Q & A with Paul Crutzen

Here at the First World Congress of Environmental History (Copenhagen/Malmø August 4-8) Nobel laureate in chemistry Paul J. Crutzen gave the first traditional plenary talk, entitled "The Anthropocene: Humans as a force in global environmental cycles". A good talk it was (though in the context of climate change I would not pragmatically allude to geo-engineering - which Crutzen did refer to in conclusion, "out of despair" (being clear, to be fair, that it was only a "last resort", and that other solutions should be sought).

I asked him a question in the Q & A session following Crutzen's talk. First I referred to his mention of the incredible economic growth of the last century, and said I understood his despair with regard to climate change. But what role has the economy to play in this context? Is our current economic model viable, or not?

Paul Crutzen answered, after a moment of hesitation, that he though the current economic crisis is evidence that our current economic model is not viable (laughter from the audience).