Professional Large Authorities Economist requires a moon shot for renewable energies – what’s mistaken with that?
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
College of London economist Mariana Mazzucato believes that the entrepreneurial spirit of government employees should be used to solve big problems like plastic pollution and climate change.
Tackling climate change, poverty and ocean plastic requires a “moonshot” approach, says economist Mariana Mazzucato
ABC Radio National
By Belinda Sommer and Richard Aedy for the money
Almost six decades ago, President John F. Kennedy’s famous “Moonshot Speech” gathered the US public behind the Apollo mission to send astronauts to the moon.
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Leading economist Mariana Mazzucato is not the first to ask why people, if they can land on the moon, cannot solve some of the great challenges here on earth such as climate change, poverty or a plastic-free ocean.
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Your answer? Governments should take the “mission-oriented approach” of the Apollo project.
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“The reason I think it worked is because NASA was very confident,” she says.
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Professor Mazzucato contrasts this with modern governments in which the advisors are strongly represented.
She points to Britain, where the Cabinet Minister, Lord Agnew, accused the British civil service of being “infantilized” by an “unacceptable” reliance on expensive advisors.
He said civil servants “have been deprived of the opportunity to work on some of the most challenging, fulfilling and crisp topics like Brexit and COVID-19”.
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-02/mariana-mazzucato-government-changing-capitalism-climate-mission/100036000
I tried to work as a government employee. Generous pension system, job security, it looked really nice on paper. But I can’t stand the boredom. I like to fix problems. But nobody fixes public service problems, and nobody wants to fix problems because fixing problems poses a threat to job security. Fixing problems will reduce the number of man hours it takes to complete the department’s duties.
There are exceptions, islands of excellence. In my experience, well-run police departments are usually run by former operational police officers who really care about the quality of the support that frontline workers receive. In the past, the electricity suppliers were filled with people to take care of it – until western governments made their work impossible. During war, governments hire people to fix problems because the threat of impending invasion tends to keep people’s minds focused. And of course, on occasion great projects like the Apollo Moon Landing can spark people’s imaginations to such an extent that people put personal convenience aside for the common good.
Is the solution to the alleged climate crisis a project that inspires people’s imagination like the moon landing? I doubt it. Climate action is always at the bottom of people’s list of priorities. The most serious engineers I’ve met think the climate crisis is a joke. Those engineers and scientists who believe they care enough to learn quickly are impossible with something similar to current technology. Even for those who believe that solving a future problem won’t bring the immediacy and emotional pressure to work to plant a flag on the moon or stop a military invasion.
Calling for an Apollo renewable energy project to make renewable energy viable with current technology is like calling for a magical supply of energy to the world – and it is about as unlikely to produce a profitable outcome.
Update (EW): Chris Hanley has published one of my favorite analyzes of why the renewable revolution is a pipe dream.
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