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Research into the air, the water, and the soil. It is difficult— But which technologies will enable us to do
perhaps even impossible—to break because that? Can we find technologies that will give
we need the energy embedded in fossil fuels us efficient alternatives for fossil fuels, reduce
to propel the industry and to ensure adequate excess consumption of energy, and perhaps even
material conditions and a basic standard of living absorb the surplus of carbon dioxide from the
for all of Earth’s inhabitants. atmosphere?
How can the cycle be broken? Is there hope? The development of such technological solutions
is indeed underway—in part, at some of the
The Problem-Solving Machine Technion’s laboratories.
And yet, forecasts predicting the sad future Let the Sunshine In
of our planet’s climate, like many other
historical predictions concerning nature and the Solar energy has a long history. Inventors as far
environment, are not carved in stone. In fact, back as the seventh century BC were able to focus
forecasts of this kind have a marked tendency to sunlight using primitive magnifying glasses. They
be proven false—but only if certain conditions are did so to light bonfires or, in somewhat less than
met. pleasant circumstances, to set insects on fire.
When, in 1894, The Times predicted that “in The ancient Greeks would light “holy” torches
50 years, every street in London will be buried using mirrors that reflected and focused sunlight,
under nine feet of manure,” it failed to consider a practice that survives to this day as part of
automobiles, which would, within a period of the Olympic Games, ensuring—according to the
twenty years, transform transportation and International Olympic Committee—that the flame
eliminate horses as the most widespread mode remains “ever pure.”
of travel. When, in 1976, Paul R. Ehrlich published Pure or not, the Greeks were definitely on to
The Population Bomb, predicting that hundreds something. Our planet gets vast quantities of
of millions of people will die of starvation in
the coming decades, he failed to grasp the full According to Prof. Carmel Rotschild,
significance of the Green Revolution, which in combining a turbine and a solar panel
a biological engineering tour de force improved will enable harvesting over one-third
the quality and resilience of plants grown in Asia of the energy locked in sunlight.
and Africa. As a result of this revolution, Asia
and Africa, to a large extent, are able to grow and energy from the star at the center of our solar
provide their own food today. system. If we could use all the energy reaching
These forecasts and others like them did not take Earth from the sun in just a single hour, we would
into account the most crucial element to consider be able to fulfill all of humanity’s energy needs
when thinking about the future: The advancement for an entire year. If we could use all of the solar
of technology itself. energy hitting a single square mile, we’d have the
In The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, energy equivalent of 4 million barrels of oil.
Matt Ridley writes: “The human race has become So why aren’t we?
a collective problem-solving machine and it solves One of the most common arguments is that
problems by changing its ways.” Ridley has little harvesting solar power is still vastly more
faith in the apocalyptic forecasts surrounding expensive than producing energy from fossil
climate changes for a simple reason: He believes
that humanity can still turn back the clock on
global warming, using the power of technology.
12 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
