GUNG-HO reports from engineers about their ability to invent new solutions to the world’s problems are not unusual, which makes a new report from the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers remarkable. It says that to sustain our future Earth, even as the population hits 9 billion, we already have all the technical fixes we need (see “Housing 9 billion won’t take techno-magic”). What is holding us back, it claims, is politics and economics.
For example, existing low-carbon energy technologies could power the planet without cooking it, but “market failures” are getting in the way. And we already produce enough food to feed 9 billion people, but a third of what we successfully harvest never reaches mouths.
The report can be seen as an antidote to environmental doom and gloom on one side and naive techno-optimism on the other: just because we have the technical know-how to sustain 9 billion people without wrecking the planet doesn’t mean we will use it.
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The take-home message is that the technical work is done: now it’s time for politicians and economists to deliver. Let’s hope they take that responsibility more seriously than they have so far.