Imperative

With a current population of 6.5 billion, the world is becoming a place in which human populations are more crowded, more consuming, more polluting, more connected, and in many ways less diverse than at any time in history. There is growing recognition that humans are altering the Earth’s natural systems at all scales from local to global at an unprecedented rate in the human history. Such changes can be understood only by comparison with events that marked the great transitions in the geo-biological eras of Earth’s history.

The question now arises whether it is possible to satisfy the needs of an exponentially growing population while preserving the carrying capacity of our ecosystems and biological and cultural diversity. Another related question is what needs to be done now and in the near future to allow all humans to enjoy a quality of life where basic needs of water, sanitation, nutrition, health, safety, and meaningful work are fulfilled. These commitments were defined as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

In the next two decades, almost 2 billion additional people are expected to populate the Earth, a number roughly equivalent to the world’s total population in 1940. It is estimated that 95% of that growth will take place in developing countries. This growth will create demands on an unprecedented scale for energy, food, land, water, transportation, materials, waste disposal, earth moving, health care, environmental cleanup, and infrastructure. The role of engineers will be critical in fulfilling those demands since most of the growth will take place in large urban areas and in the developing world.

It has been estimated that today 80% (5 billion people) of the world's population still live in poverty. Statistics show that as citizens of one planet, we are living off our support systems in an unhealthy, degrading, inequitable, and unsustainable manner.

In order to address the global problems that planet Earth is facing today and is likely to face in the future, humans need to acquire a broader perspective. In general, most human-made projects involve the interactions of non-natural systems (built environment, anthrosphere) with natural systems (biosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere). Engineering, being a central element of human society, needs to understand and take into account the relationships between natural and non-natural systems when creating structures needed to sustain the quality of life of current and future generations.

A worldwide transition to a more holistic approach to engineering will require: (i) a major paradigm shift from control of nature to participation with nature, (ii) an increasing awareness of ecosystems, ecosystems services and natural capital preservation and restoration, and (iii) a new nature and human mutually-enhancing mindset that embraces the principles of sustainable development, renewable resources management, appropriate technology, natural capitalism, biomimicry, biophilia, biosoma, and systems thinking.

Another issue of equal importance is the education of engineers interested in addressing the problems that are most specific to developing communities. Problems include water provisioning and purification, sanitation, power production, shelter, site planning, infrastructure, food production and distribution, and communication, among many others. Since such global problems are not usually addressed in engineering curricula, we do not have engineering schools that educate engineers to address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet, many of them living in industrialized countries.

Furthermore, engineers have a critical role to play in addressing the complex problems associated with refugees, displaced populations, and large-scale population movement worldwide resulting from political conflicts, famine, land shortage, or natural hazards. Some of these problems have been brought back to our awareness since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the December 26, 2004 Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. The engineer’s role is critical to the relief work provided by host governments and humanitarian organizations. It can take multiple forms ranging from creating physical infrastructures and sustainable and durable solutions that contribute to peace, welfare and security, to designing solutions that promote sound environmental management practices in order to reduce environmental degradation associated with displaced populations. According to the World Health Organization, currently 1.8 billion people (30% of the world’s population) live in conflict zones, in transition, or in situations of permanent instability.