Solving problems

Everywhere you look there are major problems facing our society. You can consider the Economy, Terrorism, Health Care, Global Warming, etc and etc. Some think the problems are so far along that it is already to late to solve them and that we should be preparing for a collapse of the economy, rising sea levels and widespread pandemics.

In the late 18th and early 19th century Thomas Malthus showed how the growth of population was going to exceed the earth's capacity to support it. The mathematics supporting the theory were correct and we may at some point still face a Malthusian Catastrophe. What the theory did not properly account for was that the conditions of the early 19th century were not the epitome of human progress. Advances that were not and probably could not have been predicted by Malthus not only avoided the catastrophe he predicted (so far) but has greatly increased the earth's capacity to support humanity.

Of course logic does tell us that if population does continue to grow there must be an ultimate limit, but for my purposes, the disaster that seemed so certain and so imminent has been altered by developments that could not be predicted.

I was reading an article today about how LED lighting held great promise to reduce energy requirements. Of course it was talking about a relatively minor reduction overall (somewhere in the neighborhood of 3% of total electric usage). This was calculated against compact fluorescent bulbs so it would obviously be higher since they already are a lot more energy efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs.

What I found most interesting about the article is that it is one thing in one area that is being developed that will potentially help solve one of our problems. I think most of the prognostications base their opinions on what they know. This is only logical, but the one thing they should know but often seem to forget is how much they don't know.

I know that as problems arise and become generally accepted many many bright industrious people start looking for solutions. The vast majority of these attempts will probably not amount to very much but enough of them will result in improvement. Most of these problems are not going to be solved by one gigantic solution. However, is we reduce energy usage via better technology such as LED bulbs, energy efficient appliances, more fuel efficient cars, better use of solar and wind, etc, etc we will turn the corner at some point. Less reliance on carbon based and imported fuel will have significant repercussions.

Simply put, if someone asked me how are we going to solve any of the major problems we are facing, I admit I couldn't tell them, except to say that the innovation and creative capacity of humanity should not be discounted.