Combatting the Climate Crisis requires Innovative Technology

Supporting innovation is the key to success

6 min readOct 14, 2021

There are many examples of recent technological innovations which could contribute to resolving the Climate Crisis such as: Wireless energy transmission, floating power plants, vertical wind turbines, offshore hydrogen plants, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage¹. Combatting the Climate Crisis will require these innovations, and many more! Technological innovation is one important factor required for an effective and quick transition campaign.

Technology, capital, and policy are three of the main areas of concern when thinking about how to effectively combat the Climate Crisis. In the current system, capital is required to fund the technological solutions. Policy is required to enable them. You can argue about the effectiveness of the current system. But changing the system, and acting only after that, will always be slower than acting now within the current framework to the best of our ability. We can work on systemic change in parallel. Capital and policy are seemingly a bigger hurdle than tech. In any case, innovative technical solutions have to exist in the first place in order to fund or govern them.

Innovative technology is a fundamental requirement to solve the climate crisis, and to stimulate it we have to value technology and focus on educating current and future generations so that useful worldly secrets are discovered.

Valuing Technology

Technological innovation caused the Climate Crisis, when the western world exploited it to industrialize at an unprecedented rate, initially blissfully- and later willfully unaware of the consequences for future generations and other parts of the world. Now we know better than that, and the next level of technology is required to deal with it. We must use this technology in an attempt to minimize the magnitude of the catastrophe which continues to unfold day by day².

Modern life would be impossible without it, yet a lot of people do not appreciate how complex technology has become. It has to be valued by individuals and society. This means that modern technology is not taken for granted, but seen for the great achievement that it is.

If society highly values technology, more people will take an interest in it, and more people will want to work in tech. When you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, more often than not the answer is one which is considered highly valued by society. A firefighter, or a doctor, for example. If we want to generate more innovative technology to combat the Climate Crisis, we need future generations to see tech jobs as cool, and important.

Tech workers have a habit to downplay what they are doing. Generally they are also less interested in stepping in the spotlight to highlight how cool their job is. However, a majority of the population has not a clue of what goes into it. Being more openly proud of tech work, and showcasing it to the public is one way to move society to value technology more.

Education at the Base

The goal of the education system should be to produce people with the skills necessary for creative cooperation. Groundbreaking technological innovations are most often — maybe even exclusively — the result of the relationship between two or more persons, and the creative synergy flowing from the relationship. Some examples: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak revolutionized personal computing, Sergey Brin and Larry Page created the internet search engine that would become Google, Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the airplane³. Wilbur was quoted on his deathbed as saying: “Nearly everything that was done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions, and discussion between us”. Rather than focussing on pumping students full of knowledge, and preparing them for standardized tests, the main goal of the education system must be to enable the students to create such moments of creative synergy in their lives.

The level and complexity of technology is still ever-increasing, and with it so is the average productivity of humans. To meet the ambitious climate goals, we need to get people ready to produce at this higher technological level. There is an increasing shortage of personnel in technical sectors (ranging from software developers and project managers to carpenters and mechanics)⁴. At the same time, there are many technological challenges which require people to solve them. We need to stay in control of the technology, and not the other way around, by making sure the educational system produces enough persons with the skill, knowledge and desire to work tech jobs.

Future generations will have the unenviable mission of combatting the Climate Crisis, and we must ensure that they are adequately equipped by educating them. The consequences of this Crisis will persist for long after we die, and the systems must be set up with this idea in mind. Professionals who are affiliated with the tech sector can help by working together with educational institutes and students. Share your knowledge and experiences with them. Be proud about the positive contribution that you are having by working with technology. Be a mentor to the next generation.

Discovering Secrets

There are many worldly secrets yet to be discovered, and some of them will be the key to important technologies which will help to combat the Climate Crisis. It is imperative that people cultivate their sense of adventure and exploration, which is required to uncover them. People have to believe that these secrets are out there, and that they are in fact capable of uncovering them⁵. Their educational background is one important factor contributing towards this worldview.

Most secrets are not discovered independently, but interdependently, as part of a creative cooperative effort between persons. Nobody has an objective view of the world. Talking with others, and appreciating the fact that we each see the world as we are, will lead to new insights and discoveries. Value the differences between people, seek to understand them, and don’t be afraid to open yourself up to be influenced by them.

Creating something new which was not there before is one of the things that gives our lives meaning⁶. But not everything which we create will end up playing a significant role in life or having the intended result — and that is fine! Making mistakes is part of the process and should be encouraged. Learn, commit, do. Make mistakes, learn from them, and share the lessons.

Conclusion

I believe that innovative technology is a fundamental requirement to solve the climate crisis. It is important for new impactful innovations to be discovered and implemented. Society has to value modern technology, and not simply take it for granted. Educating future generations is key in order to give them a fighting chance at combatting the Climate Crisis. Work towards experiencing creative synergy, and cooperating with others in an interdependent reality. The secrets demand this in order to reveal themselves to you.

Personally, I have ended up in a position where I get opportunities to work on innovative technology. I try to be outwardly proud of my work, and to engage with students and interest them in the work that we are doing. It is not easy to do, but I must try.