Nanotechnology and Sustainability

The sustainability of our present civilization and, ultimately, of human life itself is challenged on many fronts. The most prominent of the challenges are climate change, extreme food and water shortages, rising chronic diseases, and rampant obesity. They are all of great significance in terms of death and morbidity, and at the same time seemingly intractable. This paper looks at the technical dimension of overcoming these challenges, contrasting the apparent impotence of conventional technologies with the potential of nanotechnology. Particular attention is paid to the scalability of any proposed nanotechnology-based solutions (bearing in mind the vast scale required for meaningful implementation), as well as the related aspect of realizable timescales. Where alternative solutions exist, a criterion of choice based on the life quality index is proposed. The paper concludes by examining the practical problems of implementing solutions projected to be successful.