Technology, particularly the accelerating rate of technological change and the vectors it follows, offer both the promise of hope for our future as a species and a planet, and in the opinions of many carry it's doom. It is industrial technology which has percipitated the climate crisis we face today, and it will be technology which will provides alternatives, along with changed human attitudes and behaviors, to help us steer away from it...hopefully.
I'm not sure if it's fair to say that it's technology (or misapplied technology and science, like say the application of behavioral psychology in marketing and media to promote consumerism for an example) or human behavior which is the culprit in our out of control ride to potential extinction.
I still hold the optimism of better living through science which I acquired as a youth, but I very much understand the menace of unintended consequences, particularly as it has applied to industrial pollution. Many of the wonders of the last century, turned out to be the bane of those who came into contact with them, whether we are discussing the wonderful insulating properties and applications of asbestos, or the insidious lung disease it caused in so many people, just to name one example.
Here are a few of the new developments in technology which I find hopeful. I'd be interested to hear your opinions on any of the items highlighted, or the general role of technology in our future.
* Better control of fusion power offers a lot of promise for escaping our addiction to fossil fuel. Researchers at MIT have developed a method for managing the hydrogen plasma in a fusion reactor. h/t Kurzweilai.com.
MIT's doughnut-shaped fusion reactor, the Alcator C-Mod, uses magnets to confine hydrogen in a turbulent, electrically charged state of matter called a plasma. By infusing large amounts of energy into the plasma, physicists can kick off fusion reactions that, in turn, release large amounts of energy. The MIT reactor is too small to generate practical fusion reactions that generate enough energy to keep themselves going--what's called a burning plasma. But the researchers have been working on ways to achieve this state in larger reactors, such as the planned International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
* Australia plans to use market trading to help predict eco-disasters and in the future to help guide government environmental policy.
The Australian Knowledge Exchange works by giving traders A$100,000 (US$65,000) play money and 1000 stocks in each of five reservoirs in New South Wales. The stocks pay out each month according to the level of the dam. If the dam is full, they are worth $100. Traders can profit by buying stocks for less than their final value, or by selling them for more.
..."This approach has huge potential in the environmental sector where there is a lot of uncertainty," says Josh Donlan of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Advanced Conservation Strategies, a Utah-based NGO.
The incentives are clearly not monetary - the trader who does best wins a paltry A$50 - but Whitten hopes people will be drawn to take part in what is a "public good" enterprise, much like Wikipedia. Although anyone can become a trader, the team's ideal players would be farmers, weather forecasters, people who live close to reservoirs, and computer modellers. The market currently has about 50 traders, and the team hope at least 50 more will join.
Donlan says the market's real value will come from the wide-ranging knowledge of investors. For example, when it comes to biodiversity, rather than rely solely on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which may not account for all regional variations, markets that capture local knowledge could give a more accurate prediction of the size of bird populations, say.
* The Auto Industry is developing strategies for successful transition to electric plug in vehicles. The industry is considering implementing community out-reach strategies for plug-in electric vehicles first to make sure that they receive adequate support for success.
Car companies intend to target places where governments are willing to provide incentives to purchase plug-in electric cars and install charging stations. Utilities, too, need to be involved so that the grid doesn't become stressed by a rush of cars.
...Nissan will stage (their plug-in) car's initial introduction in the fall of 2010 in region's that have the right infrastructure in place, said Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan Americas. That will help it prepare for "mass market" availability in 2012, he said.
It is establishing "public-private partnerships" with governments and utilities in an effort to ensure things like favorable permitting and available inspectors for charging stations, Perry said. So far, it has agreements with Tennessee, Oregon, and Sonoma County, Calif., to set up a network of charging stations in public places.
"As we think about the individual consumer, you don't want it to be an open question--Ok, I want an electric vehicle, what do I do? We want to have those answers," said Perry. "It's not a technical hurdle. It's more a coordination and logistics hurdle."
I really look forward to plug in cars hitting the market. It doesn't address the fundamental problems of sustainability, but it does offer a solution to the contribution of vehicle emissions in climate change. The picture at the top of the post is the chinese battery manufacturer BYD's dual electric/gasoline car, the e6 (h/t treehugger.com)
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