THEMATIC FOCUS

Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain how the development of new technologies changed the world from 1900 to present.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

KC-6.1.I.A New modes of communication—including radio communication, cellular communication, and the internet—as well as transportation, including air travel and shipping containers, reduced the problem of geographic distance.

KC-6.1.I.D Energy technologies, including the use of petroleum and nuclear power, raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.

KC-6.1.III.B More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility, transformed reproductive practices, and contributed to declining rates of fertility in much of the world.

KC-6.1.I.B The Green Revolution and commercial agriculture increased productivity and sustained the earth’s growing population as it spread chemically and genetically modified forms of agriculture.

KC-6.1.I.C Medical innovations, including vaccines and antibiotics, increased the ability of humans to survive and live longer lives.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

New modes of communication:

§ radio communication

§ cellular communication

§ the internet

New modes of transportation:

§ air travel

§ shipping containers

New Energy technologies:

§ petroleum

§ nuclear power

Medical innovations:

§ effective forms of birth control

§ vaccines

§ antibiotics

Agricultural innovations:

§ The Green Revolution

§ genetically modified forms of agriculture

§ new application of chemicals

§ The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution was a period from the 1940s to the late 1960s when the production of crops increased drastically as a result of new technological advances such as mechanical equipment, new farming techniques, and chemical fertilizers.

Advantages of the Green Revolution

• Norman Borlaug, "You cannot build peace on empty stomachs"

  • • In the context of the Cold War, this was viewed by Western Nations as an additional tool to contain the spread of communism.

• Yields are 2-4 times greater

• The shorter growing season

• Farming incomes have increased

• Diet of rural communities is now varied

• Local infrastructure has been upgraded

• Employment has been created for industries that supply farms with supplies and machinery

Disadvantages of the Green Revolution

• High amounts of fertilizers and pesticides are needed to optimize production. This is both economically and environmentally costly

• New varieties require more weed control and are more susceptible to pests and disease

• Middle and higher-income farmers have benefited more than low-income farmers- thus widening the income gap in rural communities and increasing rural to urban migration

• Mechanization of farming has increased rural unemployment

• Some new varieties have inferior taste

§ genetically modified forms of agriculture

Overview

• Humans have been altering the genomes of plants and animals for thousands of years using seed selection and breeding techniques

• recent advances in the field of genetic engineering have allowed for precise control over the genetic changes introduced into an organism

Benefits

• engineering in agriculture have:

  • • increased crop yields

    • reduced costs for food

    • reduced need for pesticides

    • enhanced nutrient composition and food quality

    • resistance to pests and disease

• enabled human population to grow

  • • increasing the availability and quality of food and medical care, and contributing to a cleaner environment

Concerns

• Potential health risks to humans include:

  • • the possibility of exposure to new allergens in genetically modified foods

    • the transfer of antibiotic-resistant genes

• ecological imbalances

• threatens the viability of both the wild-type and the genetically modified organisms (plants and animals)

• Economic consequences

  • • monoculture practices by large-scale farm production centers dominate over the diversity contributed by small farmers who can't afford the technology

• ethical issues surrounding GMOs include debate over our right to "play God"

  • • groups who believe GMOs is against nature or religion have called for clear labeling rules so they can make informed selections when choosing which items to purchase

§ new application of chemicals

Mercury Poisoning- The Minamata Story-A short clip about industrial mercury poisoning at Minamata Bay, Japan

Minamata, Japan-a more scientific explanation of the accumulation of mercury in the body

Minamata disease-60th anniversary-news story

Activity

Source the passage below in one way (H.I.P.P.)

H-Historical Context

I-Intended Audience

P-Purpose

P-Point Of View (limitations of using the document)

Source: Xia Hong, a manager for an Internet access provider in Shanghai in the early 2000s

There’s no question about it: the Internet is an information colony. From the moment you go online, you’re confronted with English hegemony. It’s not merely a matter of making the Net convenient for users in non-English-speaking countries. People have to face the fact that English speakers are not the whole world. What’s the big deal about them, anyway? Our ideal is to create an exclusively Chinese-language network. It will be a Net that has Chinese characteristics, one that is an information superhighway for the masses.

Source used in daily video (day 2)

Activity

1.) Read and analyze the documents below.

2.) Write a thesis paragraph that addresses the prompt below.

Prompt: Evaluate the extent to which the Green Revolution had social impact of the planet from the 1930s to present.

Document 1

Source: David Tilman, “The Greening of the Green Revolution,” Nature

. . . It is not clear which are greater—the successes of modern high-intensity agriculture, or its shortcomings. The successes are immense. Because of the green revolution, agriculture has met the food needs of most of the world’s population even as the population doubled during the past four decades. But there has been a price to pay, and it includes contamination of groundwaters, release of greenhouse gases, loss of crop genetic diversity and eutrophication [pollution] of rivers, streams, lakes and coastal marine ecosystems (contamination by organic and inorganic nutrients that cause oxygen depletion, spread of toxic species and changes in the structure of aquatic food webs). It is unclear whether high-intensity agriculture can be sustained, because of the loss of soil fertility, the erosion of soil, the increased incidence of crop and livestock diseases, and the high energy and chemical inputs associated with it. The search is on for practices that can provide sustainable yields, preferably comparable to those of high-intensity agriculture but with fewer environmental costs. . . .

