Why technology is not the solution

Because, unless the underlying social factors are taken care of, the technology to be developed will be the wrong kind of technology, and benefits only the powerful group that f***ed up in the first place.

To curb global warming and find alternative energy after peak oil, for example, the "scientific" solutions are biofuel, wind power and (sometimes) nuclear. Some pundits have even talked about increasing energy efficiency. But was there any mentioning of using less energy? G-d forbid, to keep the social economic system going, the total consumption gotta grow, grow and grow without limit!

So far, biofuel has jacked up the price of beer in Germany, pork in China, and caused the average US grocery bill to grow by $47. You bet that it's a bigger hit on the poor.

Meanwhile, major public subsidy goes to business interests (agricultural, energy), supposed to be "seed money" for R&D. Should their research succeed, don't even think for a moment that it benefits the public. Just look at what happened in semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. As soon as a publicly-funded research shows profitability, it's transferred to private companies which vows to recover cost and reap that many more times in profit.