How to Make Society Sustainable
Imagine what a sustainable world would look like
Amidst a global pandemic, inflation rising, stock markets and crypto crashing, record-breaking heat waves, wildfires, and war; the future is looking kind of bleak and it’s getting more and more difficult to imagine one that is not. The world is facing some extreme challenges, and it is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Our global society is in the midst of an existential crisis, and according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the 8 billion people on the planet today are the most important to have ever lived because the decisions we make over the next few decades will decide the fate of humanity. However, to strive for a better future, we must first imagine it.
The Future
Architect, visionary, and futurist, Jacques Fresco, called it a resource-based economy, in which humans live in balance with nature, supported by efficiencies created by technology like artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and renewable energy. I like to call it sustainable capitalism because it is an easier concept to grasp and while this future isn’t a foregone conclusion, it is a possibility, provided that we make the right choices.
The Death Economy
Our current system of capitalism is unnecessarily wasteful. It is what author and former economic hitman, John Perkins, calls a death economy, in which all areas are financialized and we value profits over people and nature.
Because of this, we throw away between 30–50% of the food that is produced in the world, often for mundane things like a few blemishes. A car loses 70–80% of its chemical energy as heat exhaust, and it will spend 90% of its life parked. The average person buys 60% more clothes than they did in 2000 and according to the World Bank, most people only wear 20% of them.
A Circular Economy
So, what can we do to become more sustainable? The move to a circular economy has already begun. The company Terracycle helps you to reduce your waste while getting your favorite consumer goods in reusable packaging that you return to the manufacturer, once you are done with them. It is already in 21 countries around the world.
To replace plastic there are a growing number of alternatives such as bags and food containers made out of cassava and plant starches, that are non-toxic, biodegradable, and home compostable.
To get rid of the plastic that we already have scientists have created an enzyme, using AI, that can dissolve it in as little as 24 hours. This revirginizes the plastic so that it can be used repeatedly, rather than down-cycling it like we do today.
Exponential Technology
According to futurist and entrepreneur, Peter Diamandis, in his book The Future is Faster than You Think, we are at the beginning of the convergence between artificial intelligence, quantum computing, material science, 5G, robotics, 3D printing, synthetic biology, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). These are potentially world-changing technologies that will progress exponentially, meaning that there will be more change in the next two decades than there has been in the last 1000 years.
By leveraging these new tools we can make product design more intelligent, create new materials, and make industries more efficient.
Energy
We will be able to 3D-print solar panels into a thin layer of film with an inexpensive material named perovskite, which increases their efficiency from 23% to 30%, over a conventional silicon one. Since we can integrate the material into the paint, we will be able to put solar panels onto buildings, cars, and clothes.
Since they don’t require glass to make, they will be a lot lighter and take up less space. To solve the intermittency problem, we will make batteries from graphene, which lasts 8 times as long as lithium and can be made from agricultural waste like hemp.
Transportation
Electric and hybrid electric vehicles will grow in popularity and JP Morgan expects them to capture almost 40% of the market share by 2025. This will reduce our carbon footprint and help to reduce air pollution.
When self-driving cars become common in a couple of decades they will connect to a centralized system. This means that cars on the freeway could drive in convoys just a few feet away from one another. This would help to free up valuable space and unclog the highways.
Self-driving vehicles would also alleviate the need for private car ownership since they would be readily available on-demand using an app like Lyft or Grab. Since cars spend 90% of their time parked and 40% of a city’s center is used for parking this would free up an enormous amount of land that could be developed into parks, low-income housing, farms or rewilded.
For longer distances, the Hyper Loop, which shoots passengers in a pod, through a vacuum tube, at speeds of up to 760 MPH, is expected to be ready by 2030.
For the next decade, we will fuel airplanes using cleaner-burning bio-diesel and other synthetically made fuels, that reduce but don’t eliminate CO2 emissions. Between 2030 to 2035 hydrogen fuel cell technology will be mature enough that airplanes can begin using them. Since they don’t release any harmful emissions, it will make flying guilt-free.
