Will Technology Help Humanity Overcome the Apocalypse?

Technology has had an incredible advance during the last century, each year new and unimaginable advances are discovered. However, it’s frustrating to realize that, at the same time, we’re destroying all the natural resources the Earth has offered us; this destruction is the reason why I believe humanity is reaching a point of no return. What’s humanity going to do when our most essential natural resources are over? Will our advances in technology help us survive and overcome this?  

The end of the world (at least, how we know it) is something we could be experiencing very soon. The scarcity of natural resources needed to survive is increasing each day. Some of these resources are essential for all living things in Earth, like water, for example. Daniel Cusick says, “According to the first in a series of United Nations reports, five billion people, or around two-thirds of the world’s population, will face at least one month of water shortages by 2050.” This number could not seem very problematic, however, for decades, we’ve been able to see how shortages in these resources have been the reason why multiple conflicts around the world have started. For example, the Nile River dispute, a conflict between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the Nile River, the biggest water supply for these countries. This dispute has destabilized the relationships between these countries for more than 10 years (Polakovic). In an article analyzing the relationship between environmental scarcity and conflict, Bingham says, “Environmental scarcity is never the sole cause of conflict, but it is often an aggravating or contributing factor”. I believe that when natural resources, such as water, start to decrease more and more every day, instability between regions will increase and tension between countries would arise, leading to multiples conflicts around the world. In the article “Climate Change and Water Scarcity Will Increase Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe in South Asia”, Asokan explains how water scarcity has been a key factor in escalating tensions between countries in Asia, which consequently increases the threat of nuclear war.

Image by Gallery DS on Unsplash.

Environmental scarcity and the multiple conflicts around the world are just some of the reasons that makes me believe the end is near. However, I think we might be just in time to prevent this apocalypse in which our natural resources will run out and life on Earth will subsequently be threatened. To avoid this happening, we can start by working towards decreasing the damage we’ve made to the planet before a bigger catastrophe happens. If we keep acting like we’re acting right now, the end of these resources will be inevitable. For that reason, we must focus our time, effort and resources in keep developing technology that can help us stop the damage we’re making to the Earth and that will allow us to start building something better for future generations. The Earth is screaming at us, warning us about all the bad choices we’ve made to get here and now is the time to listen. We have a way to prevent future catastrophes to happen, lets start paying attention to this matter.

New technologies to fight this scarcity are already being created, for example, there has been a huge improvement in the development of desalination machines that will make salty water (which is 97.5% of all water in the world) suitable for consumption. Advances in this matter are already being reported by different universities, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where students and researchers are working in a desalination device that “could passively produce enough drinking water to meet the daily requirements of a small family” (Chu). Advances in technology have also been seen in the development of sophisticated robots that collaborate with humans in cleaning up different disasters. An example of this is the robots developed by the Japanese company TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) that owns the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where in 2011, the worst nuclear disaster in history (after Chernobyl) happened. The company has been developing robots that can access highly radioactive areas that are deadly for humans, this with the aim of measure radiation levels. These robots are still in a very early stage of development however, engineers hope that after further development of more technologies, the robots will be able to go in an actually clean the whole disaster. These examples of technology development make me believe that if the resources are over one day, we will have the capacity to overcome it. Humans have always found a way to survive, and even though I hope that we don’t reach that point of no return, I trust that humans will cooperate and work with each other to develop the technology necessary to save this world.

Image by Liam Andrew on Unsplash.

However, I think that we don’t have to wait until a catastrophe happens to start working towards a more sustainable way of living. We might be just in time to start working to repair all the damage we’ve caused to the Earth. We must center all our time, efforts and resources in keep developing technology that can help us reverse the damage made and that will allow us to start building something better for future generations. The Earth is screaming at us, warning us about all the bad choices we’ve made to get here, and now is the time to listen. We have a way to prevent future catastrophes to happen, we don’t have to wait until the end is here and there’s nothing else to do. Reduce your water consumption, UNICEF estimates that by 2030, 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity (“Water Scarcity”). This number will continue to increase if we don’t do anything about it. Some key recommendations are to change behaviors about water consumption, educate yourself and others on how to take care of these resources that are indispensable for life, remember, they’re limited.

For me, the apocalypse has already started. I believe the apocalypse will be more than just the end of our civilization or the end of this world, I think it will be a breakpoint humanity has to reach to be able to start a transformation towards the responsible use of resources this world has to offer us. I really hope we don’t have to reach this point of no return where a lot of lives are going to be lost, but if the apocalypses happen, I trust that humanity, with the help of technology, will be able to overcome it. Let’s be conscious about the incredible resources we have and let’s keep working towards the responsible use of these. It’s in our hands to create a better and more sustainable world for the next generations.