Abstract
Water, energy and food (WEF) technologies, crucial systems in human survival, seem responsible for a large share of xenobiotic (manmade substances that enter an organism or are natural but rendered excessive therein) emissions. The US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) shows neurological > respiratory > ocular cancer-related damages of prevailing WEF technologies while damages of large xenobiotic classes involved in WEF technologies point to interrelated cancer, endocrine and reproductive damages. Combustion and pesticides seem to dominate the xenobiotic exposure profile of WEF technologies.Available technologies able to solve for WEF xenobiotics belong to consecutive generations according to whether they are being widely or incipiently implemented. Today’s technology lock-ins are poised to slightly worsen emissions in the Food and Water sectors and considerably worsen them in the Energy sector. Fundamental changes in the former two are closer at hand, in the form of appropriate technologies. Renewable energy sources however need to be split into two generations: one requiring rare earth elements and fossil fuel inputs and one which is more akin to appropriate technologies.Because current WEF technologies and their biological damages are caught in tight interactions, solving for just one group of xenobiotics may only contribute a partial solution. Integrated, non-xenobiotic producing technologies may produce beneficial feedbacks health-wise and climate and biodiversity co-benefits.
Published Version
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