Technology has done a lot for us.
From changing the way we see the world to how we interact with it, the possibilities that it has brought to us are almost endless. Add to that the obvious fact that it doesn’t seem to be slowing down in bringing extra wow factors to us, and we are in for a run.
At a time when protecting the environment has become of core importance, tech has also stepped in to make something happen. In the same breath, it has cleaned up how we eat too.
Just how does it do that, though?
1. Blockchain Technology
One of the biggest agricultural industries in the world is the fishing sector. This is underlined in the wide availability of fish, the abundance of water bodies and of course, those who depend on fish for their dietary needs. All that, and we have not even mentioned industries that depend on fish by-products (oil, scales, etc.) to manufacture their own products.
That said, illegal fishing is as dangerous to the economy as it is to the environment.
A large percentage of the garbage in the Pacific Ocean stems from fishing gear – and a larger percentage of those will come from illegal fishing practices.
Blockchain can be used to determine if fishing boats return the port with the same amount of fishing gear they left with.
More than just nets, spears and rods, smart contracts on blockchain networks will also help determine generally agreeable quotas for certain fishes, implement profit-regulation plans and stamp out mis-labeling, among others
2. Internet of Things
Usually abbreviated as IoT, Internet of Things has found wide applications in fighting deforestation, protecting the bees and killing the activities of poachers.
Deforestation alone accounts for more than 15% of all carbon emissions in the world. That is an awful lot, spurring certain teams to come up with IoT-enabled options to nip such problems in the bud.
Among these, one of the most laudable is in the form of sensors being connected to forest trees, enabling real-time determination of poaching and illegal felling of trees. Having been trained to listen for certain sounds (such as chainsaw operations) even from a very great distance, illegal tree poachers can be caught and stopped dead in their tracks before they cause any serious damage to the environment.
The same is done to stop animal poaching. With sensors trained to sniff out unique sounds made by guns, traps, and vehicles in conservation areas, illegal animal poaching can be controlled.
Not to forget the bees, science has long established that they are an important yardstick to measuring the health of the environment. Besides the obvious honey that they provide, they are also responsible for a large degree of pollination, without which most of our foods might not even do well on farms.
A research team from Australia went through the process of tagging thousands of bees with sensors which will help monitor their condition within the hives. That way, the hive health can be determined, and issues facing bees can be effectively tackled.
Once solutions work on a smaller front, they can be scaled up for other bee colonies. A serious concern with IoT devices, however, is how they can be easily hacked and manipulated. This will not be possible if these devices are thoroughly protected, all the way to the network connection they are on – all of which can be done by encrypting your Wi-Fi connection with a VPN.
Only then can they be trusted to provide the kind of protection they have been designed for.
3. Vegan Meat
One of the biggest challenges to keeping wildlife and animals preserved so that we don’t upset the ecosystem more than it has already been is staying off eating meat.
As of the year 2018, the world was on track to produce 335 million tonnes of meat alone for that year. This shows that meat consumption is on the high, and we cannot just ask people to switch all of a sudden.
The key to that, though, is vegan meat.
Although it sounds like a paradox, this is the kind of meat that has been made from entirely plant sources. Don’t fret, though: even top meat enthusiasts have been fooled by this meat. Thus, there is a high chance you would not even know it if you were served that next time you were at a restaurant.
Done right, as it currently is, vegan meat will put an end to aggressive animal breeding just for consumption purposes. Likewise, it helps to focus agriculture on the people more than developing crop fields for animal consumption too.
Conclusion
Of course, technology is not resting on these oars. With the promise of even more innovations coming to improve the environment and how we eat, the environment can breathe easy again.
Article contributed by Chris Jones @TurnOnVPN
