• Question: Why do you think engineering is essential to the modern world and how can it improve the current environmental state of the world realistically?

    Asked by Supershrew to Alessandra, Dimitrios, Niamh, Becky, Stacey, Tony on 10 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by ROBLEX, Poppy, JeCla, mobin.
    • Photo: Stacey Marple

      Stacey Marple answered on 10 Jun 2017:

      Hello @Supershrew. That is a really good question. I believe engineering is essential to the modern world because the help keeps us safe, clean, connected and sustainable. The human population is booming, the world is more consuming and more polluting, than previously but there is also a growing understanding of how humans are impacting Earth’s natural systems. Engineering can improve the environmental state of the world, for example there is a type of engineering called Geoengineering, which looks to ways to reduce the impact humans have had on the world. An example is the research into removing Carbon Dioxide from the air. Engineers are also developing ways for becoming more sustainable, in Apr 17, the UK achieved 1 day with no power being produced from coal, that’s a first since 1880’s.

    • Photo: Niamh Ryall

      Niamh Ryall answered on 13 Jun 2017:

      Hi Supershew
      Good question. We’re sometimes a victim of our own success when we think about STEM. We forget how far we’ve come. For instance, I grew up in London, where the London underground is pretty obvious and everyone knows where it is. But a much more important engineering project from around the same time was the construction of a sewerage system. A system of intercept sewers that stretched 100 miles were built in 6 years with 318000000 bricks and intercepted with 450 miles of main sewers, which were fed into 13,000 miles of local sewers. It still works! People used to catch cholera all the time in London. No-one does now.
      That’s engineering from 150 years ago, we’ve learnt so much. We are all connected up now. One of the ways we can protect the environment we live in is by showing people how amazing it is, which is easier now than ever before. Then there’s the more practical solutions, about half of the buildings we need by 2050 worldwide haven’t been built yet. For instance, China is planning new megacities that will pretty much be built from scratch. Big cities with ways of travelling around that don’t need fossil fuels can be a more environmentally friendly way of living, even if it doesn’t look that way because people have to travel less distance to get the things they need. The world is deploying huge amounts of renewable energy, not nearly enough to deal with the damage we’ve done, but it’s a good start. There’s a giant poem (In Praise of Air) on the side of a building on the University of Sheffields campus that breaks down pollution from about 20 cars a day, maybe if we paint all of our buildings like that, we can help with urban pollution. We need to make our houses and transport much more efficient. I hope one day, that as well as shifting entirely to renewable energies, we work on a carbon capture solution so we can stop ocean acidification so we can save marine species. There’s no doubt there’s a lot of work to do.

    • Photo: Alessandra Treviso

      Alessandra Treviso answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      Hi to everyone!
      I think it is very important. Every invention or new technology when it first comes out is inefficient. If you think about the first engines, they were big, heavy, they needed lots of fuel and they were very polluting. Since then may progresses were made. Engineers and scientists worked to better understand every new invention and now the focus is to try and reduce our environmental impact. Compared to the industrial revolution, modern factories are way more efficient but we are still introducing harmufl gases and substances in the atmosphere, polluting water reserves and destroying forests to make room for a growing population that demands food and goods. What engineers can do to improve this status is to work with renewable sources of energy rather than fossil fuels, improve our knowledge on recy kkugn6and develop recyclable materials. I think this can help and I hope the focus of research will move in that direction.

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