Technology has both positive and negative contributions to anthropogenic impact on the global environment. Transportation and industrial processes lead to fouling of air and water, but higher efficiencies in energy production and energy use, for example, reduce negative impacts. In a letter to Nature, Goklany and Trewavas (2003) raise the question of whether the earth's carrying capacity can increase rapidly enough "To accommodate the environmental and economic expectations of a world that grows wealthier as it population growth rate slows dramatically." They point out that important role that technological advances have made in minimizing the increased impact of population growth over the last 40 years: without technological advances in agriculture over this period, cropland would have had to increase from its present 11% to some 25% of the planet's surface to produce the same amount of food now. Virtually no natural forests would remain and other natural systems would be severely threatened. Accepting arguments raised by Rees (2003) that the carrying capacity of the earch already has been exceeded by 20%, they calculate that without technology this figure would be more like 33%. The authors conclude that "Without technological change and economic development, there can be no solution to the predicament of meeting human needs while containing human impact on the planet."
References
Goklany, I.M., and A.J. Trewavas, 2003: How Technology Can Reduce Our Impact on the Earth. Nature, 423, 115.
Rees, W.E., 2003: A Blot on the Land. Nature 421, 898.