Appropriate technologies for the future
- 28 July 1980
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B. Biological Sciences
- Vol. 209 (1174) , 183-186
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1980.0089
Abstract
Crystal ball gazing is a hazardous occupation: the sharper the picture, the greater the possibility of error. In the future, appropriate technologies that will raise standards of health and diminish the prevalence of disease in the Third World must take cognizance of such factors as burgeoning population growth, impossibly high cost of energy sources, a widening gap between food requirements and food production, increasing urbanization, and inherent difficulties of control of disease vectors and water-borne diseases. The technologies that must be made available will be both large-scale and small-scale, low-cost and simple, improving life for the individual and the community, mediated by appropriately trained and adequately supervised polycompetent auxiliaries. The present reappraisal of health needs in the context of food (seeds, soils, irrigation, protection against loss of the harvested products) and of prevention of disease by appropriate prophylactic measures and its treatment, will necessitate hard thinking and greater cooperation between all concerned.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: