Is Technology our Planet’s Last Hope?

In the wake of the hotly-anticipated Paris Climate Change Summit earlier this month, there has been mixed reaction to the agreement signed by 196 delegates from around the globe. While the deal certainly indicated a willingness by all nations to keep global warming beneath the crucial 2°C level, it also neglected to outline in exact terms how this should be achieved.

Plans to ween ourselves off fossil fuels and reduce emissions, with regularly recurring assessments and checks on global performance, are a step in the right direction. However, the summit stopped short of yielding a concrete solution to the problem, a cure-all replacement method of energy production which will put an end to all of our environmental worries.

Technological Advances

Undoubtedly, the advance of technology has and will be key in the struggle to avoid the disastrous effects of climate change. In order to meet a constantly rising demand for energy whilst simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint on the planet, it’s imperative that we either refine existing renewable technologies or discover entirely new ones.

The key will come in the form of abandoning fossil fuels altogether, but whether green energy such as wind, solar and wave power can be relied upon to pick up the slack completely is a matter of doubt. Nuclear fusion is a potentially immense source of power, but remains unpredictable and risky, as well as generating its own form of waste. Nuclear fission could provide the answer but remains in its infancy, as yet.

More Must Be Done

Currently, our efforts and investment into energy research are quite simply not enough. Experts agree that spending on basic research is currently between 25% and 30% of recommended levels if we are to be serious about preventing global warming.

For example, the great strides made in the air monitoring sphere (especially in China) provide us with more detailed information than ever before about the cleanliness of the air we breathe. However, while such technology is eminently helpful in determining how bad the problem is, it does very little in terms of counteracting it.

Similarly, plant mitochondria research offered one route of tackling food shortage back in 2013, but in the intervening years, agricultural research has all but stalled. This in spite of the fact that world leaders are well aware of the growing population, our diminishing resources and the harmful methane emissions that are a by-product of cattle breeding. Steps must be taken in order to ween ourselves off such a meat-reliant diet, thus curbing emissions and producing more food for the world’s populace in one fell swoop. As yet, however, these investments and efforts are not being made.

Technology may well be our strongest hope in the fight against climate change (as the Australian government continue to insist), but unless we invest in it sufficiently, that hope will burn out just like the remaining fossil fuels which contribute to the malaise we find ourselves in.