Housing
Modular buildings and 3D printed homes are already being built from recycled materials and agricultural waste like rice. They require less labor, cost 30% to 40% less, and once the house reaches the end of its useful lifespan, we can compost them.
Food/Water
Over the next decade, water scarcity will become a serious issue as climate change makes droughts more severe. We will need to change the farming system by applying different techniques like regenerative agriculture that focus on improving the health of the soil. This can create healthier food, while also reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides and fertilizers while also improving the water cycle.
New technology like vertical farming which uses 70% to 90% less water will also be necessary. Although it is currently expensive, as it increases in scale, the price of the food it produces will come down.
We can already make synthetic meat and dairy using a process called precise fermentation that uses bacteria and cells from an animal rather than the actual animal. Not only does this end the cruelty of factory-farmed animals, but lab-grown “clean meats” have the same taste and nutritional value as the real thing, while using 99% less land, 80 to 90% less water, and emitting 80–95% fewer greenhouse gases.
Consumer Goods
Clothes are increasingly being made from natural fibers like hemp, and bamboo, which requires less water, and pesticides to grow.
GoodOnYou.Eco is a website and app that rates the sustainability of fashion brands. This reflects how consumer behaviors are changing, which is increasing demand for sustainable products. This will force manufacturers to rethink their fast fashion mentality and make longer-lasting, higher-quality goods.
Appliances, laptops, and smartphones have already become modular, making them easier to recycle, repair or upgrade rather than having to replace.
Websites and apps like ShareMyToolBox and GlamCorner already enable customers to share tools, luxury goods, and accessories, thus lowering their carbon footprint and the number of resources required for their production.
Cities
With the threat of rising sea levels, cities of the future could be built on the water. The first one will be built in South Korea, is called OCEANIX, Busan, and is expected to start construction in 2023. This will house 12,000 people initially, but in the future, that number could rise to 100,000. These ocean cities, could house millions and act not only as a place to live, but also as flood barriers, aquariums, and oceanic research centers.
OCEANIX will be powered by solar panels, will treat and recycle its water, and have urban farm areas to grow food.
In the near future cities on land could be integrated with parks, gardens, and automated vertical farms, which could feed the local population without the need for pesticides, fertilizers, or a substantial carbon footprint.
Although artificial intelligence (AI) is still in its infancy we already have self-driving cars, planes, and boats. In the future, AI could help humans to manage a city’s infrastructure, making it run more efficiently and preventing the waste of valuable commodities like food, energy, and water.
Energy
In the future, we could derive all of our energy from renewable or clean sources. According to Stanford Engineer, Mark Jacobson, America can get to 100% renewable energy with wind, water, solar, and no more than a 4 hour battery storage. Jacobson says that 80% of this transformation could be completed by 2030, following the roadmap he has outlined.
To make transportation and storage of energy easier we could also add algae biodiesel, and hydrogen to the mix. For a cleaner and practically limitless fuel there is nuclear fusion, which experts predict will be available sometime after 2050.
Rewilding Nature
Over the last decade, we have learned a lot about how our planet works. A 2019 study estimated that by restoring terrestrial carbon sinks, which include the soil, mangroves, peat bogs, and forests, we could sequester and store about 23.8 billion tons of CO2 per year. The study said that restoring all of these areas wouldn’t be cost-effective, so a more plausible figure would be 11–15 billion tons of CO2 per year. This means that our natural carbon sinks could sequester about 30% of the CO2 we emit every year.
This means that we could remove a substantial part of our carbon footprint with no new technology, and no excessive costs. We just need to stop cutting down our forests and killing our soil and start repairing these carbon sinks. Doing this will increase biodiversity, which will help stabilize ecosystems, make them more resilient to change, and more productive from an economic standpoint.
While this future is not a foregone conclusion, it is a real possibility, but one that we will have to work toward. Most of this technology already exists, some of it is mature, while others are in nascent stages. Combining them with rewilding, and bio-remediation we can make capitalism sustainable, and bridge the gaps between commerce, convenience, and being environmentally responsible.
