One of the strangest mantras of the "planet-savers" is their claim that while science and technology may have served us well in the past we cannot depend on them in future.

There are more scientists and engineers alive today than ever before. Furthermore, innovators are better financed, and better managed. Many are working on environmental problems.

The following examples show their work is paying off:

* A team of scientists in Nigeria has developed an insecticide from a naturally occurring fungus which is deadly to locusts and grasshoppers but does not damage other insects, plants, animals or people. If it had been available, this fungus could have dealt to one of the largest swarms of desert locusts in the 20th century, which covered about 1000sq km and contained some 40 billion locusts. This fungus seems like useful science to me.

* US Department of Energy scientists have prototyped the first ultraviolet solid-state microcavity laser. These solid-state white-light emitters last five to 10 times longer than fluorescent tubes and are more robust. They are also hugely efficient. Washington's Opto-electronics Industry Development Association claims the new lighting technology should translate into global cost savings of $US100 billion a year, power generation capacity reductions of 120 gigawatts and carbon emission reductions of about 350 million tonnes a year. Sounds like useful engineering to me.

* Automotive engineers have already developed VW's Lupo 3.0, the new fuel-mileage champion of the world. This 1.2-litre subcompact can travel 100km on just three litres of diesel (that's about 100mpg). The heart of VW's fuel-saving strategy is the three-cylinder turbo-diesel coupled to an automatic gearbox, all managed by high-tech electronics. A high pressure "pump-nozzle" fuel-injection system produces negligible emissions. A non-polluting car that travels 1000km on a tank of diesel is a real environmental breakthrough.

Of course, the car-hating planners will loathe it. Their arrogant attempts to reshape our lives and our cities are hugely inefficient by comparison.

The Kyoto crowd must hate the Lupo too. After all, when we couple these efficiency breakthroughs with the population implosion, the Kyoto targets will be a shoo-in.

Maybe that's why the planet-savers denigrate scientists and engineers. Good science and engineering puts them out of work.