Engineering against Climate Change

In the eternally globalizing and developing milieu of the 21st century, the spirit of innovation is proliferating like a blissful infection within communities. Paradigmally, when such innovation is practised by engineers, it implies the application and interaction of scientific and mathematical principles to formulate creative, worldly solutions. By using the rules of the world to achieve change and undertaking the herculean task of bringing ideas to reality, engineers are intrinsic to universal progress.

Without engineers and innovation, the world would continue enduring the sufferings of the early industrial era and the automated, intelligent machines whose gears and superhuman abilities have revolutionized global welfare would’ve never come into being. However, the devastating environmental degradation that characterized the industrial era persists, with non-renewable energy sources and unecological practices emitting greenhouse gases (among other pollutants) that are contaminating our environment and contributing to the tragedy that we call global warming. Unsustainable and anti-green engineering from the 20th century has created modern problems. Among present-day issues, climate change and its implications (such as erratic weather patterns, sinking cities with elevating sea levels, the exposure of centuries-old diseases with the melting of glaciers, etc.) remain the ones whose shadows loom the darkest over the fate of humanity.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals present a framework for changing our world for the better by addressing seventeen interrelated global challenges. Engineers play an instrumental role in sustainable development through the designing, architecting, and construction of consumption and production practices, goods and services. The value of sustainability in all aspects of our lives has been observed by organisations and communities across the globe as they built a more positive, eco-friendly work culture that optimally utilizes resources, is accompanied by a reduced carbon footprint and encourages economic development. As essential contributors to the modern chain of production, consumption and innovation, engineers must focus on the incorporation of sustainability within their design, ideation and operation processes to accelerate the attainment of these 17 global goals.

According to the United Nations, between 1880 to 2012, the average global temperature increased by 0.85 degrees Celsius. For each increase, a loss of 5% of crop yields has been witnessed; major crops like maize and wheat have suffered dramatic reductions of 40 megatons at a global level. Among the 3 targets of the Climate Action goal, SDG 13, the first goal illustrates ( “strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries”) the role of engineers in the climate change agenda. Engineers must work in their fields of study - whether it may be civil, biomedical or aerospace engineering - to contrive and devise ingenious systems, products, or processes that can aid global communities to combat climate change.

Climate engineering encompasses more fields of study than environmental engineering, including aeronautical and chemical aspects; in order to formulate an effective, long-term action plan against climate change, as problem solvers, a diverse group of engineers must come together to formulate alternatives to current practices. We cannot solve the problem with the same system that created it. For example, a collaboration between environmental, aeronautical and chemical engineers can result in the development of new universal fuel for aircrafts with an improved carbon footprint. Geoengineering practices such as solar radiation management with space-based approaches, ocean albedo modification, and the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure (green buildings) can revolutionise the world's words, advance climate action agendas, and build sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11).

With close collaboration among governments, engineers from different backgrounds with diverse approaches, environmental organisations such as the Green Building Council, scientists, environmentalists, and Urban Planning committees, a new era of ecofriendly growth and sustainability will be upon us. As engineers and communities come together to tackle climate challenges as well as construct a resilient circular economy with modern infrastructure, processes, and beliefs, the dawn of an idyllic era will unfold. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”.

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