Green technologies have come to change the world, but many are still wondering if they are really effective and if they can solve the future challenges facing the world. ECOticias.com – ‘El Periódico Verde’ tries to clear some doubts about it.
What are green technologies?
The term ‘ technology ‘ was not used to be associated with the protection of the environment. In fact, technological progress was considered, until recently, a sign of human action, something anthropogenic and therefore synonymous with destruction, pollution, and death. But green or clean technologies have been created, which strive to fulfill their roles and at the same time maintain and preserve natural ecosystems.
In recent years, the word ‘green’ has been associated with almost anything that wants to stand out as non-polluting or ecological. But although ‘green technologies’ are present all around us, they are not always identified as such. Its main objective is simple: reduce the harmful effects of human activity on the environment, producing more, with less.
The green technologies that we come across most frequently are renewable energies, waste recycling, sustainable mobility, or wastewater treatment, but they are far from the only ones. Scientists continue to research and try to innovate in this field.
Green and useful technologies
Green technologies are being developed that, although they will not be able to stop the actions of human beings, which are already devastating for the environment, at least manage to reduce their impacts or at least prevent their worst consequences. This is the case of some not well-known inventions.
There is already a type of ecological concrete, which does not contain harmful nitrogenous compounds, such as nitrogen oxide, which is present in traditional concrete. For now, the problem that limits its popularity is its cost, but it is expected that the increase in demand will achieve a decrease in price.
There are many devices and machines that collect plastics from the sea and process them for recycling, since, although these are very useful in our daily lives, they are extremely polluting for the environment since they take hundreds of years to decompose and affect the lives of thousands of marine animals.
Graphene is one of the materials that could revolutionize green technologies, since it is a very versatile material that could be used in hundreds of products, thanks to its properties of resistance, hardness, conduction, insulation, etc. Its development is only hampered by high production costs, but scientists are not giving up their efforts to obtain it profitably.
On the other hand, a multitude of other green or clean technologies is emerging, in the most diverse fields, such as ecological building, non-polluting industry, alternative forms of transport, development of other renewable energy sources, nanomaterials, and a very long etc.
Green, but really green
As this term has become fashionable, it is an excellent claim that many companies use to ‘disguise’ themselves as ecological and clean, something called greenwashing, and that is used to attract consumers who believe that by buying their products they are protecting the environment. , when the reality is different.
Even so, it is possible to choose products for our daily use directly related to green technologies, such as low-consumption light bulbs, highly energy-efficient appliances, and products of any kind free of toxic substances such as cadmium, lead, mercury or barium that are highly polluting, electric vehicles and cars and much more.
