I believe that both sides are true at some level. Technological progress is a good thing that indicates the development of human civilization. But on the other side, the progress has the side effects that can led to environmental problems.
Technology has begun to develop rapidly and the process is still going. Start of this was approximately in the 19th century with the industrial revolution. That was time of inventions and scientific breakthroughs. During this period such useful for industry things as train, railway, engin and others occur. But also that had huge influence to the planet, because it impacted to the increasing of the level of air pollution. The use of different chemicals also increased and it gave soil and water pollution. But still, the level of pollutions was extremely slow comparing to the nowadays. The worst damage to the Earth was made in the 20th century, when all of these innovations were developing and new inventions occured. People found out how to use oil, coal and atom to get energy. Technlogycal progress also gave impact to the rapid raise of human population.
This damaging had been going only until recently when people understood that thay should stop killing the planet. Now we can see the developing of green energy sources but still we are far away from replacing the old methods of gaining energy. Until the 21th century, the progress mainly had been devastating and destroying our planet, but now we use it to change our mistakes. Now we use technology and science to develop the green type of life, to save the Earth. However, we have done so many mistakes and returning the planet to life is going to be one of the hardest challenges of the 21th century.