“Whatever it takes”?

Sometimes blindly pursuing technology mirages ends up in collapse.

The “Whatever it takes” syndrome

“Whatever it takes”. This now famous phrase uttered in July 2012 by Mario Draghi, then President of the European Central Bank is credited to have played a decisive role in “saving the Euro”. It was uttered again in 2020 by President Emmanuel Macron about unleashing massive state expenditure within the European Union in response to the dire economic and financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemics and response to it. In the shadow of the pandemic, now that more and more people realise that it may take some seven years for the world to possibly emerge from it, this same phrase is increasingly used concerning the even larger impacts and the sheer urgency to address the Climate Emergency. Everyone, in governments and large corporates alike, clamour that they will do “whatever it takes”.

In all cases it is a matter of “throwing ever larger amounts of money” at the threats in the hope that they would be overcome at some future stage, with the Climate Emergency increasingly taking centre stage. With the USA now resuming its participation to the 2015 Paris Agreement, nation-state after nation-state declare their aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or some other time horizon. The…