Green Technology as Solution
By Dr Arvind Kumar
The United Nations’ latest report, The World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, warns that humanity is near to breaching the sustainability of Earth, and needs a technological revolution greater and faster than the industrial revolution to avoid “a major planetary catastrophe. The report calls for investments of at least $1.9 trillion per year to avert this catastrophe. The report further says: “It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries through global warming, biodiversity loss, and disturbance of the nitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystem. A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe.”
According to the report, about half of the forests that once covered the Earth are gone, groundwater resources are being depleted and contaminated, enormous reductions in biodiversity have already taken place and through increased burning of fossil fuels, the stability of the planet’s climate is being threatened by global warming. To meet both the objectives of conquering poverty and protecting the environment, the report calls for a complete transformation of technology on which human economic activity is based. The Report advises that this “great green technological transformation” will have to be completed in the next 30 to 40 years – twice as fast as it took to accomplish previous major technological transitions. Because of the limited time frame, governments will need to play a much more active and stimulating role to accelerate the green energy transformation.
