Beating Climate Change With Technology

Global warming has made it hard to predict climate change. Luckily though, the advancements in technology makes us able to somewhat predict the weather patterns although it is not 100% true. However, not everybody can afford buying a device that supports a prediction of the weather tomorrow, the day after that, and so on and so forth. In India, farmers are now beginning to use technological devices that are “climate-smart.”

“Climate-Smart” Agriculture (CSA) is a project started by the UN that promotes sustainability in increasing agricultural productivity, to support the security of farmers’ incomes, food security and development, helping these farmers to adapt to various climate change and reducing greenhouse gases emitted from agriculture.

A recent news in the BBC shows that Indian farmers are now using technological devices that help these farmers alleviate the impact on the changing weather patterns. One of these is the “GreenSeeker,” where it helps farmers to determine the health of a crop and thus minimise losses created.

The GreenSeeker device that helps farmers to know how much fertiliser to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another example would be a laser land levelling which helps farmers to level the land into a flat surface that helps them to save 25-30% of water during cultivation. This device also assists farmers to minimise labour costs that are heavily spent to flatten the land without this device. Since not everybody can afford these brand-new devices, the local agriculture society provides these farmers to be able to use it for free.

Both these devices show the improvement in agriculture activity, especially in a country that relies on agriculture as one of its main exports. They also show how technology is becoming more available towards the mass market – especially in different income sectors. Hopefully in the future, the advancement in technology is able to help to solve problems in different sectors of the economy.

Working Conditions & Business Ethics

It could not be more obvious that employees of a business should behave ethically. An example of business ethics would be feminism. Sometimes women are treated unfairly than that of men, or women are giving special advantages just because of their gender. Having gender unequality causes an uncomfortable workplace environment, which may lead to long-term consequences of losing employees, unproductivity and the business itself having a bad image towards its shareholders. Not only through gender, but if workers are not being treated well (i.e. not giving pensions, low wages) it causes an unsafe environment inside the firm, such as the mistreatment of workers making Apple products in China. Some workers are abused and are given low wages. Workers being abused in Nike’s factory in Indonesia back in 2006 has also become a national issue where workers should be treated equally. Creating minimum wages, security, and giving health insurance to employees are a few actions that a business can do to be considered as being ethical. However, these actions may increase costs. These increase in costs may lead to a business increasing the price of its product, which may lead to inflationary pressures. On the other hand, these actions may increase productivity within the business (because the employees are treated the way they should be) and may create a good reputation within the consumers.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21551498, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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