Engineering and the pursuit of happiness

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Engineering and the
pursuit of happiness
Sara Parkin EE2006 Conference 24th July,
2006University of Liverpool
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Engineers and the Pursuit of Happiness

• What do we really, really want?
• Why is it so hard to get?
• Engineers and the green industrial revolution
• Education, education, education

an engineer is someone who contrives to bring
something about
Sara Parkin Forum for the Future
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Limits to Growth
The crux of the matter is not only whether the
human species will survive, but even more whether
it can survive without falling into a state of
worthless existence Meadows et al, 1971
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Income and Happiness
40 K
30 K
20 K
10 K
Richard Layard, 2005
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Climate change top manifestation of
unsustainable development?
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Source Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and
Research Based on Folland et al (2000) and Jones
and Moberg (2003)
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Worst case scenarios
Melting Of Permafrost
Changes in extremes
Greenland Ice melt
Glacial melt
Gulf stream collapse?

Marginal climates
Loss of Carbon sinks
Sea level rise
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Current development model in question

• In a world that has never been so rich poverty
  and inequality persist
• In 1990s East Asia halved those living on less
  that 1 a day but overall 54 countries got
  poorer
• 1 of the worlds population earns more per
  year than the 57 poorest
• HSBC rates inequality as its top business risk

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Unsustainable development in
summary
burning fossil fuels
People take 40 total annual
plant growth

environmental degradation

• easiest
• need to share
• shrinking base
• too much already

• economy
• health
• security

persistent poverty, Injustice and inequality
feedback
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Forum for the Future Vitosek et al (1997)
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Get the values into value
engineering

• Client and student demand (can you hear it?)
• 3060 courses, 35 institutions
• 8000 engineers register each year with EC(UK)
• Engineers are people too

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But Gordon gets it!!
So the new synthesis we need is that economic
growth, social justice and environmental care
advance best when they all advance
together Gordon Brown at the UN, April 2006
And so does Dave !!
The idea that there's more to life than money is
hardly new. Improving our society's sense of
well-being is, I believe, the central political
challenge of our times David Cameron on GWB,
July 2006
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Its a practical challenge
I P x C x T in 2050
Insert some numbers I Impact on
environment down by 50 P Number of People
(up 50 to 9.5 bill) C Consumption up,
say, 3 pa Means that T Technology or
techniques of that consumption need to
improve 8-10 fold (equality)
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Climate change most urgent
Global emissions of greenhouse gases come from a
wide range of sources
Agriculture 5.6 Gt 14 mostly from soils
livestock
Energy 25.6 Gt 61 Consuming fossil fuels
Land Use changes 7.6 Gt 18 primarily
deforestation
All GHG in CO2 equivalent
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Were in the midst of a green
industrial revolution

• The industrial revolution and Lunar Society
• The solar revolution Engineers of the 21st
  Century
• Chinas Politburo Standing Committee are all
  engineers
• Engineers IN Society

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Educating engineers a case for emergency
treatment

• Get everyone sustainability literate and
  fast
• Understand, apply and promote basic principles
• Modernise standards for materials and processes
• Get the values into value engineering
• Innovate and Integrate

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What do employers want?
Educating Engineers for the 21st Century, RAEng,
March 2006
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What do employers want?
It isnt just engineering, itss engineering and
its implications on society and how you manage
complexity. And being able to think in a
systematic way. we are going to have to employ
more and more creative types, rather than just
the execution types
RAEng Educating Engineers for the 21st Century
the industry view, March 2006 Chair Profession
Julia King, Principle of Faculty of Engineering,
Imperial College, London
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Sustainability Literacy

• A sustainability literate person
• Understands what sustainable development is
  about
• Has the competencies and the confidence to
  behave appropriately
• Is able to recognise (and reward) right
  behaviour in others

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Back to basics do we understand how wasteful we
are?
10 x
10 x
10,000 kg Raw Resource
1000 kg Finished Product (consumed)
100 kg long-term durables left in home
6 months
Manufacture
CONVERT
EXTRACT
USE
DISCARD
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Biffa, 2000
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Materials and processes conception to
decomposition analysis
IN
USE 1
Minimum energy raw materials
USE 2
USE 3
Maximum energy recovery
OUT
Minimum waste pollution
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Get the values into value
engineering

• Client and student demand (can you hear it?)
• 3060 courses, 35 institutions
• 8000 engineers register each year with EC(UK)
• Engineers are people too

Sara Parkin Forum for the Future
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Innovate and integrate

• Consider science, risk and precaution at the
  same time
• Adaptive management how to succeed despite
  barriers complexity
• Step back to basics to better leap forward
• Were all engineers now?

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Science Risk and Society
UNSCIENTIFIC APPRAISAL Opaque, ad hoc, anecdotal,
doctrinaire, partisan, unaccountable, no learning
CORNUCOPIAN anything goes PERMISSIVE

• NARROW REGIME
• narrow framing of appraisal
• single perspective filter
• confidence in knowledge
• proof burden on sceptics
• alternatives excluded
• claimed benefits assumed
• emphasise rights of industry

• BROAD REGIME
• broad framing of appraisal
• plural perspective filters
• humility about knowledge
• proof burden on advocate
• openness to alternatives
• justification of benefits
• rights of wider society

APOCALYPTIC stop everything RESTRICTIVE
NARROW RISK APPROACHES
PRECAUTIONARY APPROACHES
SCIENTIFIC APPRAISAL transparent, systematic,
sceptical, peer-reviewed, independent,
accountable, learning
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Engineering and the pursuit of happiness

• The purpose of engineer education in the 21st
  Century
• Leadership means being ahead of the curve
• Sustainable development is the only game in
  town
• Engineers of the 21st Century

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E21C Change Challenges

• Choosing the sustainability option is cheaper and
  easier
• Teachers and trainers build sustainability
  literacy into courses
• specifying for sustainability criteria in
  materials and processes is done along the supply
  chain
• employers embed sustainability thinking into
  organisational culture, and across different
  professions

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Thank you for listening
www.forumforthefuture.org.uk
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Materials and process Life Cycle Analysis

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