Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
over accuracy and relevance. The methodology of research requires the detailed
examination of previous literature, results and theories, and a strong determina-
tion to build on that foundation to discover new knowledge. Although the primary
purpose might well be to provide material for a thesis or publication, most students
in the science and engineering field are also well aware of the extent to which
Society is entirely dependent on previous scientific and engineering research and
development. They may well have a simplistic view therefore that scientific results
are always acted upon, are generally capable of being communicated as objective
information (or even facts) and that society will wish to use and act on the latest
scientific information.
However the more astute students will already have realized that this is not al-
ways the case. In the sustainability foundation course (see Chap. 1) on the history
of most major pollution problems, society has traditionally gone through a phase of
rejecting early scientific evidence on environmental damage, and both governments
and industry have tended to go to substantial lengths to avoid dealing with such prob-
lems (see the various case studies in Norton (
2012
), EEA (
2013
)). In the ELTP they
will have also have seen how extensively special-interests have and continue to deny,
distort, and manipulate the science related to global warming and climate change.
Students may also be conscious that governments consistently refuse to adopt
policies to improve the sustainability of society. Failure to agree carbon reduction
targets at successive international negotiations under the UN Framework Conven-
tion on Climate Change reveals how governments prioritize short-term economic
interests over longer term sustainability. Even over the economic 'rules of the game'
governments appear unable to move to a more sustainable path- even where such
reforms have been recommended for decades by business itself. For instance, the
World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD
1992
) emphasized
the importance of internalizing environmental externalities, removing perverse sub-
sidies (such as to fossil fuels or fishing) which encourage overconsumption, strict
application of the polluter pays principle and other economic reforms designed
to level the playing field between sustainable and non-sustainable business. Yet
20 years later at the Rio+20 Summit on sustainable development, little progress on
these core recommendations could be reported since 1992
1
.
14.2
Future Earth
One response of the global research community to this situation has been the adop-
tion following the Rio+20 Summit in 2012, of the international collaborative re-
search programme called 'Future Earth'. This major international collaborative
initiative involves a significant redesign of research on sustainability problems- in
1
For instance Koplow (
2012
) reports that fossil fuel subsidies in G20 countries remain; indeed
some G20 countries (e.g. Canada) actively sought to protect them at Rio+20, so that a proposed
commitment to ending fossil fuel subsidies was erased from the final text of the Rio declaration.
