Book review: Techno-fix: Why technology won't save us or the environment

Techno-fix: Why technology won’t save us or the environment

Michael Huesemann and Joyce Huesemann / New Society Publishers / Paperback: £20.99 / ISBN: 978–0–8657–1704–6

If you’re waiting for a technological “silver bullet” to arrive and save the world from soaring temperatures, don’t hold your breath.

The authors of this timely book challenge the belief that technological innovation will save us from the consequences of what they describe as our 300-year fossil-fuelled binge known as modern industrialised civilisation.

They argue that modern technology has limits, and can even create unintended consequences that further damage the environment.

Negative environmental consequences from technological exploration, control and modification of nature are inevitable, say the authors, because human actions cannot improve nature, which they describe as a complex interconnected system that is continually adapting to change through the process of evolution.

Efficiency is currently much in vogue, but this book says efficiency solutions might themselves create problems.

The authors assert that efficiency often stimulates the consumption of the same limited resources, and contend that a society in which processes have become ultra-efficient is much more vulnerable to resource shortages.

You have been warned!