Effect of Technology in to the Natural Resources

by Andrea in Amsterdam

Effect of Technology in to the Natural Resources

INTRODUCTION Science according to Enger and Smith in their book called a study of interrelationships defined it as a method of gathering and organizing information that involves observations, asking questions about observation, Testing hypothesis, critical information so that others can evaluate the process and conclusions.

Scientific fields are commonly divided into two major groups: natural sciences, which study natural phenomena (including biological life), and social sciences, which study human behavior and societies. These groupings are an empirical sciences, which means the knowledge must be based on observable phenomena and capable of being tested for its validity by other researchers working under the same conditions. There are also related disciplines that are grouped into interdisciplinary and applied sciences, such as engineering and health science. Within these categories are specialized scientific fields that can include elements of other scientific disciplines but often possess their own terminology and body of expertise. Technology is the process by which humans modify the nature to meet their needs and wants. Technology includes the entire infrastructure necessary for the design, manufacture, operation, and repair technological artifacts from corporate headquarters and engineering schools to manufacturing plants and maintenance facilities. The knowledge and processes used to create and operate technological artifacts—engineering know-how manufacturing expertise and various technological skills—are equally important of technology.

Natural resources according to Enger and Smith are defined as those structures ans process that can be used by humans for their own purposes but can not be created by them. Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity existent in various ecosystems. Natural resources are derived from the environment. Many of them are essential for our survival while others are used for satisfying our wants. According to Alan Deardorff, in his book called Deardorff’s Glossary of International Economics define Economic development as an increase in the standard of living in a nation’s population with sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy. Its scope includes the process and policies by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people.

Our first application of technology was probably using wood or stone tools for building fires. This has profoundly affected the life on earth by transforming what would have being relatively weak and puny species into dominant members of many communities. For then 95% of history, most humans have been nomadic hunters and gathers. The habitats, attitudes and physical characteristics developed during the millennia that our ancestors lived by hunting and gathering probably still affect us. About 10 thousands years ago, the agricultural revolution began as people started domesticating animals and began cultivating crops plants.

We generally assume that agriculture spread rapidly once it was discovered because it provided a larger and more stable food supply than did hunting and gathering or pastoral herding of livestock. Although the people have done useful work with mechanical devices for thousands of years another dramatic change has occurred in the past two or three centuries as machines have become increasingly important in our lives. The industrial revolution was made possible by advances in science and technology that have given us tremendous power to understand and to change our world. The knowledge that a resource exists plays an important factor governing its exploitation.

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Technology plays an important role here in making it possible to find and exploit an accumulation of matter and/or energy as a resource. Some accumulations may not be recognised as a resource until there is an advance in technology, which may be driven by market forces. In his treatment of non-renewable resources, Hotelling (1931) did not consider the possibility of replacement of a resource by exploration for new sources. Instead, the resource was treated as a fixed stock. In fact, over much of the modern era, non-renewable resources have been discovered at faster rates than they have been depleted, which has made them appear more like renewable resources. The role of technology in exploiting resources is of fundamental importance to the economics of resources. As a particular resource becomes scarce, market forces should operate to raise its price. While it has been claimed that there is little evidence for this (Barnett and Morse 1963; Barnett 1979), experience following the oil price rise of 1973 would seem to corroborate this view. As oil was made artificially scarce by cuts in production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its price rose, more effort was devoted to finding substitutes for it in certain uses.

Technology provides the means to exploit new resources as they are discovered. As the world moves on, human knowledge is extended and technology improves, accumulations of matter and/or energy, which were previously overlooked as resources, may become ‘useful’. Oil occurred in surface deposits in parts of the ancient world, such as modern day Iraq, but was regarded as a concentrated pollutant in that it had no use and was potentially harmful. In the same way barytes, which was once discarded from lead mines has now become a useful resource in the process of oil drilling. Knowledge of the existence of an accumulation and of its potential use as a resource is of obvious importance economically. Clearly it is a prerequisite of natural resource exploitation that knowledge of the existence of a resource must obtain before a resource can be exploited.

The technology to enable that exploitation must also be available. There are many examples of potential resources that are not currently exploited because the technology to do so economically does not yet exist. In the past, oil from beneath the seabed has been just such an example. Currently, it is well known that oil exists in shales in abundance, but it is not economic to Science and technology play crucial roles in any process affecting the exploration, utilization and conservation of natural resources. Hence the need to harness this capacity to meet the projected higher needs for these resources, associated with future development and population growth, as well as their conservation for future generations. Not only that they provide the cutting edge for exploiting known resources, but also provide basis for new knowledge of potentials.

As new techniques will result in reduced costs per unit of output, they would also help ensure the sustainability of development and thereby contribute to averting the otherwise ominous prospects of depletion of/or serious degradation of natural resources which, if it occurs, would seriously impair future growth and development. While there are a number of ways that science and technology could contribute to the effective exploitation of natural resources, priority should be given to areas where efficiency, increased availability and sustainability could be ensured.

In the minerals sector, for example, competitivity, irreplacebility and environmental issues merit particular emphasis. Likewise, in the water sector, attention would need to be placed on issues of availability, safety and on the issues of shared water resources. Similarly, in the area of energy, technological advances could be targeted in particular to ensuring most economic approaches to exploiting existing sources and exploring new sources as well as intensification of efforts to render non-conventional energy sources more economical and dependable. In agriculture, advanced knowledge and applications in biotechnology carry particular hope for realizing a green revolution in Africa.

One of the major constraints inhibiting the development and utilization of natural resources is lack of adequate data and information on the magnitude, quality, range and geographic incidence of these resources. The quality of the data will critically depend on the techniques used and the resources committed to this effect. Hence the importance of using advanced techniques of data gathering and standardization. A complementary aspect is the assembly of the information presently scattered in the countries themselves, kept by foreign companies and institutions or maintained in the databases of international institutions and organizations. Such data however need to be classified, evaluated and regularly updated. An essential prerequisite for the suitability of the application of science and technology in the development and utilization of natural resources is the establishment of a critical mass of science and technology-based institutions. These institutions will be able to act as think-tanks, as well as instruments of dissemination of technical information to society at large. Through training, they would also contribute to building a critical mass of trained personnel. The 30 odd ECA-sponsored institutions were established with precisely this objective in mind.

However, these Centres of Excellence need to be strengthened and better utilized. The horizon of technological advances is extending by the day and likewise their applications. The micro-chip technologies have provided humanity with tools for almost infinite theoretical explorations and practical possibilities that could intensely examine possible approaches to their utilization in the area of science and technology. They could therefore improve our insights in the working of the physical system and mankind’s understanding of nature. Such revolution should make it possible for Africa to probe more deeply and systematically into ways and means of knowing more about its resources and potentials and how to utilize them. Given Africa’s present technological lag, such effort could be deployed in partnerships with other technologically more advanced operators. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) could be a reliable source of obtaining such competencies. Exploit it because it involves crushing the rock itself and, with current technology, this is uneconomic.

Similarly, gold exists in vast quantities in seawater, but it is so dispersed that it is not economic to exploit with current technology. Advancing technology thus provides a potential solution to the problem of resource depletion. If, as a resource is depleted, its price rises, then more effort will be made to find new sources of supply and/or substitutes for it. More effort will be devoted to research and development in order to achieve this, and technology will advance as a result. For example, were the price of a barrel of oil to rise sufficiently, more effort would be put into research and development to extract oil at lower cost from oil shales. At some point in this process, extraction of oil from oil shales would become ‘economic’. This is an illustration of market forces at work, and is the probable reason for the lack of evidence of natural resource price increase as described above.