To confront the climate crisis, we also need a wave of innovation

HOW to stop our planet overheating is, of course, the key question of our time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN agency known for its sobriety and caution, has, for some time, noted that halting the current warming trajectory “requires rapid and far-reaching changes” in all aspects of society.

Some interpret that as meaning the end of capitalism. Others prefer that we innovate our way out of the problem. Certainly, we must cut our consumption of planetary resources, especially in high-income countries, and this is something that the Czech-Canadian scientist and author Vaclav Smil has argued for at …