The Clean and Green Club

In some ways, this book is the antithesis (always wanted an excuse to use that word!) of Green Illusions, which I reviewed two months ago. I felt Green Illusions was too pessimistic; this one is overoptimistic. The truth, I suspect, is somewhere in the middle. Not necessarily an average, but on a continuum, or maybe a pendulum—varying topic by topic about where it swings.

Naam is an unabashed and relatively uncritical booster of solving the world’s problems through technology. And admittedly, technology has done amazing things. He points out hundreds of examples of how we are able to do more with less over time. We heat and cool our buildings to levels of comfort unimaginable a scant two centuries ago, and do so without even beginning to tap out the enormous power of the sun and wind. We use materials like carbon fiber and inventions like semiconductors to increase efficiency and bring down cost by orders of magnitude; Moore’s law (which he does not name) apparently applies in many sectors—not just computing power but agriculture, manufacturing, and much more. We feed more of the world’s hungry and use less water and land to do it—beating Malthus’ 18th-century predictions of doom because the rate we grow food has outpaced population growth. Efficiencies have allowed our food to be provided by only two percent of the population, whereas until the past few centuries, feeding the populace required almost all of society.

The reason Malthus was wrong, he says, is because innovation grows exponentially, while use of resources is more linear. And certainly it’s true that a person living in a large city uses far less land and far less fuel, compared to a country dweller. But population is increasing geometrically; we are approaching seven billion people on this planet, compared to two billion not that long ago—and a billion of those face serious hunger. He admits that we will have to grow 50 percent more grain and double our meat production to satisfy the growing demand. But he sees that much waste yet remains, and we can get vastly more efficient even than the 10,000-fold increase we’ve already had in some sectors.

I agree with that. And I totally agree with him that we have to move off the fossil-fuel treadmill and toward these nearly inexhaustible sources of energy. Burning fossil fuels depletes our resource capital, pollutes our air, and pushes us to the brink of catastrophic climate change (or perhaps over the brink). And we don’t need those fuels.

But where I disagree is his blind assurance that innovation—not just any innovation, but harnessing dangerous, unproven technologies such as nuclear power and GMO agriculture—will continue to solve those problems, even if we I am a fan of the Precautionary Principle, which as a society we have violated frequently, and suffered the consequences. The Precautionary Principle says we make sure we are not doing harm before engaging in an action. Yet both nuclear power and GMO foods are not only fraught with risks, but they may bring us risks that are not reversible.

Naam says that organic agriculture is substantially less efficient than industrialized, GMO-influenced “chemiculture” (a word I invented a few years ago) and that as a planet, we can’t afford to devote the greater amount of land he says they require. I say that’s an area where the very innovations he sees as solving other problems are solving this one. With the last 40 years or so of small-farm and organic innovation, organic yields and organic produce quality are up substantially, and they leave the soil in much better health than chemiculture fields, and thus ready to grow more food sooner. There are also many promising new developments that convert formerly unusable space into food production: rooftop farms, vertical small-space gardens designed for apartments, raised beds reclaiming paved areas…these are just a few of the many organic innovations of recent years.

I agree also that the exponential increases in our problem solving abilities are crucial, as the world’s developing countries and fastest growing population/economic powerhouses demand a seat at the table with the old-line industrialized countries of the United States, Germany, France, etc. China and India, especially, are putting great pressure on our resources, as they attempt to satisfy their people’s hunger for more consumer goods.

So take this well-researched but perhaps unrealistic book with a few grains of salt—but do spend some time with it. It’ll definitely open your mind to human possibility, and to our species’ incredible track record in making the world better for our fellow humans—something we don’t hear enough about.