Preface to the First Edition Free

As a chemist, I have often felt pressed to express an opinion when chemistry-related controversy erupts, though forming what I believe to be a robust and well-grounded view has been constrained by my ignorance of wider relevant factors. If today's chemists are anything like me in this respect, particularly relating to questions about the role of chemistry in sustainable development, they need help. This book is for them, as few chemistry courses (and texts associated with them) place, as I hope to do, an equivalent emphasis on both the subject matter and the context in which it should be considered.

Chemistry for Sustainable Technologies: a Foundation seeks to meet this need by combining two key requirements: first, rigour, appropriate to a course for undergraduates studying for a Chemistry BSc or MChem, and second, relevance, by placing chemistry into the widest of contexts. I hope that even a non-specialist general reader will understand the relevance of (and I would say the central importance of) chemistry to efforts to move to a more sustainable world. Even so, the complexity of the technological challenges is immense; confronting and overcoming these challenges need an improved dialogue of experts, the public and government, the success of which requires, on an unprecedented scale, informed, pragmatic, enlightened and disinterested decision-making.

The book is not explicitly written to popularise science or chemistry (as there are many who have done this much more effectively than I could), though I hope it may promote the greater understanding of the role of science, and chemistry in particular, in seeking solutions to societal problems. I hope the reader will recognise and appreciate the motivation and practice of science, particularly its (sometimes imperfect) correction of error and its self-criticism. Indeed, in what other sphere would a proponent of a revolutionary idea provide a list of its weaknesses with which its opponents could challenge it, as Charles Darwin did in Chapter 6 of his On the Origin of Species?¹  Darwin lived in a less cynical age in which the expression of wonder was not viewed askance; the sort of wonder that was felt when it was first realised that we depended on plants to produce the oxygen we need to survive by converting the CO₂ waste product from our own respiration.²  Wonder leads to curiosity and a wish to understand. Curiosity needs to be combined with scepticism so that ideas and evidence (and the tentative theories that arise) are continually scrutinised and tested. Richard Feynman said:³  ‘…each generation that discovers something from its experience must pass that on, but it must pass it on with a delicate balance of respect and disrespect, so that (…it…) does not inflict its errors too rigidly on its youth, but it does pass on the accumulated wisdom, plus the wisdom that it may not be wisdom’. I thus believe that it is important for chemists (and others) to understand something of the ethos, methods and history of science and the ways scientists go about their business, none of which is a topic covered adequately in today's mainstream chemistry courses. This becomes of particular importance when a scientific issue becomes a matter of public controversy.

My own career has been one in which chemistry and chemistry research have been the central motivating interests. The difficulty (for me at least) has been to explore and understand all those related aspects of science, technology and society necessary for the successful and acceptable application of the subject (and its defence against those wishing to demonise it) while retaining expertise in my chosen specialist chemistry research areas. I did not want to become a specialist in sustainability science (important as the topic may be) or a science communicator; I wanted to remain a mainstream chemist, with an awareness of what contribution chemistry might make to sustainability. This is why I hope graduate and professional chemists may also find this book of value.

I have written this book with the aim of equipping those studying chemistry to degree level with some insights, starting points and tools to put their learning into a wider context, particularly relating to the challenges of sustainability. It is not a book that is written primarily for those concerned with the other important disciplines (such as economics, sociology, anthropology, political science) the understanding of which is necessary for sustainable development. However, it is hoped that they, too, might find something of value in its coverage of topics other than those in which they specialise. The book introduces several other disciplines that are important to the way chemistry is applied and to its impact, both social and environmental. I hope the specialists in these disciplines will not be too critical of the treatment of their specialism and my temerity in encroaching into areas where I am not expert. The purpose is two-fold: first, to identify domains that play a role in putting chemistry and science into a wider context, and second, by providing a basic introduction as a starting point, to highlight many chemists’ ignorance of these domains. One thing my 25 years in industry and the subsequent 10 years in the academic world have taught me is that any such sensitivity is misplaced. The importance of inter-disciplinarity and multi-disciplinarity in ICI where I worked was assumed, and one was expected to search for ideas and solutions to problems irrespective of from where they might have originated.

I hope that this book can begin to equip young chemists in this way.

As the topics covered are fast moving and ever-developing, it is not the purpose of this book to provide the latest work in any particular area (though I hope the book is illustrated with useful contemporary examples). Rather, its purpose is to provide the tools and the starting points to enable the reader to explore the body of scientific, technical and other knowledge and, independently, to seek out current and future perspectives and developments. The book should be seen very much like the tip of an iceberg, with its contents a reflection of how much more one would need to know for even a sketchy appreciation of sustainable development. Where specific sources are quoted, a full citation is provided at the end of the relevant chapter. These are often early landmark contributions that are of particular value as they do not assume an understanding of some of the basic ideas that later treatments can do. More general sources are collected in the Bibliographies. Increasingly, the internet can be a valuable source, when used with appropriate care. Webliographies provided a personal selection of websites.

