Technology won't save us.

2024/03/06 STEAM-Hezkuntza (Elhuyar Zientzia)

• Komikiak
• STEAM-hezkuntza

Given that the environmental emergency is based on structural economic and social reasons, the solution demanded by the crisis is also social and political, not only technological. Wind farms, electric cars, carbon absorption technologies, giant marine wind turbines, gas monitoring satellites and other proposed technologies can help. There is also a need to increase the amount of renewable energy. But change in production technologies will never be enough to cope with the enormous energy expenditure generated by our economic system and to compensate for the greenhouse gases it generates.

To address climate change, some propose managing the solar radiation that reaches the planet. That is, to reflect to space a portion of the solar radiation coming in, so that the planet does not warm up so much: among other things, “whiten” clouds to reflect light; widen silicate pearls to reflect light in polar ice; or genetically manipulate growing plants to reflect more sunlight. In Western countries, we live in the fantasy that technology will save us.

But scientists have frustrated this fantasy: they've looked at the potential of all low-carbon technologies, and the more positive expansion of these technologies would not be enough to meet the projected energy demand by 2050. The problem is not just technological, nor is it the solution. The emergency calls for social and political changes, above all, calling into question our economic system and reviewing consumer behaviour, attitudes and ideas for sustained economic development. However, it is not enough to question it, we have to carry out all these socio-economic changes.

This project, promoted by Elhuyar, has the collaboration of the Department of Economic Promotion and Strategic Projects of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.