Hello, everyone! This is Romal. Creativity plays such an essential role in finding effective solutions to environmental problems. I believe that no matter how diverse and unrelated your interests are, approaching the environmental movement from a new angle will aid in the discovery of unconventional and innovative ideas to complex environmental issues.
I was recently reading a paper called “Promoting Technological Innovation to Address Climate Change.” If you are interested, the entire paper can be found at: http://www.oecd.org/env/cc/49076220.pdf. While reading the article, I came across an interesting statistic that highlights the necessity of using creativity and approaching environmental issues from different fields and mindsets. The paper had a chart on “clean” energy technologies, and this graphic depicted that multidisciplinary fields accounted for more than 4.9% of the successful “clean” energy technologies. This sector was relatively high compared to the other fields listed.
Figure 8: The innovation-science link in “clean” energy technologies, 2000-2009 (Share of scientific fields cited in total non-patent literature cited in patents for “clean” energy technologies)
Source: OECD calculations, based on Scopus Custom Data, Elsevier, December 2010 and EPO, Worldwide Patent Statistical Database, April 2011.
Let me know your thoughts on using innovative solutions to creatively solve environmental problems. Join the discussion!
Wow, that is amazing how multidisciplinary fields make up such a large part of clean energy technologies, highlighting the need for more creative and innovative solutions like the ones proposed in this initiative!