New trends in physics teaching, v.4; The ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Appropriate technology
The visible effects of pollution from industrial processes played a large part in bringing about
this change of attitude, and the scene was set by the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel
Carson [ 11 in 1970. Local pollution, often clearly evident in extreme forms such as coloured,
smelly water in ditches, had been tolerated in many industrial areas since the start of the industrial
revolution. It was the global effects of substances like DDT reaching far away from their areas
of application that awakened the consciousness of ordinary people, who were then able to see
the existing pollution they were living with.
The publication of Limits to Growth by D.H. Meadows et al 121 in 1972 set out computer
predictions of the effects on the world population, of continuing the current trends in the
consumption of energy and other resources. They clearly showed the need for drastic changes
in the application of technology if civilization is to survive the next 100 years. Most people in
positions of responsibility didn’t believe these predictions, and little was actually done. It took
the drastic increase in the price of oil in 1973 to spur the industrjal nations into efforts to curb
the waste of energy. That which repeated appeals to the conscience for the well-being of future
generations could not achieve, was brought about by being hit in the pocket. In 1973 Schumacher’s
book Small is Beautiful C31 crystallized many of the faults of modern technology, and made
many people aware for the first time that alternative approaches were possible.
How is it that there can be such a distinction between the acceptability of a device used today
and its long-term usefulness in relation to a future that will be increasingly short of resources? A
prime reason is that minerals and fossil fuels have traditionally been treated and priced as consumables,
whereas in fact they are finite and would more appropriately be treated as capital.
The underpricing of energy has led to the use of many inappropriate technologies. Even today
natural gas is often flared off from oil wells because it is too expensive at current prices to transport
it to where it can be used. Future generations without the benefits of natural gas wil hardly
regard this current waste as justified. The human race has a very limited capacity for viewing
present practice dispassionately and needs a succession of prophets to open its eyes to its shortcomings.
In times past, slaves were an accepted part of society.
The shortcomings of much of modern technology can be summed up in the characteristics:
unsustainable, unfair and unpleasant. Unsustainable, because this world cannot keep up supplying
energy and mineral resources at the rate at which they are being used, and cannot continue
to absorb pollution at the rate it is being created. There is a definite time limit to carrying on like
this. Unfair, because of the way the world’s resources are being shared out, with 30 per cent of
the world’s population consuming 80 per cent of the total energy, and with a similar picture for
other resources. There is no way in which the developing nations could partake of the world’s
bounty on the same scale as the developed countries already do; there is not enough to go round.
The recent report of the Brandt commission, North South - a Programme for Survival 141, has
shown that even from the viewpoint of conventional economics, it is in the self-interest of the
developed world to share out resources more fairly. Unpleasant, because of the side-effects of
much of technology: the effects of pollution, industrial diseases, poor working conditions,
factory farming, de-skilling of jobs, concentration of populations in large cities and structural
unemployment .
The positive response to these three characteristics has been the creation of three spheres of
activity which can conveniently be classified as Environmental Alternative Technology, Intermediate
Technology and Political Alternative Technology. In practice they often become closely
interlinked, and this is a frequent source of confusion to the casual observer, so I will first deal
with each in turn before considering how they may interact.
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