New technology will save the planet from climate change, says LEO McKINSTRY – Express.co.uk

A sense of looming catastrophe is reinforced by reports of melting glaciers in the Arctic, unprecedented floods in parts of Asia and disappearing islands in the Pacific because of the rise in sea levels.The classic response of environmental campaigners is to demand a green revolution, based on a radical new economic agenda and drastic changes in our lifestyles.

According to the eco-warriors, the salvation of the planet lies in the replacement of hi-tech western consumerism with a culture of self-sacrifice.

Like the po-faced religious puritans of the past, these hectoring zealots argue that environmental disasters are natures revenge on us for our selfish greed.

Therefore, to avoid the apocalypse, we must atone for our sins by accepting endless green bans, taxes and economic recession.

It is a miserable, authoritarian outlook, perfectly captured in the grim rhetoric of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who has become the international champion of the hardline, environmental programme.

In a typically emotive rant at a UN summit last year, Thunberg wailed the politicians had stolen my dreams and my childhood, adding that we are at the beginning of mass extinction and all you talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.

But there is an alternative vision for the rescue of the planet, one that is far more uplifting and optimistic.

Instead of seeking to drag us back to a spartan, pre-industrial age, it aims to embrace the future.

Rather than viewing technological innovation as a menace, it wants to harness such progress for the good of mankind.

It is an approach that lies behind the new initiative by Prince William, who announced this week the launch of the most prestigious environmental prize in history in the search for practical solutions for the Earths problems.

Under this ten-year-long project, supported by Sir David Attenborough, five winners will each year receive multimillion-pound awards for the development of ideas to tackle climate change.

Reflecting this bold emphasis on advances in science and engineering, the scheme is entitled Earthshot in an echo of the inspirational US Moonshot programme of the 1960s that pioneered the first Moon landings.

By taking the plunge into environmental politics, there was a danger that Prince William might have come across as just another virtue-signalling, woke celebrity, delivering sanctimonious lectures about green awareness from his affluent cocoon of privilege.

But he has been far too thoughtful, and creative to do that.

Instead, he has come up with a plan that could yield real results rather than just spreading guilt.

In contrast to the bleak propaganda of Thunberg and her fellow fundamentalists, his prizes offer the exciting hope of better times ahead.

The Prince himself rightly referred to the inspiring civilisations we have built through our unique power as human beings to innovate and problem-solve.

He is absolutely right.

The answer to climate change lies with the hard-headed pioneers, not shrill activists.

Tremendous progress is already being made, particularly in the generation of green energy.

Yesterday, the National Grid revealed that 2019 was the cleanest year on record, as energy from sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power outstripped that from fossil fuels.

This can be part of a saga of real environmental progress.

Bolstered by the Princes support, technologists will also find new ways of trapping energy through far more effective storage systems such as batteries or laminate coating.

New, greener forms of transport will be developed, such as electric aircraft and hyperloop trains that can travel at over 700mph.

Crop yields can be enhanced by genetic modification, thereby helping to feed the planet more cheaply.

Above all, the advent of fusion power plants which create energy by combining atoms rather than dividing them will transform supplies, since the process is inherently safe and produces zero emissions.

The stance of the eco-mob is unworkable.

Their whole ethos runs counter to mankinds impulse for improvement.

That is why the radical greens are so intolerant.

In a notorious recent outburst for which she had to apologise, Thunberg herself called for world leaders to be put up against the wall.

But Prince Williams scheme is the opposite.

In place of self-loathing, it is a celebration of the best of mankind.

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New technology will save the planet from climate change, says LEO McKINSTRY - Express.co.uk