Innovation?

This illustration challenges the concept of innovation, asking whether developments we thought were innovative are, causing more problems in the world than they are solving. We are starting to see that these innovations are actually harmful to our planet. And subsequently we are reverting to our original solutions and behaviours that we adopted before these areas of our lives were ‘innovated’. For example, we used to cover, wrap and carry our food and water in waxed paper, card, glass, metal and ceramic packages and bottles. We innovated to use plastic, which is now clogging up our seas and potentially transferring harmful substances into our eco and biological systems. We are returning to using paper, ceramics and glass for this purpose again. We used to knit and make our clothes, this innovated to large scale manufacturing and fast fashion, which is now polluting our water systems, and creating more waste garments than we, as a planet, can properly deal with. In recent years there has been a concerted effort to move away from buying new, fast, disposable fashion. We are reverting to a ‘make do and mend’ mentality.