Faced with the scale and intensity of the ecological crisis, environmental transition is underway, consisting of a first phase of technological mutation, aimed at replacing technologies harmful to the environment with those which have no destructive effects on the earth system and its equilibrium.
This book examines the roots of the concept of environmental transition, identifying and characterizing the negative effects of technology on the environmental crisis. We will then identify the technological mutations that have the potential to contribute to environmental transition, and demonstrate how these changes are already forming part of a new emerging "technological system".
We will conclude by addressing the question of the limits of technological responses to the environmental crisis, demonstrating the importance of the dimensional factors of human activity and weight of growth in this crisis, thus raising the issue of global reconsideration, with reference to the place and articulation of human activity in the Earth system.
Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Part 1. Anthropocene Crisis and Ecological Transition 1
Introduction to Part 1 3
Chapter 1. Emergence of the Anthropocene: A History of the Dynamics of the Environmental Effects of Human Activity and Technology 5
1.1. In the beginning, humanity integrated into the biosphere 5
1.2. The first period of artificial human activity: from the Neolithic to the Industrial Revolution 6
1.2.1. The Neolithic revolution 6
1.2.2. 5,000 years of slow human expansion 9
1.3. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, the start of the Anthropocene 11
1.4. The peak of the Anthropocene 12
1.4.1. The Second Industrial Revolution amplified the ecological crisis 12
1.4.2. The peak of the contemporary technological system and the ecological crisis 17
Chapter 2. From the Ecological Crisis of the Anthropocene to the Ecological Transition 21
2.1. Structure and forms of the ecological crisis 22
2.1.1. Global warming/climate change 22
2.1.2. From atmospheric system disruption to hydrological system crisis 22
2.1.3. Deregulation and degradation of the ecological system, leading to the extinction of animal species… 24
2.2. Anthropogenic factors: discarding, extraction and degradation 26
2.2.1. Greenhouse gas emissions 26
2.2.2. "Contaminating the world": chemical and biological pollution 29
2.2.3. Waste production 31
2.2.4. Resource depletion 33
2.2.5. The degradation of natural areas and the artificialization of space 37
2.3. A process marked by a sense of urgency 38
2.4. From crisis to ecological transition: the imperative of technological change 39
2.4.1. The ecological crisis is forcing us to take into account the environmental impact of the technologies used in our activities 39
2.4.2. The need to eliminate technologies with destructive effects, the "euthanasia of technologies" 41
2.4.3. Generating incremental technological innovations toimprove the ecological efficiency of traditional non-replaceable technologies 41
2.4.4. Generating a stream of new disruptive or resurgent technologies that are compatible with the environment 42
2.4.5. Unit level and global impact, the need for a diverse technological response 43
2.4.6. Generating technologies to repair the damage caused by the ecological crisis, and overcome the bottlenecks of massive and rapid technological change 43
2.5. Technical note on modeling the ecological limit of a technology 44
2.5.1. Ecological limits of an activity 45
2.5.2. From contribution measurement to the unit indicator of ecological nuisance, the relevant technological framework 46
Part 2. Technological Change in the Face of the Ecological Crisis 47
Introduction to Part 2 49
Chapter 3. Technological Change for the Energy and Transport Transition 51
3.1. Energy transition scenarios 51
3.1.1. The planned phasing-out of fossil fuel thermal energy technologies 53
3.1.2. Two conventional thermal power generation methods in use 56
3.1.3. Use of renewable energies 59
3.1.4. Concentrated solar power 60
3.2. Eco-technological changes in transport 67
3.2.1. Road transport 68
3.2.2. Air transport 75
3.2.3. Maritime transport 79
3.2.4. Rail transport 82
Chapter 4. Technological Responses to the Ecological Crisis in Processing Activities 85
4.1. Mining 85
4.1.1. Pollution and ecological degradation caused by the mining industry 85
4.1.2. Corrective technologies 87
4.2. Materials and primary processing industries 88
4.2.1. The steel industry 88
4.2.2. Cement and building materials 88
4.3. The chemical industry 89
4.3.1. The chemical industry and the environment 89
4.3.2. Trends in the chemical industry’s technological shift towards ecological transition 91
4.4. Ecological crisis and technological responses in the processing industries 93
4.4.1. The textile industry 93
4.4.2. The leather industry 94
4.4.3. The food-processing industry 95
4.4.4. Packaging 97
4.5. Electronics and the digital industry 98
4.5.1. Information technologies perceived as immaterial and as reducing the ecological impact of other activities 98
4.5.2. Information technology worsens the ecological footprint 100
4.5.3. A self-growing system 104
4.5.4. Possible responses 106
4.6. Housing and construction, the ecological impact of housing and its technological response 108
4.6.1. The ecological consequences of construction activities 108
4.6.2. The ecological effect of habitat structure and land use 108
4.6.3. Optimized architectural and urban design adaptation to climatic conditions 109
4.6.4. From "thermal sieves" to building insulation, which should lead to a powerful reduction in energy consumption 109
4.7. Agriculture, livestock and fisheries 110
4.7.1. Agriculture in the Anthropocene 111
4.7.2. Eco-technological solutions 113
4.7.3. Cellular agriculture 115
Chapter 5. Emerging Technologies: Repairing the Effects of the Ecological Crisis 119
5.1. Circular economy: recycling and reconditioning 120
5.1.1. Reuse and repurposing 120
5.1.2. Recycling 121
5.1.3. Product and system reconditioning 126
5.1.4. The local circular economy: industrial and territorial ecology 128
5.2. A decarbonization process, CO2 storage and recovery 129
5.2.1. CO2 storage 129
5.2.2. CO2 recovery 131
5.3. Artificial freshwater production 133
5.3.1. Two processes dominate desalination technology 133
5.4. Technologies for repairing environmental degradation: engineering and ecological engineering 135
5.4.1. Restorative ecological engineering technologies 136
5.4.2. Geo-engineering 137
Part 3. Technological Change for the Ecological Transition: Its Process and Limits 141
Introduction to Part 3 143
Chapter 6. Towards a New Technological System 145
6.1. "Creative destruction": the first phase of technological change brought about by the ecological transition 145
6.2. Structure and forms of a new technological system 148
6.2.1. New generic technologies driven by ecological requirements 149
6.2.2. Traditional generic technologies reoriented by the ecological transition 154
6.2.3. Functional technologies specific to the ecological transition 157
6.3. The paths of eco-technological transition 159
6.3.1. The technological system is reorganized according to a new logic 159
6.3.2. Routes to eco-technological change 159
Chapter 7. Transition Procedures and Limits 165
7.1. The techno-ecological transition process 166
7.1.1. The drivers of change 166
7.1.2. Barriers to change 169
7.2. Limits to the effectiveness of technological change for the ecological transition 174
7.2.1. The mass effect in the ecological crisis 174
7.2.2. The reconfiguration of the technical-economic system induced by the initial technological change (towards a logic of sobriety and reduced growth) 177
7.3. Prospective assessment of the relative contribution of technological change and societal change to the ecological transition, using two forecasts of different ecological transition structures for France 182
7.3.1. Lessons from an environmental transition plan: "the shift project" 183
7.3.2. Prospective modeling of four ecological transition paths, based on the case of France - Prospective Transitions 2050 186
Conclusion and Outlook 191
References 195
Index 203
