Sir Brian Heap, former master of St. Edmunds College in Cambridge, mentioned the word genomics only once or twice. That was enough to link the field to climate change,” the most serious topic humanity has ever faced.” With this, Heap quoted Royal Society president Martin Rees. Heap: “Consumption is not the promised land. Once a certain basic level of prosperity is attained, people don’t get happier by consuming more”, Heap stated. Yet, we consume and produce ever more – including carbon dioxide. And one thing is certain: climate change won’t make us happier at all. It is hard to change consumption patterns, because “genes are selfish” Heap says, quoting Richard Dawkins. Therefore we’d better see to it that we realize Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP). Heap presents a large amount of tables and data to underline his statement. He isn’t a pessimist: if necessary, people have proven to be able to take action. Look at the hole in the ozone layer; it is (slowly) getting smaller thanks to measures taken.

Smart marketing

Science can contribute a lot to the challenges of humanity, for instance the challenge to produce enough food for a planet with eleven billion inhabitants by the end of the century. Genetic modification has often got a bad press, but it can for instance help in the production of plants that are far less sensitive to drought. But science can’t do it on its own. What Sustainable Consumption and Production needs, is smart marketing, changing industry and business practices and financial measures. Engineering and technology will have to go together with socio-political initiatives. But science will have to contribute not only to solutions, but also to getting the message across. Politicians just know too little about science.   

Leading role

It is remarkable that Heap didn’t refer to the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) principle of Braungart and McDonough, but instead introduced his own abbreviation SCP. The message is however the same: close production cycles and see to it that raw materials can be used infinitely. Genomics has to play a role here. “Making the most of genomics is an essential part of the response to the challenges humanity faces.”

 

[Leendert van der Ent]