Innovation in lifestyles and technology.
It may take both, but innovation in technology will definitely be necessary if people aren't innovative enough in lifestyles.
Our survival may be a contest between innovation and desperation.
Examples of lifestyle innovation:
Reduce population growth through increase in percentage of population living "child free" lifestyles. Growing acceptance for gay lifestyles is one example.
Reduce consumption. Voluntary simplicity, shorter workweek. Valuing more free time over buying power.
Alternative transportation. Less dependency on automobiles. More bicycling, walking and public transit.
More compact residential development. Planning that grows up instead of out. Smaller lot sizes, more people living in apartments and condominiums. More things with-in walking and biking distance. More density for greater viability of public transit. Hopefully urban lifestyles can be made affordable.
Planting forests.
Examples of technological innovation:
Use Internet to tele-commute rather than driving to work.
Alternative energy from wind, solar, dare I say nuclear power.
Sequestering carbon from fossil fuel such as burning coal for electricity, but capturing the CO2 so it doesn't go out the stack.
Seeding ocean plankton so it sequesters more carbon and sends that to the bottom of the ocean.
More efficient appliances such as the progression from vacuum tube to transistor to microchip.
Reflecting back some of the sun's rays before they reach Earth. Scattering dust into stratosphere. Orbiting a large set of Levolor Blinds in space between Earth and Sun. Remember, they must be Levolor.
To whom do we hand the rod for adjusting the mini blinds?
The UN? President Bush?
Some people might say, "this is really keeping the blinders on."
Still, I believe both lifestyle and technological innovation will be needed.
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