NANOTECHNOLOGY TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Keywords:
Anthropocentrism, Artificial Photosynthesis, Eco-centrism, Environmental Sustainability, Nano-governance, Nanotechnology, Nano-therapeutics, Planetary MedicineAbstract
Nanotechnology has moved from the realm of science-fiction to reality at more than expected speed. Various areas in which nanotechnology presently seem to be having a decisive role to play is still in the state of tip of the iceberg and once it is exponentially deployed and employed there will be hardly any sphere of life which will not have a nano-touch in it and by that time world might be known as nano-world. With this at the backdrop the answer to the problem for sustenance of the planet will also have to come from nanotechnology. In the visible spectrum the planetary medicine aspect of artificial photo-synthesis seems to be the answer, once effectively arrayed on ground. If that is to be the case, the ethical aspect of its fructification will need to be conceptualized and formulated and global regulatory system will need to be put in place. Needless to say, either ethics will have to catch up with the galloping nano-technology or the latter will have to slowdown to be in empathy with the former, in the overall interest of humanity and that of the planet.
References
“Preservation of Life on Earth,” Article 4, UNESCO Declaration, November 1997.
Paul J. Crutzen, “Albedo Enhancement by Startospheric Sulfur Injunctions: A Contribution to Resolve a Policy Dilemma,” Climatic Change, 2006, Vol. 77, 2011-2020.
Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Will Steffen, and Paul Crutzen, “The New World of the Anthropocene,” Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 4, Issue 7, 2010, 2228-2231.
Bruce H. Wilkinson and Brandon J McElroy, “The Impact of Humans on Continental Erosion and Sedimentation,” GSA Bulletin, 119 (1/2), 2007, 140-156.
Mamadou Diallo, Bruce Tonn, Pedro Alvarez, Philippe Bardet, Ken Chong, David Feldman, Roop Mahajan, Norman Scott, Robert G. Urban, and Eli Yablonovitch, “Implications: Convergence of Knowledge and Technology for a Sustainable Society,” Convergence of Knowledge, Technology, and Society: Beyond Convergence of Nano-Bio-Info- Cognitive Technologies, Science Policy Reports, ed. Mihail C. Roco, William S. Bainbridge, Bruce Tonn, George Whitesides, New York: Springer, 2013, 371–424.
Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, New York: Viking, 2007, 1-7.
Dirk Willem Postma, Why Care for Nature? New York: Springer, 2006, 107.
Freya Matthew, “Deep Ecology,” A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, ed. Dale Jamieson, New York: Wiley- Blackwell Publishers, 2003, 218–233.
John C. Hendee, George H. Stankey and Lucas C. Robert, “Wilderness Management”, United States Department of Agriculture,
Forest Service Miscellaneous Publication, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, Vol. 1365, 1978, 140-141.
Jeffrey C. Brinker, David Ginger, “Nanotechnology for Sustainability: Energy Conversion, Storage, and Conservation,” Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020, ed., Mihail C. Roco, Mark C. Hersam, Chad A. Mirkin, New York: Springer, 2011, 261–303.
Mamadou S. Diallo, Neil A. Fromer, Myung S. Jhon, “Nanotechnology for Sustainable Development: Retrospective and Outlook,” Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Springer, 2013, 15:1-16.
Thomas Faunce, Nanotechnology for a Sustainable World: Global Artificial Photosynthesis as Nanotechnology’s Moral Culmination, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012, 65.
Gro Harlem Burndtland, “Towards Sustainable Development” in Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Chapter 2, A/42/427, 1987, (10 June 2014).
Hugh Charles Jonathan Godfray, J. R. Beddington, I. R. Crute,
L. Haddad, D. Lawrence, J. F. Muir, J. Pretty, J. S. Robinson, S. M. Thomas, and C. Toulmin, “Food Security: the Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People,” Science, 2010, 327: 812–818.
Robert M. Solow, An Almost Practical Step Toward Sustainability, John Hopkins University Press, 1992, 15.
Jeffrey C. Brinker, David Ginger, “Nanotechnology for Sustainability: Energy Conversion, Storage, and Conservation,” Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020, 261–303.
Richard E. Smalley, “US Congress Testimony,” 1999, 2 (15 June 2014).
Anisa Mnyusiwalla, Abdallah S. Daar and Peter A. Singer, “Mind the Gap: Science and Ethics in Nanotechnology,” Nanotechnology, Institute of Physics Publishing, 2003, 14.
Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 62-64
Thembela Hillie and Mbhuti Hlophe, “Nanotechnology and the Challenge of Clean Water,” Nature Nanotechnology, 2007, 2: 663–664. Richard Jones, “Are Natural Resources a Curse?” Nature Nanotechnology, 2007, 2, 665–666.
Fabio Salamanca-Buentello, Deepa L. Persad, Erin B Court, Douglas K Martin, Abdallah S. Daar, Peter A. Singer, “Nanotechnology and the Developing World,” Public Library of Science (PLOS) Medicine 2, 2005, 97.
Thomas Faunce, “Governing Planetary Nanomedicine: Environmental Sustainability and a UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Bioethics and Human Rights of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis (Global Solar Fuels and Foods),” Nanoethics 6.1, 2012, 15-27.
Herbert James Paton, The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant's Moral Philosophy,
Bryan Furnass, “From Anthropocene to Sustainocene: Challenges and Opportunities,” Public Lecture, Australian National University, 21 March 2012.
Thomas Alured Faunce, and H. Nasu, “Normative Foundations of Technology Transfer and Transnational Benefit Principles in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2009, 34, 296-321
Thomas Alured Faunce, “Future Perspectives on Solar Fuels,” Molecular Solar Fuels Book Series: Energy, ed. T. Wydrzynski, and W. Hillier, Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012, 506–528.
Thomas Alured Faunce, “Governing Nanotechnology for Solar Fuels: Towards a Jurisprudence of Global Artificial Photosynthesis,” Renewable Energy Law and Policy, 2011, 2: 163-168.
Johan Rockstrom, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Marcus C. Ohman, Guido Schmidt-Traub, “Sustainable Development and Planetary Boundaries,” 2013, 1-3, http://unsdsn.org/wp-contentuploads/2014/02/130508-Sustainable-Development-and-Planetary-Boundaries.pdf (June 10, 2014)
Johan Rockström, “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity,” Ecology and Society, 2009, 14(2): 32.