The International Effects of Technology

The 1945 venting of gases was not made public until 1986 …. Should they be in underground strongholds in Nevada or New Mexico? How safe would that be in the long term? Problems with storage of used radioactive fuel and waste products become increasingly serious as present short-term storage facilities are filled to capacity. Since 1951, radioactivity in the lake filtered down through the soil beneath and into the water table below, a future cyclone or earthquake could spread the contamination far beyond the shores of the lake.

In today’s world, the creation of new technology anywhere in the world affects the rest of the world in turn. The production and use of technology are matters of international concern due to the related issues of environmental protection and moral and ethical accountability that eventually affect all of us. Poorer nations are generally characterized by the use of lower technology, much less consumption and therefore are responsible for less environmental destruction. The end justified the means; the short-term solution was technically successful, the weapons deployed as expected, the enemy was devastated and the world has never quite been the same. This demand further exacerbated our problems with air pollution and ozone depletion created mainly by industrial nations from burning fossil fuels. As electrical technology advanced, more power was required to run modern manufacturing plants and office buildings not to mention dishwashers, televisions, and computers. The three Mayak (Soviet Union) disasters were kept secret by the KGB and the CIA “each of which apparently feared an informed populace as much as it feared the enemy arsenal” (Hertsgaard 125). The effects of new technology are no longer local or even regional. The automobile during the Twentieth Century is a good example of this. Additional radioactive waste lies on the bottom of the ocean in the North Sea from decommissioned weapons and other military hardware from the Cold War days.

Even when the results of accidents were known, there have been several incidents where the ensuing human and environmental damage was kept secret by governments and the media. In Hanford, Washington, “Nor were Hanford officials any more forthcoming about the risks of their secret actions than their counterparts at Mayak were.