How technology is helping the environment

DO you still remember the thick smog that used to blanket your neighborhood every December?

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In some countries, during the cold winter months, you could barely see the house across the street on bad days.Now, if you get to visit one of those developed nations during the winter months, the air is noticeably clearer. It's one of those small victories that we're actually making progress.

The relationship between technology and the environment has always been complicated. For decades, we blamed our gadgets and factories for poisoning the planet. And honestly, we weren't wrong. But somewhere along the way, something shifted. The same innovative spirit that created many of our environmental problems started working overtime to fix them.

Take solar panels, for instance. My neighbor installed them last year, and he won't shut up about it. Every time we chat over the fence, he's showing me his app, tracking how much energy he's generated that day. "See this?" he'll say, pointing at his phone. "That's the sun paying my electric bill." What started as clunky, expensive panels that only wealthy environmentalists could afford has transformed into something ordinary people can actually use. Installation costs have rapidly dropped over the past decade. Now you see them on rooftops everywhere.