Document 2

Source: “Realizing the Promise of Green Biotechnology for the Poor,” Harnessing Technologies for Sustainable Development, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (adapted)

. . . The [implementation of the] first green revolution—from the early 1960s to 1975— introduced new varieties of wheat, rice, and maize that doubled or tripled yields. The new varieties were highly susceptible to pest infestation and thus required extensive chemical spraying. But they were also responsive to high rates of fertilizer application under irrigation. So, large- and medium-scale farmers in regions with adequate irrigation facilities, easy access to credit, sufficient ability to undertake risks, and good market integration adopted the new varieties. But these requirements meant that the new technology bypassed most poor African farmers.

Another reason that Africa did not benefit from the first green revolution was the research strategy used. To shortcut the process of varietal improvement, researchers introduced improved varieties [of crops] from Asia and Latin America rather than engaging in the time-consuming exercise of identifying locally adapted germ plasm and using this as the basis for breeding new varieties.

After the early euphoria with the high-yielding varieties, several problems became evident. First, the need for significant use of pest and weed control raised environmental and human health concerns. Second, as areas under irrigation expanded, water management required sophisticated skills that were in short supply. As a result poor farmers growing staple food crops in Africa could not adopt the new varieties. What was crucial for Africa was to develop crop varieties that could thrive in water-stressed regions without heavy use of fertilizers. . . .

Document 3

Source: Human Development Report, issued by the government of the State of Punjab, India, 2004.

An important social effect of the Green Revolution was the disappearance of caste rigidities and the emergence of the middle and rich peasants as the dominant peasantry in the state. The Green Revolution also brought changes in lifestyle. Aspirations increased—there was demand for better education for children, better housing, and better consumer goods. The traditional “extended family” system was gradually replaced by the “nuclear family.”

Document 4

Source: Chidambaram Subramaniam, India’s minister for food and agriculture (1964-1967), in his 1970 interview.

Farmers in the Punjab [a state in northwest India] were the pioneers of Green Revolution technology. If not for them, I am convinced we would not have made a success of it. They had developed into a very hardy lot of enterprising people. And therefore when this new technology was offered to them, they took to it like fish to water. Everybody competed with one another to demonstrate that he was best able to utilize the new technology.

Document 5

Source: Focus, FAO newsletter, circa 1987

How the Green Revolution affects rural people depends on whether they are wage earners, cultivators or consumers, whether they come from landed or landless, rich or poor, male-or female-headed households.

Studies on the impact of the Green Revolution have shown that technological change can generation major social benefits but at the same time generate significant costs for particular categories of rural women that are different in kind and in intensity from those experienced by men.

It has:

• Increased the need for cash incomes in rural households to cover the costs of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, forcing women to work as agricultural laborers;

• Increased the need for unpaid female labor for farming tasks thereby augmenting women’s already high labor burden;

• Limited women’s wage-earning opportunities through mechanization.

Document 6

Source: Guatemalan National Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Peasants, a rural labor organization in Latin America, official statement, November 2006.

The diversity of native seeds is the heritage of the Maya and indigenous people at the service of all of humanity. The Maya indigenous peoples have stood firm defending these seeds, which have fed us for more than five thousand years. It saddens us to remember the loss of respect for our seeds, due to the imposition of the Green Revolution. The “revolution” actually sterilized and contaminated our seeds, as well as nature and Mother Earth.

Document 7

Source: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Indian physicist, from her article in the Ecologist, an environmental affairs magazine, 1991.

The Green Revolution has been a failure. It has led to reduced genetic diversity, increased vulnerability to pests, social erosion, water shortages, reduced soil fertility, micronutrient deficiencies, soil contamination, reduced availability of nutritious food crops for the local population, the displacement of vast numbers of small farmers from their land, rural impoverishment, and increased tensions and conflicts. The beneficiaries have been the agrochemical industry, large petrochemical companies, manufacturers of agricultural machinery, dam builders, and large landowners.

The Punjab is frequently cited as the Green Revolution’s most celebrated success story. Yet, far from bringing prosperity, two decades of the Green Revolution have left the Punjab riddled with discontent and violence. Instead of abundance, the Punjab is beset with diseased soils, pest-infested crops, waterlogged deserts, and indebted and discontented farmers. Instead of peace, the Punjab has inherited conflict and violence.

Traditionally, irrigation was only used in the Punjab as an insurance against crop failure in times of severe drought. The new seeds, however, need intensive irrigation as an essential input for crop yields. One result of the Green Revolution has therefore been to create conflicts over diminishing water resources. Intensive irrigation has led to the need for large-scale storage systems, centralizing control over water supplies and leading to both local and interstate water conflicts

Key Takeaways

A.) Advancements in communication, transportation, and medicine helped improve many aspects of the human experience, but there were drawbacks and limitations as well.

• Humans are living longer and standards of living are rising all over the world.

  • • In the developing countries, population growth, especially when tied to growing economies and modernizing societies, helped fuel globalization as dozens of new nations entered the world economy

• The 20th century brought about the spread of new epidemic diseases and had a negative impact on our environment.

B.) Economic globalization resulted in the immense acceleration in international economic transactions that took place in the second half of the twentieth century and has continued into the twenty-first

• Technology contributed to the acceleration of economic globalization

  • • Containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services dramatically lowered transportation costs

    • Fiber-optic cables and later the Internet provided the communication infrastructure for global economic interaction

C.) The Green Revolution and increased use of GMOs have had mixed results -- There were benefits for some and disadvantages for others