in UK. Costs £3,000-4,500
• Micro-turbine costs £1,500-20,000
• Biomass burning system replaces heating boiler
A Green Revolution for Africa?
• The Green Revolution of 1960s and 1970s bypassed Africa
• Africa- 180 million farmers
• Africa's population growth rate of 3% per annum since the 1960s has exceeded its agricultural production growth rate of 2%
• The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), organisation funded by:
o The Gates foundation
o The Rockefeller Foundation
• Successes:
o The rice variety Nerica, which has a short growing cycle, resists weeds and doubles yields
• Current research is focused on developing drought-resistant crops, such as maize and cassava
o But needs
Water for irrigation
Fertilisers
Education for crop management
Three Gorges Dam
$25 billion
1994-2011
Multi-purpose navigation hydropower (23,000 MW) and flood control scheme on the Yangtze River
1,300 historic sites flooded
4 million people displaced
Several species, such as the Chinese river dolphin and Siberian crane, are threatened and may become extinct
Shanghai Maglev
$1.3 billion
2001-2004
World's first commercial magnetically levitating train
• Capable of 435 km h-1 on a 30-km track between Shanghai's CBD and its airport
Pollution-free
Protests in 2007 based on health concerns over electromagnetic radiation
South-North water transfer project
$62 billion
2002-2050
Divert up to 45 billion m3 of water from the Yangtze River to the Yellow and Hai rivers
• For agricultural and industrial use
Project displaces 250,000+ people
Could damage biodiversity in the Yangtze drainage basin by low water levels
Industrial pollution
Multiple use water systems
• Set up by NGOs
o Practical action
• Class of technology
o Bottom-up
o Intermediate technology
o Appropriate technology
o Low-tech
• Nepal
• Gravity and a system of pipes, move water from springs and streams to supply agriculture and people
• Previously carried by hand
Tekeze dam
• Class of technology
o Top-down
o High-tech
• Ethiopia
• Water irrigation used for agriculture of coffee has contributed to 10% of Ethiopia's GDP
• On the Tekeze River
o Water conflicts
Eritrea
Sudan
• Used to irrigate 60,000 hectares of land
Harvesting the rain
• Class of technology
o Top-down
o Low-tech
• Ethiopia
• Water catchment that would hold 60m3 of water
• Costs
o Breeding grounds for mosquitoes
o Cannot repay
• Benefits
o Helps water supply
Green revolution
• 1960s and 1990s
• Selective breeding (hybridised)
• Yields up to 10 times those for traditional rice
• HYV rice allowed India to become self-sufficient in rice 1980
• Increased food security
• Problems
o HYVs are vulnerable to new strains of disease, such as Ug99, a variety of black stem rust fungus discovered in Uganda in1999, to which no know wheat variety is resistant
o Widespread use of agrochemicals has led to eutrophication
o Increased use of machinery leads to unemployment and rural-urban migration
Gene revolution
• Genetic make-up of crops (maize, cotton, soy)
• Altered so they are resistant to pests, diseases and herbicides
• Or tolerant to drought
• Yields and food or income security increase
• Farmers become dependent on seeds and chemicals from TNCs such as Monsanto
• Public opinion in countries such as the UK, reject the technology
• Deforestation in Latin America in order to increase the farmed area
Internet users
• 44.8% are from Asia
• 21.5% are from Europe
• 11.4% are from North America
Subsistence farmers
• Produce food primarily to eat, selling any surplus they manage to produce
• Most use very basic technology and are not protected from the impact of drought or pest infestation
Farm technology
• Irrigation
• Pesticides
• Fertilisers
• Farm machinery
• Hybridisation
Irrigation
• To provide additional water for crops during dry periods
• Otherwise drought could led to crop failure
• Benefits
o Helps to prevent crop failure and promote plant growth
• Cost
o Could cause water conflicts between different stakeholders
Pesticides
• Sprayed on crops to kill pests and increase yields by decreasing crop losses
• Crops are otherwise vulnerable to pest plagues
• Benefits
o Increases crop yield
• Cost
o Could accumulate in water and lead to eutrophication
o Could damage wildlife
Fertilisers
• Added to soil to provide additional nutrients for growth
• Otherwise yields are restricted by the natural nutrients available in the soil
• Benefits
o Increase crop yield
• Cost
o To be effective often requires irrigation
o Could accumulate in water and lead to eutrophication
Farm machinery
• Used to replace human labour and increase efficiency and farmed area
• Otherwise, size of farmed area is determined by population and distance they can travel
• Benefits
o More time efficient
o Can increase amount of crops
• Cost
o Expensive machinery
Hybridisation
• Inter-breeding of crop varieties under controlled conditions to produce disease or pest resistance, and higher yields
• Otherwise crops could become vulnerable to a pest or disease with no viable replacement
• Benefits
o Get crop of desired properties
• Cost
o Public perception
Barriers to access technology
• Physical reasons
• Political reasons
• Environmental reasons
• Religious reasons
• Military reasons
Physical reasons
• Some renewable technologies are only suited to certain physical locations
Political reasons
