Green Technology against Global Warming - Research Paper Example

Green Technology and Sustainable Development Introduction Global warming is the increase of the earth’s temperature due to the accumulation of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases have the tendency to trap in the light and heat energy from the sun and accumulate them in the atmosphere (Spiegel, & Meadows, 2006). The effects of gloabal warming have led to the melting of ice in some of the worlds’ mountain, death, and extinction of different flora and fauna. Some of the causes of the global warming are the fossil fuel, when these fuels are burnt in air; they release the greenhouse gases that are responsible for the global warming. In response different interested groups, the non-governmental agencies, and various states governments have embarked on a concerted effort of mitigating on the effect of global warming by encouraging tree planting, using bicycles when going to work and turning television and other electronic gadgets off for a longer time even if people are indoors. Some of the technologies that are used to mitigate on the global warming include Green Technology (Spiegel, & Meadows, 2006). Green Technology This technology is also referred to as the sustainable building or green construction. This technology refers to construction of structures that by engaging on those processes that will make the structure environmentally friendly and use the available resources efficiently through out it existence. The technology involves the design, operation, construction, renovation and maintenance, and even demolition. All these processes must be environmentally responsible in mitigating on the effect of global warming. The green building and the technology behind it strives to reduce the effect of the built environment is having on the natural environment and human health by implementing the following; reduction of the effect of pollution, wastes, and environmental degradation, improvement of the employees productivity, and efficient use of water, energy and other naturally available resources. The Green industry technology is being embraced by every country in the world; this is toward s the concerted effort to reduce check on the global warming. The technology provides employment to many individual in the world and several firms have associated themselves with the technology. In the United States alone, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 2012 that the industry employs about 3.1 million employees (Rider, Glass, & McNaughton, 2011). This translated to about 2.4% of the total national employment in the nation according to the 2010 statistic in the US, the report further cited (Rider, Glass, & McNaughton, 2011). The industry contributes significantly to the environment in more than one way. The technology employs many factors in ensuring that the environment remains undisturbed and therefore fit for human and plants habitation by ensuring the following; that there is significant reduction in the waste that are discharged into the environment as well the pollution of the environment. The technology also prevents environmental degradation, which involves depleting resource such as water, air, and soil (Yudelson, 2007). The technology also takes care of the ecosystem and the vast flora and fauna in their various habitats. The technology ensures the ecosystem of remains stable and that the environment disadvantages no organism. Coupled with the fact the industry helps in the efficiency use of the energy, it helps in the regulation of the greenhouse gases that bring about the global warming and thus is a factor that helps mitigate on the impact of global warming (Yudelson, 2009). Following the role of the technology in the environment and energy conservation, it makes use of many products to achieve the goals. The technology take the advantage of the renewable source of energy by making active and passive solar, the photovoltaic, rain gardens, and green roofs. The technology also used wood as an alternative building material, packed gravel, and permeable concrete in the construction industry (Wilson, & Piepkorn, 2008). The industry provides a plethora of jobs for the people. Some of the jobs that are done in the entire construction start with the designing of the building, the designers of the building must employ the technology required by industry in order to achieve the desired purpose. There are also architectures that are involved in the industry as well as the masons and other employments that come with the actual building and construction of the buildings (Wilson, & Piepkorn, 2008). Other employments come indirectly from the industries that provide the building materials like the gravel and the permeable concrete, the solar and the photovoltaic. The salary scale range of the employees differs over a range of $1,500-$2,000 or more (Glavinich, 2008). Just like any other technology, the green building technology also has a fair share of the technological challenges. One of the very common technological challenge is the standardization of the architectural design, even though there are benefits that comes with the green building architectural design, it has be realized that it complicates the maintenance of the building owing to the rigidity of the architectural design (Yudelson, 2007). This is because the architectural designs for buildings shows certain degree of conservativeness and are not flexible to change. Lack of an integrated technological approach is another challenges that is facing the industry, in building, there is a stringent communication between the engineers, developers, architects, and consultants in coming up with a structure of a desired quality. This aspect has been conspicuously missing in the Green building making some structures to be billed as energy efficient while in real sense they are not (Freed, 2008). The belief that there is unreliability in the construction of Green Buildings has led to discouragement of the architectural designs in England and other parts of the world. In addition to this, some of the very good ideas about the Green building cannot be implemented. An example of this is the implementation of the passive solar heating; the walls of the building cannot change direction to maximize the use of the sun by locating its position (Freed, 2008). Moreover, the building roofs of high heights can also work disadvantageously by impairing the installation of the solar panels and other renewable sources of energy. The government policy towards Green building is cooperative since it has been approved and most people and organization are advised to embrace the new technology. This is in support of the world move towards conservation of energy and engagement of all those practices that minds the status of the environment (Glavinich, 2008). In this pursuit, the government has accessed some of the best Green building practices and lessons, and other plans to support the plan across the country. References Freed, E. C. (2008). Green building & remodeling for dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Glavinich, T. E. (2008). Contractor's guide to green building construction: management, project delivery, documentation, and risk reduction. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley. Spiegel, R., & Meadows, D. (2006). Green building materials: a guide to product selection and specification (2nd ed.). Hoboken: J. Wiley & Sons. Wilson, A., & Piepkorn, M. (2008). Green building products: the GreenSpec® guide to residential building materials (3rd ed.). Brattleboro, VT: BuildingGreen ;. Yudelson, J. (2007). Green building A to Z: understanding the language of green building. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society Publishers. Yudelson, J. (2009). Green building through integrated design. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rider, T. R., Glass, S., & McNaughton, J. (2011). Understanding green building materials. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Read More