After reading Worster's writing especially, I came to think of this question as being less about technology and more about man. People are constantly innovating and trying to make the most of their environment for the purposes of survival, money, and sometimes power. Humans have managed to destroy an incredible amount of the world despite being just one species among millions. Our impact on the environment is substantial. Worster focuses on Darwin and his research and background and it left me thinking about how the "survival of the fittest" concept plays into the impact on nature. Social Darwinism led people to see this idea as not just survival of species, but also survival of countries, corporations, and individual success in comparison to others. This competition then led to a desire to improve technology to always stay ahead of competition to produce the most innovative product with the least amount of cost without there being any incentive to do so with environmentalism in mind. I think technology is both a cause and a solution, but the reason for a need for a solution is because technology and man first caused a problem. Technology can be used to solve some of the problems technology has created. This made me think of the article you sent us about plastics. Man invented plastics without thinking of the consequences of mass production of things like plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic nets, plastic toys, plastics in clothing and micro-plastics that are even in cosmetics. Those plastics have made many things possible for people and are certainly convenient, but also not necessary. The damage caused by those plastics is substantial for fish and other sea animals as well as for our beaches. Coral reefs have been bleached through global warming that is caused by man made technology. At the same time, technology can provide us some solutions to these problems if people choose to not continue causing the problem. For instance, technology enables us to create fake coral reefs and technology allows for machines that can remove plastic from ocean water. While these technologies are fantastic, they also seem futile as they can't remove plastic as quickly as it is being dumped into the ocean. The use of fossil fuels in technology has created problems that are so large that it seems impossible that technology can fix it; instead people need to choose to change actions. I apologize for what may seem a bit of a rant, but reading about this really is very frustrating. I am hopeful as some places are moving away from plastics, but I also think government must encourage people to do the right thing with plastic bans, incentives for using mass transit, and discouraging people from buying what they don't need.