• In North Korea internet access is not available to ordinary citizens
• In order to control the flow of information that people receive and also to ensure the 'correct' political message is maintained, the government prevents internet use
Environmental reasons
• Organic farmers do not use pesticides or cattle antibiotics because of their supposed negative environmental and health impacts
Religious reasons
• Contraceptive technology is rejected by some religions, such as the Roman Catholic Church
Military reasons
• Nuclear technology has been controlled by the international Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent nuclear weapons falling into the 'wrong' hands
Growth of knowledge economy
• Promoted by
o Globalisation of markets and free trade
o Information and communications technology
o Networking using internet technology
o High-tech products and services
Patents
• 2007
o 51% from USA
o 20% from Japan
o 16% from EU
Technological leapfrogging
• This is when a technology is adapted without a precursor technology
• One-laptop-per child
• Mobile telephones
• Water purification
One-laptop-per child
• USA
o 95,000 laptops
• China
o 1,000 laptops
• Uganda
o 300 laptops
Mobile telephones
• Leapfrogged landline telephones
• Requires installation of mass networks and electricity for charging
• Allows people to keep in touch
• Can be used to warn of natural hazards
Lifestraw
• Water purification
• Leapfrogged a water purification and distribution network
• 30cm long tube (straw),which purifies water using filters, iodine-coated beads and active carbon
• Can be used anywhere and last about 1 year
• Kills virtually all bacteria and parasites
• Does raise iodine levels in users, although many are iodine deficient anyway
GM
• Genetic modification
• As in organisms whose characteristics are altered by bioengineering of their DNA
Energy efficient cars
...
PPP
• Polluter Pays Principle
• The person or organisation causing pollution should pay for it
• Often as a tax, or by paying for the technology to clean material before it is released into the environment
Discouraged technology
• Landmines
• Chemical weapons
• CFC's
• Genetic Modification
Classes of technology
• Bottom-up
• Top-down
• Intermediate technology
• Appropriate technology
• High-tech
• Low-tech
• Alternative technology
• renewable
Bottom-up
• Management and problem-solving which comes from within a community, often using local skills and resources
Top-down
• Management solutions and other measures imposed from above
• E.g. by national governments
Intermediate technology
• Low-technology solutions which are often cheap, easy to build and maintain
• Adaptable to local conditions and labour-intensive.
• Many are environmental friendly
Appropriate technology
• Technology that is adapted to suit local conditions
• Could be high-tech or low-tech
Alternative technology
• Technology designed to be environmentally sustainable and to maintain resource consumption
High-tech
• Often expensive and large technology
Low-tech
• Often cheap and small scale technology
Renewable technology
• Is able to use the technology multiple times
Small dams
• Class of technology
o Bottom-up
o High-tech
o Intermediate technology
• Ethiopia
• The Royal Society of Tigray
Geo-engineering
• Refers to regional- or global-scale technology the re-engineers the way the planet works
• It is often transboundary, so if one country implemented it, this could lead to conflict with other nations opposed to it.
Precautionary principle
• Arguing against technology on the basis of possible unknown outcomes
Ecosystem and human health wellbeing
• USA has a high GDP per capita, and quality of life, but poor environmental sustainability index.
• Ghana has a low GDP per capita, and quality of life, but also the same environmental sustainability index score as USA
Technology and sustainability
• Factors to be considered for technology and sustainability
o Economic
o Environmental
o Social
o Resources
Environmental sustainability
• The maintenance of the factors and practices that contribute to the quality of environment on a long-term basis.
Research and Development
• China is approaching Japan in R&D spending, which grew by 23% between 2001 and 2006 compared to only 1-2% in the USA
• In South Korea, companies spend about 6.5% of their annual budgets on R&D compared to only 5% in Europe
Technology futures
• Divergent
• Convergent
• Renewable
Divergent
• Technology advances in the developed world
• Lack of access to technology in developing world
o Reliance on aid
• Widen technology gap
Convergent
• Increase transfer of technology to the developing world
• Begin to bridge technology gap
• Could intensify global warming if energy sources follow business as usual model
Renewable
• Switch towards renewable resources for making and powering technology
• Help avoid environmental disasters and economic uncertainty of fuels
GEF
• Global Environmental Facility
• Given responsibility for technology transfer to the developing world
• To move developing world from polluting technologies such as coal
• To transfer tech such as:
o Energy efficient lighting and appliances
o Efficient and renewable power generation
o Fuel-cell busses
• Support of 180 countries
• US$3 billion annual budget
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