Science fiction can tackle the science facts of climate change

The contents of a report outlining what health provision might look like in 2030 might sound fantastical but tackling climate change is going to require some very imaginative technology and radical thinking

The Terminator or Star Trek? While an abiding interest in either of these science-fiction classics might be an admission of geekdom, it's also a quick way to divide the doom-mongers from the optimists when it comes to where our tech-dependent society is headed.
Put yourself in the Terminator camp, and you're most likely a believer in dystopia rather than utopia. Our over-reliance on machinery is going to get us all in the end, and six-foot cyborgs with Austrian-sounding accents will chain-gun what's left of post-apocalyptic humanity. Give computers the power to think and they'll want to wipe us out. See also The Matrix, Blade Runner, and Alien.

Put yourself in the Star Trek camp and you’re more likely a believer in the inclusive, disease and money free vision of its creator, Gene Roddenberry. Technology will lead to space exploration, which will provide the perspectives humanity needs to eradicate illness, famine, war and - importantly - financial services.

There might be a few run-ins with knobbly-headed aliens, but thanks to the power of technology, mankind will evolve beyond in-fighting; leaving time to tackle everything else that kills us prematurely - including tax returns.

While there aren't any direct references to Vulcans or setting phasers to stun, the authors of a new report from the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) are probably Trekkies.

Fit For The Future discusses how technology and innovative thinking could create a safer, more efficient health-service – for example by creating robots that will be faster and safer than human surgeons. It also muses on how technology could be a response to another serious-slice of present day dystopia - climate change.

Fit For The Future is based on a 2008 study from think-tank Forum for the Future called Climate Futures (yes, we know, it’s all about the future…) which analysed the social, political, economic and psychological consequences of climate change. It applies the same thinking as the earlier report to examine what the health service could look like in 2030 and how the government and the NHS can embrace the best possibilities and avoid the worst.

For more go to: Green Scene on science fiction and climate change