ABSTRACT
Science and technological advances, seen widely as among the motors of competitiveness and as the cornerstone of the ‘knowledge society’, can be expected to continue with striking speed in the coming decades (IPTS 1999, and 2000). This innovation coupled with the scale of goods and services production, transportation and consumption activities will undoubtedly bring benefits and attractive novelty to many sectors. But, no doubt, it will also contribute significant new sources of bother, inconvenience and risks (negative health and environmental effects, societal tensions and stresses). It is easy to make a list of ‘risks’ already anticipated from current technological innovation trends:
• Increasing quantities of by-products and combustion emissions related to the use of hydrocarbons (oil and gas products, as well as coal), e.g., for high speed air and surface mobility;
• A rise in the use of scarce elements, including rare earths and other substances, of varying toxicities, linked to the specialized requirements of information technology and communications systems;
• Continuing increase in chemical residuals (including fertilizer by-products, pesticides and medicinal drugs for animals) linked to intensive agriculture and livestock raising practices;
• The possible production of new types of complex wastes, whose environmental and health impact is difficult to evaluate, resulting from metallic composites, from materials (re)processing at various stages of the nuclear fission cycle, and so on;
• Increased disruption of terrestrial ecosystems and occupation of rural territories due to the continuing expansion of existing and new types of transport infrastructures;
• New ecological and health risks linked to the use of products from genetic engineering, on the one hand the creation of new animal and plant forms, on the other hand the arrival in major quantities on the market of foodstuffs and other products that depend, directly and indirectly, on the use of these GMO components.
