Innovation Defined

In his book, “The Challenge of Climate Change,” author, Norman Myers, provides a definition of the level of innovation that should be required of any group working on solutions to the challenge of climate change. In summary, innovation must produce new technology, not duplication of old technologies. It is this requirement of new, unique, and better ways of doing things that makes the effort so difficult. In other words, if we are going to solve the challenge of climate change, we are going to have to create a better way of doing things, and in order to do this, we are going to have to redefine the problem.

The innovative definition takes on many dimensions. However, I would like to briefly discuss two of them here.

The first innovation definition includes recognizing the problem, developing an agreement about what is not acceptable, and implementing and enforcing the agreement. Again, this is perhaps the hardest thing to do. In addition, it requires the leadership to really focus on this problem. On the one hand, you want leaders who are motivated to meet the challenge of climate change in order to protect their constituents. On the other hand, you want leaders who are also motivated to help find solutions that will benefit the public at large.

The second innovation definition, therefore, refers to the most fundamental assumptions. These assumptions include the need for leadership, and the willingness of stakeholders to make an investment in the innovation of the scientific community.

Climate change is the invitation to civilization to go forward in new directions. We should consider new opportunities, not recycling or going back to the way things were done. We should create new challenges, not just add to an existing inventory of issues.

Today’s eco-systems are the products of trillions of years of evolution. There is no turning back the clock. In fact, the incentive for innovation on the environment stems from our failure to address the environmental challenges of the past. In fact, there is no way to reverse the progress that was made in the last decade. Rather, the challenge for us as a civilization is to ensure that we move forward, learning from the past, and moving forward on the issues that affect society today.

In addition to the challenge of innovation, we need to look at the problem of population growth. For example, some countries are in crisis while others are showing no sign of slowing down population growth.

If we are to create a better world for everyone, there needs to be a commitment to reducing population growth, especially when it comes to emerging and third world countries. If there is a natural disaster, it has the potential to spark population growth and thus fuel conflict.

Some will argue that there is a fine line between poverty and environmental performance. Some will say that poor environmental performance doesn’t cause problems. However, if the poor countries were responsible for their poor environmental performance, why do we have the problems in these areas?

If we look at the situation through the lens of technological innovation, we can see that poverty and population growth both contribute to the challenges posed by climate change. Because of the fact that environmental degradation has not been well addressed, in some cases we are building infrastructure that cannot operate for decades, if not centuries.

In addition, there is evidence that, underdeveloped countries have responded to the slowdown in population growth through a number of different means. Some have expanded education systems, while others have developed agricultural systems that are capable of dealing with population pressures. Therefore, if we hope to prevent global warming, we need to develop an infrastructure that can handle the demands that are currently being placed upon it.