Technology Will Save Us

Saturday 5th August

I think it was President Bush who first suggested that we needn’t worry about Climate change – because Technology Will Save Us.  He meant, of course, that before a calamitous time our ingenuity would prevail and we would come up with a technological solution.  And, as an aside, he meant that there was therefore no reason to change our behavior or stop our dependence on Oil.  Hence, the Iraq War and the securing of yet another oil nation into America’s embrace.

Well, it is an interesting idea.  I often watch Click on BBC News Channel, where the wonders of new technology are paraded before our eyes, much like Tomorrow’s World in the Seventies, and predictions pour out of how this wonderful technology will not only make our lives so much easier but will probably save the planet too.  There is also a growing movement of Climate Change Deniers, or to be more precise those who believe that the planet’s warming has nothing to do with mankind and our emissions.  Well, it is impossible to be sure of anything, but two things seem blindingly obvious.  One, the planet is getting warmer – the warmest ten years recorded have been in this Century alone.  And two, Oil is dirty – like Coal before it, both in it’s extraction, transport and in the eventual burning of its derivatives.  Gas is not much cleaner either.

And yes, technology may come up with – indeed has already come up with – some solutions.  But it also needs the Political Will to make things happen.  The EU has proclaimed that all vehicles sold after 2040 must be zero emissions – in other words, electric.  Our Government has followed suit pretending that it was their own initiative.  But electric cars will not be the only solution, if we are still burning fossil fuels in order to generate the electricity in the first place.  There are plenty of renewable energy schemes already working, but they are not necessarily cheaper yet than Oil and Gas. So, if we really want to make electricity from renewables it needs Political Will to make it happen.    Technology alone will NOT save us.