There is no doubt that technology is a part of the solution to climate change. However, technological solutions can be a huge distraction from getting to the bottom of things.
From giant space mirrors to dumping iron particles in the Pacific Ocean, to genetically engineered plants and animals, even unleashing new synthetic lifeforms upon the planet, we are promised a mind boggling array of miraculous solutions to the climate crisis by the very companies who are causing it. Under pressure to clean up their act, climate polluters, eco-preneurs and creepy DNA manipulating scientists are teaming up to assure us that technology and money can fix anything.
Here are some examples of new “green” technologies being researched, developed and or promoted right here in New Zealand. Some are already causing suffering in other parts of the world, some haven’t even got started. Click on the links for a good overview of the concerns being raised in relation to each technology.
- Next generation Biofuels
- Genetically engineered plants and animals
- Biochar
- Synthetic biology
- Geoengineering
- Nanotechnology
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It’s a pretty simple message really; we can manage the climate crisis without compromising profits, the power structures or the economic system that got us here. Entrepreneurs are teaming up with polluting industry and getting on board the “we care about the climate, too” bandwagon.
Here in Aotearoa a number of untested and unregulated technologies are being developed and promoted as a panacea for the planet’s climate woes. While New Zealand may have better regulation and transparancy safeguards than many other countries, some of these technologies are being hailed as global silver bullets to the climate crisis. One of the main motivations for the companies involved is the profits that can be made from selling the intellectual property rights for these new technologies to companies in other countries, yet little thought seems to be going into what the consequences could be if these technologies are deployed on an industrial scale in other parts of the world.
Jatropha for example, a plant once championed by Air New Zealand as a climate friendly aviation biofuel is now being grown in Kenya in massive quantities. People who are already living low carbon lifestyles [small scale farmers for instance] are being driven off their lands, leading to talk of war, and the Jatropha plant itself, a noxious weed, is causing all sorts of other environmental problems. Contrary to Air New Zealand’s initial claims, it turns out that Jatropha causes up to six times more emissions than ordinary jet fuel. Despite all this, Air New Zealand continue to greenwash aviation-as-usual, partnering with biofuel companies and greenwashing industry groups. Whatever will they come up with next?
Adaptation, technology and climate justice
Climate change is not a global experiment in adaptation or evolution, it is a human induced and human controlled consequence of massive over-consumption of resources and over-production of greenhouse gas emissions, pre-dominantly by the richest countries and peoples of the world. The scientific and financial interest in adaptation technology should never over-ride the social and cultural costs of climate change impacts.
Climate justice recognises the difference between trying to save an unsustainable world and creating a new and better one where people are in control of their own lives and livelihoods. It’s not about saving the world the way it is now, which is what a lot of these techno-fixes are about, because the way the world is economically and socially structured now has led us to climate change in the first place.
Climate justice is about creating a new world by and for the majority of people in the world who haven’t become wealthy from unsustainable development but have suffered disproportionately from it. It’s about making a better world from the bottom up because it is the 99%, not the 1% who are going to feel the effects of climate change and the consequences of the choices made in the face of it.
We already have the answers
Amidst all the hype and unfounded claims, it is easy to forget that clean technology isn’t exactly a new idea, and it is easy to forget that we already have the ability to live healthy low carbon lives right here in Aotearoa, indeed many people already do. Traditional and small scale food production techniques, massive shifts away from industrial dairying towards production of real food, support for genuine renewable energy, which must be defined as excluding industrial bioenergy and other technologies which destroy biodiversity and ecosystems and most importantly, cooperatively and sustainably living within our means are all part of the answers we need for the turbulent times ahead. The answers are all around us.
We don’t need giant space mirrors or new lifeforms made in labs, we just need to start doing what we already know works and doing it together. Investing public money into such initiatives [instead of creepy research projects] can get us there and create endless green jobs at the same time. When Cuba moved back to human and animal powered harvesting, instead of heavy machinery, and reclaimed land from industrial agriculture corporations they quickly created 140,000 new jobs. According to the documentary, The Power of Community, 80% of Cuba’s agricultural production is now organic!
Truely clean and climate justice friendly technologies;
- Already exist
- Put people and communities in control of their own future
- Give people the tools to prepare for the extreme social and political changes ahead
- Provide goods and services that people actually need [like food and shelter]
- Are accessible and affordable to those who need them
- Are not tied up in intellectual property rights
- Can be supported by “Just Transition” strategies for all workers towards safe, meaningful work free from exploitation
So the next time you hear about cleantech, or greentech, or even a smart green economy, ask yourself the following questions; Who is benefiting and who is being damaged? How can this affect the local environment and communities on the ground? Who is telling us this technology is safe and can they be trusted? Where does social justice, democracy and therefore climate justice play a role?
Democratising the development and use of new technologies, which forward thinking organisations like ETC group are calling for can be one way to safeguard against potential harmful consequences of their deployment. But this is a political, not a technical matter. Ultimately, real solutions to climate change need to be understood as being essentially political rather than simply technological, because new technology on its own won’t improve anything without dramatically changing the context in which it is used.
Links
Climate Justice Aotearoa : Green Growth is not an environmental strategy
ETC Group Submission to RIO+20 : Tackling Technology: Three Proposals for Rio
Friends of the Earth : Climate Justice campaign and policy position
Rising Tide – Hoodwinked in the Hothouse : False solutions to climate change [booklet]