9.4 Technological Advances and Limitations

The Green Revolution

After 1900, agricultural innovations like high-yield seeds, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation boosted food production dramatically, especially in Latin America and Asia. This Green Revolution helped reduce famine but increased dependence on expensive inputs, favored large landowners, and caused environmental harm through chemical runoff and water depletion.

Communication and computer technology

The rise of computers, satellites, fiber optics, and the internet transformed global communication, enabling instant information exchange, e-commerce, and social media. These technologies accelerated globalization by connecting economies and cultures worldwide, but access remained unequal, deepening a digital divide between wealthy and developing nations.

Space race and medical advances

Cold War competition drove the space race, with the USSR launching Sputnik (1957) and the US landing on the moon (1969), symbolizing technological prestige. Meanwhile, medical advances like vaccines, antibiotics, and improved sanitation extended life expectancy globally, though benefits were unevenly distributed between developed and developing regions.

Key terms

Green Revolution

20th-century agricultural innovations (fertilizers, pesticides, high-yield seeds, irrigation) that boosted food production but increased costs and environmental harm.

Digital divide

The gap in access to computers and internet technology between wealthy and developing nations.

Sputnik

First artificial satellite, launched by the USSR in 1957, starting the Cold War space race.

Effects of medical advances

Vaccines, antibiotics, and sanitation improvements increased global life expectancy, though unevenly distributed.

Space race

Cold War competition between the US and USSR to achieve superior space technology, symbolizing ideological rivalry.

Try an AP-style question

Climate change is driven mainly by…

1. solar flares
2. ocean currents alone
3. volcanic activity only
4. greenhouse gas emissions