Can we have it all? And if so, shouldn’t we be spreading the word?
Eight years of G.W. Bush has not done the world any good. But whilst Bush was ignoring Kyoto and commissioning incorrect studies on global warming, the 27 members of the European Union were prodding along creating environmental, economic and social priorities in a crucial attempt to reconcile economic development with the reduction of greenhouse gases.
On a visit to Tate London in 2006 my attention was drawn to a colourful painting exuding confidence and optimism. The caption read “Kandinsky died waiting for the transformation that would make the world like heaven... "
On the same visit I bought and read Jeremy Rifkin’s Hydrogen Economy which predicts utopia if through a combination of technological innovation and strategic re-thinking, non-polluting Hydrogen Energy would take over from Fossil Fuels. As we need energy to create Hydrogen Fuel Cells (batteries that will contain so much Hydrogen energy that we will be able run our cars on them), Rifkin talks about renewable sources of energy like solar and wind. There is plenty of wind in the Northern Hemisphere and plenty of sun south of the equator, and so every nation could eventually create their own limitless power-supply. This brings a glimmer of hope in a world so polluted that every headline predicts doom and gloom.
As luck would have it I was then sent to Russia to interview someone about the Tokamak Nuclear Fusion Project. Unlike Nuclear Fission, fusion is a “potentially safe, clean, and virtually limitless energy source for future generations”.
Then, in 2007, the European Union announced an investment of more than €50 billion in the 7th Framework Programme to fund research and R&D in technologies ranging from Wind Energy to Hydrogen.
I was brimming with a renewed confidence and optimism for the future. Surely the gloomy headlines would soon inform the world population about a renewed hope for the future?
Nothing.
At least nothing much on the news or in the daily press. One has to dig deep and read specialised magazines (or surf the net) to get decent information. Many of us don't have time for this, and even more wouldn't know where to look. Information can quickly become overwhelming. Yet this is more important than half of what I read in the paper today. I believe that the major environmental RTD breakthroughs will happen in Europe, and thanks to the European Union. So what can we do to inform the 500 million citizens of the aspirations of the EU’s policies? The EU wants to create a fairer, safer and cleaner world. Shouldn’t we be shouting this from the rooftops?
I read this morning that only a tiny percentage of people are aware of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals which aims to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day. This is huge, yet nobody knows about it. I called 20 people this afternoon and nobody I spoke to has heard of the EU’s €50 billion investment in our future.
Maybe we should now re-think communication for the masses. Nobody should be in the dark about affairs that affect us all.