Technologies to Change the World: Graphene

There is always room for optimism when technology is involved. But technology and politics? Well, after recent events, we can be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

In the 2010’s, technology’s impact on democratic life was a mixed blessing to say the least. Some might even say it has been a curse. As tech giants have presided over the balkanisation of the information landscape and driven erstwhile neighbours into increasingly fragmented camps, it can appear that technology has nothing good to say about national institutions, except pointing out just how vulnerable they are to disruption and neglect.

If you are looking for the positive influence that technology has had, or might have on the civic sphere, it might be better to look at technologies that do not immediately appear to have anything to do with civic life at all. The third industrial revolution in energy, education and agriculture has marched on unabated by the terminal damage that has been done to the organs of the state. Seemingly every few weeks, new advances in computer processing power are pushing us further and further towards a potential sci-fi reality. There are three technologies in particular that could have unprecedented historical effects: lab-grown food, nuclear fusion and graphene.

Now you might be forgiven for looking at those three technologies and thinking that their impact on social organisation will be nothing to write home about. But the implications of each one will ask some very profound questions. The first one we will look at; Graphene, might have the most limited impact, but would nevertheless revolutionise several political priorities.

Discovered by two Manchester University researchers in 2003, Graphene is basically just a form of carbon, like charcoal or diamond, that is arranged in a single sheet of material that is only one atom thick. It’s super light, super strong, and a superb conductor of electricity. Scientists have speculated that graphene will have uses as varied as lightweight aircraft and computer chips to clothing and even space elevators.

It may well take a few more decades for graphene to be seriously manufactured for large-scale commercial products, an understandable obstacle when you consider how difficult it is to generate a material that is effectively two dimensional in any serious quantity. but when graphene arrives, it will give green, environmentally conscious causes a serious lift across the board.

The specific problems that graphene would solve in the fight against climate change are vast. Graphene could crucially act as a perfect membrane for filtering carbon dioxide out of the processes we use to create energy. Imagine being able to trap carbon dioxide in vast graphene sieves before it ever even gets into the atmosphere. Such technological leaps would allow governments to slowly phase out fossil fuels without having to incur the burden of passing on higher energy costs and carbon taxes onto ordinary people, the conundrum of the Gilet Jaune is completely avoided.

The transformation of battery power that graphene would bring would also lend extra weight to environmentalists by bringing economic and ecological interests much closer together. Wrapping solar cells and lithium batteries in graphene are likely to make them twice as energy efficient, allowing driver of electric cars and other clean energy vehicles to zip along at an unusually fast pace without having to worry about the dreaded ‘range anxiety’. And the revolution wouldn’t be limited to the roads. The carbon footprint of air travel for instance could be effectively eradicated by replacing outdated jet-fuel powered hulks of metal with ultra-lightweight electric planes, powered by some of the most efficient and powerful batteries in the world. Suddenly, a 5th Terminal at Heathrow, or even a 6th and a 7th, don’t look so controversial.

If there is one reason why Western governments have typically been dragging their feet when it has come to investing in renewable resources and energy transition, then it’s an unwillingness to pass on extra energy costs to the consumer for the sake of a few more green votes. Environmental consciousness is becoming a real political force across the world, but it will never outweigh the importance of the ‘kitchen-sink’ financial grievances on which elected governments really do live and die. Modern governments are then only likely to dip into their pockets for this level of new infrastructure when the private sector and financial markets make is easy for them, so when manufacturers get serious about graphene, politicians will want to get serious about green infrastructure.