We are living on this planet, as if we have another one to go to. That is what I feel as we come to today's topic on Technology and Industrial Development: Moving Towards Sustainable Development. Just how sustainable is our environment now? As I type this post out, waste are being generated in another part of the world, electricity is being used up and more fossil fuel are polluting Mother Earth. As usual, prof always had a quote for us:
"Sustainability requires a shift from linear to circular thinking.
Old industrial model: economic development VS environmental well-being.
Sustainable development model: economic development AND environmental well-being."
-Prof Shahi
Like what Matthew presented to us today, is Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability a Trade-off? Can we not have the best of both worlds? To have a high Human Development Index (HDI) as well as a clean environment? I guess thats where innovation comes into play. One day, I believe that innovation will progress to the extent that GreenTech and CleanTech is being widely employed such that we dont rely on fossil fuels and coal. Singapore being one of the Four Asian Tigers, we overcame a lot before becoming a highly developed economy. However, through these measures of achieving high growth and industrialisation, we unintentionally contributed to the environmental pollution as well. Later generations of countries undergoing industrialisation will undoubtedly benefit more as they can incorporate new technology, that can perhaps ensure sustainability as well as a clean environment.
In one of Prof's video today, there was a point about requiring 3-5 planet Earths if we all were to live the standard North American life. This substantiated a fact that I introduced in my presentation as well, about Shrinking Our Ecological Footprints. The Americans are one of the greatest consumers, and they have a huge global influence. If we use them as a standard for comparison, needing 2 more planets just to sustain our human life, I feel that it is a bit ridiculous. Despite so much technology, like cloning of animals and plants, and agriculture technology like vertical farming, are we still facing shortages of food and resources? The amount that we are consuming is alarming.
I feel that every individual has a part to play in making our developments sustainable. We have the responsibility to carry on what previous innovaters have build for us, and equal duty to bring it forward to our future generations, either at its original state or an improved one. We should not rely too much on the government or other corporations to make our developments sustainable, while we continue wasting resources as though we have backups.
In the second part of today's lesson, we moved on to Technology and Innovation Management. I found this quote by Albert Einstein on the internet, and thought that it is a relatively good quote with regards to today's topic.
“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. ”
-Albert Einstein
Which is why we have such people called innovators. Problems and solutions are just a cycle that never ends. When one problem comes, the solution to it will indefinitely spawn another problem, that again requires a new answer. Innovators are the ones who sit down and think of ways to solve these problems, be it in product form or services. All these require higher level of thinking, until we reach a saturation point where no further innovations can happen. Is that really possible? Perhaps in the far future when there is guaranteed sustainability and no further problems can be identified. However, there is bound to be a cynic in this complicated world that lives to oppose-breeding new problems.
I liked the video that Prof showed us, about the Andes Teletransporter. It is a really great inspiration of innovation and technology.
Eugene and Spencer presented about China's oil problem and the company 3M respectively. To think about it, Singapore is an example of a country that innovates to solve our problems. We face a lot of constrains being a small country, we lack resources like land and food. So what do we do? We reclaim land, we indulge in technology to get our own food and water. Innovation is important, only with receptivity. This brings me back to week 1's lesson, about how receptive people are in changes. Innovation is a change. Innovation management is the process of organising these changes, for without it, is it impossible for R&D to be efficient.
I feel that there is still more room for discussion on sustainable development and what we can do on a personal basis. I agree with what my classmates mentioned about the starbucks tumbler etc, but I feel that the bubble is bigger than that. Overall for today's lesson, I would rate it 9. Class gets better each time. However, I feel that the readings are a little too heavy, but I'll try my best to read all of them.
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