Abstract
This article reports the author's view on the technological challenges posed by the energy and earth environment crises. In order to solve the problems of the earth environment, the so-called "reformists" claim that it is most important to reorganize social and economic systems; the so-called "economists", on the other hand, claim that technological development should be emphasized. The author claims that the reorganization of social and economic systems and technological development should be combined to solve the problems. Concerning international cooperation in the fields of energy and the earth environment, the author is of the view that it is important to collaborate in technological development and technology transfer with developing countries in order to contribute to improve their ability of R&D. Equally important is the international cooperation in technological development among developed countries, which aims at facilitating the development of innovative technologies. The author describes the priorities of technological development for the future as follows: towards the technology which centering around saving resources and energy, and recycling; from the technology of disposing of wastes, or "down-stream technology", to the technology of improving production processes, or "up-stream technology"; and from elementary technology to systems technology. Moreover, the author remarks that the following points are necessary in order to propel technological development: long-term views, collaborative technological development by sharing the development strategies internationally, and setting up of a system to evaluate development projects.
