The need for change

Technological development in the 20th century has given many benefits to mankind – curing disease, providing security from invasion, securing resources such as water, energy, minerals and food – making life more comfortable, enjoyable and efficient. These technological advances arose not only from applied scientific research but were also frequently underpinned by basic scientific discoveries driven by curiosity and the exploration of the unknown. In all cases science has been the self-centred - to make life better for us and to try to find out whatever we wished to know - and fragmented, with consequencies and inter-relationships that were either not foreseen or ignored. Expensive publicly-funded projects have seen astounding increases in our knowledge of structure of matter and the creation of the universe, whilst biomedical research has given major insights in to the working of the human body and enabled development of new treatments for disease. More recently concern for the environment was been an important emerging factor in science, but here again the motives have arguably been largely self-centred - preserving landscapes, cleaning the air and protecting animal and plant species for our own enjoyment. For most of the 20th century, such scientific research and science-based technological development was confined to a small number of nations often at the expense of the rest of the world, a continuation of the exploitation by colonial activities of previous centuries. Progress and economic growth were mostly unabated in this select group of countries for several decades after WW2, and appeared to be limitless. The inescapable truth that such development can not ever be the privilege of all mankind was ignored, as the chasm between the developing and underdeveloped world grew larger and larger. However, the 21st century has seen this truth exposed in a most dramatic way. The unexpected rapid development of India, Brazil and China driven by the globalisation of markets, finance and labour, has placed massive extra demand on the world’s resources, exposing clearly their finite capacity; in particular, limits to the production of food and energy are rapidly being approached, pushing up prices and threatening economic, political and social upheavals throughout the world*. This change has been accompanied by the realisation that the burning of fossil fuel, the linchpin of technological development, was dramatically changing the world’s climate. In the short-term this could cause massive disruption to food supplies and severe environmental damage (e.g. flooding, desertification), affecting millions of people, and in the long-term could destroy human civilisation itself. This new scenario requires radical change not only in the priorities for scientific research, but in the way we carry it out.

The dual challange

The challenge facing mankind is how to provide sufficient energy and food, against a back-drop of the threat of global climate change. In the case of food, analysis of population growth, agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability in Asia for example presents a bleak scenario – too many people, not enough yield, not enough land, not enough water, too much pollution, increased energy (and carbon) costs, and the uncertain consequences of global warming. Unchecked, the consequences of this are poverty and hunger on an unprecedented scale. World food production rates will need to be increased by at least 50 % in the new 20 years, a massive rise in harvestable yield per hectare of the major crops such as rice and wheat. In the case of energy, similar analyses suggest the requirement to increase energy supply by an incredible 2-3 times, to around 30 TW per annum by 2050. At first sight these dual challenges are daunting. However, there is a solution – the sun! Mankind urgently has to find ways to use solar energy more effectively, more extensively and more efficiently. This includes increasing plant and algal photosynthesis for food, fuel and other products (fibre, chemical feedstocks etc) and developing efficient, cheap devices to harness and store solar energy for electricity and fuel. What role should scientific research play in this process?

The new approach

The seriousness of the problem and the enormity of the challenge suggests a radical change is needed in the contribution that scientific research makes to technology and development. Ultimately, science and technology are responsible for the perilous position faced by mankind. A change in outlook, motivation and philosophy is needed. We need a new era of scientific investigation and a new generation of young scientists that have these central global issues as the focus - an integrated approach shared by the physical, mathematical, biological and environmental sciences. This new community of science will strive towards the common goals of prosperity and security for all of mankind. Whilst there is still a place for competition between individuals and institutions to help drive the pursuit of excellence essential for the level of scientific progress required, its worst excesses (that are the route to the most distasteful aspects of science, unethical and fraudulent practice), based on ego and greed will be replaced by humility and philanthropy. But how may this culture change be fostered?

New research structures

Two types of changes are needed. Firstly, academic institutions need to develop new mechanisms to establish interdisciplinary research in ways that focus on the new research challenges of climate change, energy and food. New cross-departmental initiatives should establish these as priority areas. A continuum of integrated research activities in the physical and biological sciences should be established. Most importantly, the postgraduate training programmes need to be completely overhauled, so that all science students, whatever their speciality are given the required level of global perspective of scientific research. Hand-in-hand with such institutional changes must go radical change within the research funding bodies. They must all must recognise their responsibility in promoting this new science, taking the existing cross-agency/council initiatives into a bold new era. Governments must recognise the level of funding that is required to promote this cultural shift.

*Note

The current economic crisis has brought into stark reality the fragility of a system based upon a perceived unlimited capacity for economic growth. Whilst the causes of this crisis are many and are being discussed and studied by many economists and politicians, it could be argued that it highlights a lack of financial sustainability equivalent to those of energy, food, water etc. Just as our lifestyle consumes unsustainable amounts of these resources, so it has depended upon unsustainable levels of borrowing and credit. In both cases, the driving forces are the same, and the solutions rather similar. At another level, it is undoubtedly the case that the abrupt increases in the costs of food and energy during 2007/2008 contributed to the collapse of the financial markets (by for example bringing on mortgage foreclosures, bankruptcies and reductions in consumer spending). As we rebuild our economies, surely it is essential to also adopt this new approach.