The Fallacy of “Green Technology”

Abstract

The concept of green technology, like many of those associated with modern environmentalism, is both ambiguous and complex. On one hand, it usefully reflects a more sophisticated understanding of the critical role of technology in mitigating anthropogenic environmental impacts. On the other hand, as usually employed, it embeds within it the mental model of environmental issues as peripheral to general economic and policy activity, leading to suboptimal institutional behavior in both the private and public sectors. What is required is not green technology but simply good technology, defined as artifacts and systems that are designed from the beginning to incorporate appropriate environmental concerns or that exhibit environmental preferability among their other, more traditional, attributes.