Ten and a half years ago, a satellite was launched on a mission to examine Pluto, the outermost planet in the “classical” solar system. An astonishing five billion kilometers later, the New Horizon Space craft this week reached its target. The first pictures that it took of Pluto, from a distance of 12,500 kms are remarkable, but the bounty of visual and scientific evidence that the probe acquired as it hurtled past, has yet to be gathered. So great is the distance the craft is from Earth, and so voluminous the data it has collected, it will take fully 16 months before everything is transmitted back to mission control in Maryland. This extraordinary achievement is as astonishing as the success of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which landed a probe on the surface of a comet just three by five kms in size hurtling through space at 15,000 kph. If scientists are capable of such mind-boggling achievements in space, can it be hoped that such brilliance can also be deployed to tackle the huge problems of hunger, famine, poverty and disease here on Earth? There are those that argue that science will fix everything. World hunger can be eradicated with advanced agriculture. This does not simply mean genetically modified crops which are resistant to plant diseases while giving a hugely increased yield. There are plans for multistory farms where food crops will be grown in temperature and climate-controlled hydroponics, where there need be no soil used at all. And scientists insist that they have the answer to global warming. The replacement of fossil fuels with cleaner forms of energy, the removal of carbon emissions from automobiles, power stations and factories and the ever-greater use of renewable forms of energy are all ambitions, which the boffins say could be met rapidly. They insist that they are ready to work up and commercialize the technology. What they cannot provide, and what they need to get on with their innovative work, is the political will. There are too many governments still trying to protect the vested interests of their own corporations to give real power and substance to the combating global warming. Despite regular much-publicized high-level summits in which everyone pledges to act to curb carbon emissions, the problem remains. The bitter truth is that mere soundbites eat no carbon. But things can get so bad that states are forced to act. Thirty years of rapid economic growth have left China with major environmental problems, poisoned soil, dangerous air quality in major cities, particularly Beijing, polluted rivers, unsafe drinking water and destroyed forests. The Chinese government is being driven by public protest to act but it also sees the real economic costs of failing to clean up its environmental act. Meanwhile our oceans are filling up with rubbish. In the middle of the Pacific there are huge concentrations of plastic bags and other refuse. These need never have been dumped into the sea. There is technology for recycling every single form of refuse, which in turn would reduce the rate at which the world's natural resources are being depleted. Yet the appliance of science to all these pressing earthly problems is held up by a lack of political will and depressing protectionism. Political leaders nervous of their electorates want to secure and guard their economic borders. Clearly, this is why scientists have been so remarkably successful in their space programs — there is currently no one patrolling the final frontier.
