Technology as the Means to a More Sustainable World

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Technology has changed the face of everything as we know it. We can hardly keep up with the rapid changes, with smart innovations and apps emerging every day. As we enter the 21st century's third decade, the IoT (Internet of Things), artificial intelligence, and other technologies are evolving fast, changing every aspect of our lives. Technology makes our offices, homes, factories, and cities super-efficient. Starting a business in this era is much easier than it was twenty years ago; the internet is a significant advantage.

As industries develop, environmental degradation is a major global crisis. The ozone layer is being depleted at a fast rate, causing temperatures to rise and climates to change. Technology is not only helping make our work more manageable, but it is also being used to conserve the environment in many different ways:

Fighting Deforestation using IoT

As the world's population swells, the need for more housing is becoming a necessity. The statistics of the rate at which human beings are cutting down trees is chilling. For a long time, we have known that deforestation is a massive factor in the increase of the greenhouse effect. Illegal logging is one of the most significant problems governments around the world are facing. Fighting the logging vice requires IoT sensors to be used in forests to capture sounds associated with tree cutting, such as whirring of a chainsaw. Internet of Things (IoT) is generally a series of interconnected devices that communicate with each other, send, and receive data without the need for human intervention.

The Amazon forest is the world's largest rainforest, covers most of northwestern Brazil, and extends into Colombia, Peru, and several South American countries. The forest is renowned for its biodiversity, has thousands of rivers, which include the mighty Amazon River. The Amazon forest is referred to as the earth's lungs and is strongly linked to the reduction of the greenhouse effect.

Amazon forest is full of illegal loggers. In Brazil, which holds 60% of the Amazon, IoT devices have been deployed to detect illegal logging that may not be detected by conventional surveillance via radio monitoring and satellite. The devices are tinier than a pack of cards. They are fitted with localization algorithms and RED (Radiation Exchange Data technology that expands the radius of wireless communication in areas with very low signals.

The IoT devices are secretly placed in trees in areas notorious for illegal logging. The minute the trees pass within a few miles of the cellular network, they send alarms and the exact co-ordinates to law enforcement officers, allowing them to locate the loggers and make arrests.

Fighting Illegal Fishing using Blockchain Technology

When blockchain emerged, there was a lot of confusion about what it meant. A blockchain is, in essence, a list of growing records, linked via cryptography. The blockchain is a decentralized ledger that records a transaction without the need for a third party authentication. The records are immune from tampering, as they are permanent. The blockchain was the underpinning technology for the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Blockchain records are transparent, and anyone can access them.

When people understood the life-changing concept of blockchain, people around the world started to explore the use of blockchain in insurance, voting, healthcare, and recently, in the fishing industry, Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) threatens the fish population and is a massive problem in the Pacific Ocean. Blockchain technology is promising to crack wide open these illegal activities.

Technology is ensuring the buying and selling of tuna fish is traceable via records. Via a smartphone app, consumers will see where, when the tuna was bought, complete with information on the fishing method, and on which vessel. All they need to do is scan a QR code on the tuna. This QR code helps to curb illegal fishing and ensures consumers eat fish appropriately caught.

Affordable Lab-grown Meat

The concept of lab-grown or cultured meat might sound like an experiment from a sci-fi movie, but the reality is here with us. There are billions of people on earth, and a significant percentage of this figure eats meat, with the demand rising per day. Can the current beef industry meet this demand? This question gave rise to lab-grown meat, and several start-ups around the world are looking into this innovative idea, which is poised to change the way we look at meat. This could be a viable business ideas that start-ups should explore as it has the potential to be a huge market.

It may soon be possible to buy lab-grown meat, which will be infinitely cheaper than traditional beef. The meat is produced via the in-vitro cultivation of animal cells and produced via tissue engineering methods applied in regenerative medicine. Cultured meat is made by taking stem cells from the muscle or fat of an animal and putting it into a culture medium that allows the cells to grow by feeding them. The media is placed in a bioreactor, which supports the growth of the cells.

Dozens of start-ups are racing to grow lab meat, and one start-up based in Israel, Future Technologies raised $14 million to enable it to produce cultured meat.

There are several benefits of lab-grown meat:

●   End animal suffering: Lab-grown meat would ensure no animal suffers before slaughter, which of course, is a matter of debate between animal rights crusaders and traditional meat enthusiasts.

●   Less Greenhouse gas emissions: According to a study by scientists from the University of Amsterdam and Oxford University, cultured meat requires between 7 to 45% less energy for production, in comparison to producing pork or beef.

●   Better quality control: It will be easier to control quality with lab-grown meat, as there is no risk of diseases such as mad cow disease, which kills both the animal and humans who eat contaminated meat. Lab-grown meat is grown under ultra-high hygiene conditions.

●   Lab meat is more sustainable: As the world's population expands, and global warming turns the fertile ground into arid ground, we have to come up with more sustainable farming techniques. Lab meat will be a better and sustainable method of providing food, especially to developing countries that will be able to reduce famine.

Cybersecurity Threats

As technology grows, so does the threat to data security. Cybercriminals have an affinity for data. The magnitude of compromised systems cannot be overemphasized. This technology has to be secured using layers of security techniques. One of the most effective techniques used to encrypt data is a VPN. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a revolutionary technique of ensuring information is kept safe from middle-man-attacks. A secure VPN creates a safe tunnel between a device and the internet, making sure that all traffic is encrypted between secure VPN servers and the devices, protected from any network tempering efforts.

Conclusion

Technological advancements have the power to stop many ills the world is seeing now, just as it has the potential to destroy. This power, lying in the hands of the wrong people, can be devastating. As the greenhouse effects threaten to destroy the world, as we know it, we can reverse the same effects using technology. We are overfishing our oceans, and we can quickly put a stop to illegal fishing, giving the ocean time to renew itself. The world is becoming an arid desert, and we are consuming more animals that we can rear. How better to right that than to grow lab meat? Some of these solutions are subjects for debate, but they are certainly worth a try if we can save the world, and eat cleaner because of them.