Yes, more efficiency and more renewables would be great, but the primary solution in doing something about this problem is not in finding ways to ‘hide’ what we use or ways for us to continue consuming just as much as we do now but at reduced emmissions – the solution is in a simple mindset shift: to realise we don’t need all the trappings of the 21 century, power, waste, consumables, and all, and simply to stop buying it. Result? Nothing to hide, and pollution would fall naturally.

Yes, the population will grow and demand will grow with it, but if we forsake this throwaway consumer culture then the world could handle it.

Unfortunately, people don’t like this option because they fear what they may have to live without. God forbid they can’t buy a fifteenth pair of shoes, or a TV for their kid’s bedroom bringing their house total up to four or five, or a new car when their ‘old’ one is perfectly capable for doing its job for years yet…

If people learned to repect the world and learned a little self-discipline, we’d get far, far further toward ’saving the world’ than any technological masterpiece could ever take us.

Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com