The Conflict between Technology and the Environment

Abstract

For today's student, adopting an environmental consciousness with in a technological society is not only a significant enterprise but an endeavor that is sometimes fraught with obstacles. Many of our students uncritically accept the tenets of techno logical rationalism. Our Western cul ture has consistently linked progress with technological advancement; it has also legitimated and reaffirmed the ex ploitation of our natural resources and has at times touted the wonders of technological forms and scientific dis coveries at the expense of our environ ment. This article will describe a partic ular unit of a course that involves the students' examining and questioning of those traditional Western values as they relate to a technological rational ism. This is a teaching approach that calls into question the dominant ideol ogy that many times manipulates and controls us. The ideas of Herbert Mar cuse, Gary Snyder, and Gregory Bate son coupled with a close study of the Futurist movements in art, a move ment that glorified the machine and thus technology, provide excellent con tent for such a course.