Can a 30 story building produce the same amount of food as a 10 km square farm? The first video below suggest that in the future this may be possible, if we embrace nanotechnology and genetic engineering. Is technology alone the answer to humanity's problems?
If growing food on the sides of buildings frees up land, would such land be used for malls, housing or food for more people? Or should we restore such land to working ecosystems with high biodiversity? What is the value in that for humans? Is it really worth anything economically?
Thinking about natural ecosystems as a biological technology that provides humanity with high-value services may help future developers integrate conserved natural areas with urban and industrial areas. In this way, mitigating the effects of climate change, creating jobs, protecting housing from floods, purifying waste, protecting threatened species and improving human lives may all be possible. Do we have to change the current economic system to achieve this? Can an Ecological Economy, a symbiosis between the technologies of man and natural ecosystems, emerge from unrestrained capitalism?
The two videos below represent different ends of the climate change adaptation spectrum. The first, STONE LINES, illustrates the use of a basic adaptive technology already utilised to great effect in an arid region of Africa. The second video by Dr Michio Kaku is purely philosophical and centres around the possible utopia created by NANOTECHNOLOGY.
Which of these two videos best applies to a future Earth? Does it depend on the path the global economy takes?
Will technology answer the climate change conundrum after all? If so, as humans thrive, what will happen to other species? What will the surface of the planet look like?
What technology do feel will have the biggest impact over the next century, and what will be its effects?
Yann Arthus-Bertrand captures the effects of the world economy in cinematography as beautiful as any nature documentary in HOME. The video below is a preview of the full movie, available on YouTube.
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