The reader for which I have written this book will need to bring an active mind to its reading and a preparedness to explore further on his or her own. For this reason, there are no set questions at the end of each chapter: readers should identify their own. It is, thus, not for the ‘shallow learner’. As space does not permit full explanations and even, on occasion, definitions, it will be up to the reader to seek out (at least) the sources I point to (and preferably additional sources that I don't). Chapter 13 summarises some basic principles of searching out information (including web-based sources). I will also assume that the reader is able (and will be willing) to access a dictionary for unfamiliar terms that will arise from time to time.

This book is not designed to fit with the modular model of degree courses (though it grew out of a short optional module at the University of Liverpool). In my view, the modular treatment does not, sufficiently, emphasise connections between, nor stimulate thinking on the wider relevance of, diverse aspects of chemistry, particularly those that are important to recall when addressing the complexities of sustainable development. These connections are also necessary to appreciate and learn of (and from) the fundamental insights from past generations of scientists that are both the bedrock on which all science is based and a pre-requisite for the developing of new insights. (I do not apologise, therefore, for referring to some historic and classic texts: I just wish I had come across them earlier!) There is, I believe, a need for mainstream chemistry courses to have their specialist content, where appropriate, more explicitly linked to the challenges of sustainability. I hope that this book may stimulate my teaching colleagues to develop the content of their courses in this way.

While we have certainly moved from a time when it was possible for a leading scientist of his day to say:⁴  ‘A serious chemist would begin with an elementary knowledge of mathematics, general physics, languages, natural history and literature. His^† imagination must be active and brilliant in seeking analogies… The memory must be extensive and profound’, the ever-constricting narrowness of our specialisations has made communication even within disciplines ever more difficult. Bearing in mind the timescale on which we must learn the interdisciplinary means to find solutions to the challenges of sustainability, we must take note of inspiring efforts to get us to climb out of our disciplinary bunkers.⁵  This should provide the sobering experience of realising the level of our own ignorance, a state that, paradoxically, should get ever deeper the more we know. The need for us to live with this ignorance and, most importantly, not to be borne down by it nor delay making judgements in the belief they may be easier with more information, is something that scientists can teach the world. We should also argue of the importance of expertise in guiding us to those areas of ignorance most important to explore.

The front cover of the book,^‡ therefore, includes an image of an ivory bridge (in the sense of both a link and a crossing), a choice that requires some explanation, not least because there are those who might choose to misconstrue its meaning and imply I am promoting the illegal trade in ivory. The idea of an ivory bridge as opposed to an ivory tower was embodied in a title of a book,⁶  Ivory Bridges: Connecting Science and Society, by Gerhard Sonnert and Gerald Holton. This is the central motivation of my book, an attempt to widen the horizons of young (and perhaps not so young) chemists (and possibly others, too) to take an interest in, and seek a better understanding of, a whole range of other disciplines and domains, ideas and perspectives that I believe the specialist should be aware of (at the very least) to be respected and listened to beyond his or her specialism. The particular choice was motivated by its depiction of a family of elephants, symbols in Japan of prosperity and peace. The use of ivory is of course problematic, but does highlight the dilemma (or, as readers of the book will discover in Section 2.2, the ‘trilemma’) that humankind faces. The use of ivory from the tusks of animals that die naturally is one thing (and, if it is appropriate to use such a term in such circumstances, would be considered ‘sustainable’), whereas the purposeful killing of such creatures for their ivory is rightly regarded as criminal and despicable. Whether we are talking about ivory, the installation of new nuclear electricity-generating capacity, the growth of transgenic crops or the use of the pesticide DDT in controlling malaria, we seem increasingly to be faced, in our debates about the way forward, with a discourse that is characterised more by polarisation and heated disputation between extremes rather than the cool-headed rational pragmatism that is required. Conflict may have many origins, including ignorance and a lack of understanding of scientists’ work and scientists’ own ignorance and lack of understanding about the way their work is perceived. I would like to believe that this book may make a small contribution to changing this situation.

Finally, I would like to thank all those who have helped me in the preparation of this book, particularly my friends and colleagues John Winfield, Jim Swindall and John Satherley who read the whole of the book and Hugh Stitt and Graham Eastham who commented helpfully on particular chapters. My thanks also to the many colleagues over the years who have inspired me and have written and spoken eruditely on the very many topics I discuss (with less expertise) in my book. Any errors are my own. Finally, words are inadequate to express my appreciation to my wife, Susan, who has put up, cheerfully and almost uncomplainingly, with my preoccupation with the preparation and completion of this book.