Innovation for Society. Joëlle Forest

      Introduction: The P.S.I. Approach to Thinking About the Meaning of Innovation¹

      In 2017, according to the OECD, one adult in five was obese in the European Union and almost 4 out of 10 in the United States (OECD, 2017). The World Health Organization (WHO) now describes obesity as the first non-infectious epidemic in history, and projections for 2030 are pessimistic. Obesity is predicted to rise even as it increases the risk of chronic disease and death, making it a health disaster as well as an unprecedented financial catastrophe:

      In 2001, in the United States (according to the Atlanta Center for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC), costs were estimated at $117 billion (about 10% of health care spending). […] In France, the last cost study, dated 1992, put the cost at 2% of health expenditure – at a time when obesity was still underdeveloped there. It can probably be estimated, taking into account its evolution (it has doubled since 1990) to more than 4% of health expenditure – which, based on the last known figure for health insurance expenditure, would lead to a cost of 5.6 billion euros.²

At the same time, 52 million children under the age of 5 years are extremely underweight worldwide, according to UN (United Nations) data. These figures are chilling, and they call for an urgent worldwide response because malnutrition is no longer sparing any country in the world.

      According to the WHO, the number of people aged over 60 years is expected to double between 2000 and 2050 from 605 million (11%) to 2 billion (22%). Given the overall improvement in the quality of life and health of people in general, the aging of the population is affecting the entire planet, with the number of people aged 60 years and over increasing rapidly in contrast to the number of younger people. The aging of society raises the question of the care of dependent persons, their isolation and their greater vulnerability, which must be answered urgently.

      The situation is just as worrying on the climate side. While there has been an increase in drought over the past 50 years in Africa, northern Latin America and southern Eurasia, rainfall and flooding phenomena have intensified. May 2018 was the rainiest month ever recorded in France. Scientists believe that intense rainfall events are very likely to become more frequent in the future and that, at the same time, drought-affected areas are expected to expand. These situations are very costly and traumatic for the population. The floods that occurred in France between May 25 and June 14, 2018, affected more than 200,000 people at an estimated cost of 430 million euros, according to the French Insurance Federation. To these “material” costs are added environmental costs due to the number of products washed into the waterways. The consequences are also dire for wildlife: many river fish are found dead on the roads and trapped when floodwaters recede. The findings of the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are instructive [IPC 18]. It estimates that, if global warming is limited to 1.5ºC, the global sea level will be 10 cm lower by 2100 than it would be if global warming is limited to 2ºC. The probability of the Arctic Ocean being ice-free in summer will be once per century if warming is limited to 1.5°C, but at least once every 10 years if it is limited to 2°C. With a warming of 1.5°C, 70–90%