Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 4
A governance system for the carbon cycle. Control functions are as follows. Input:
B
αMW/Fossil fuel. Output: CO
2
emitted/CO
2
sequestered.Target metric: CO
2
concentration in atmosphere.
sequestered. By manipulating these ratios, the system is moved toward the
target atmospheric concentration of CO
2
.
All three of these examples pertain to elements of the carbon cycle, but,
of course, that cycle is itself tightly coupled to other systems and cycles (fig-
ure 5); the implications for these coupled systems of any techniques used to
modulate the carbon cycle must be part of a systems assessment. Industrial
ecology assessments at this high level, and, indeed, Earth Systems Engineer-
ing as a practice, do not replace, but augment, existing engineering activi-
ties: even if a fossil-fuel power plant is a part of a system of carbon cycle
stabilization, it and its components must still be engineered.
The science and technology base, the institutional capacity, and the eth-
ical infrastructure needed to support such an assumption of human respon-
