Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
It may be a truism to state that engineering and technology are at the basis
of modern society. To give an example, many technological developments have
dramatically increased the impact of modern war, including its geographical extent,
environmental damage and large-scale casualties amongst civilians. Modern infor-
mation and communications technologies could be considered to have had an almost
revolutionary impact, which has produced great changes on most aspects of life.
On the one hand, information and communication technology (ICT) has made it
possible to communicate with friends and family all over the world, presented
opportunities for overcoming some of the barriers experienced by disabled people
and enabled the detection of global climate change at an earlier stage than would
have been possible otherwise. On the other, ICT has changed the nature of work for
many people and often speeded it up, has made possible very intrusive surveillance
including in the workplace, had an important role in the development of military
technologies and had played a signifi cant role in increasing consumption.
This means that engineers have the potential to both have a signifi cant positive
infl uence on society and cause very serious and possibly lasting damage. Thus,
being an engineer could be considered to be both a great privilege and a real
responsibility. However, few engineering undergraduate, postgraduate, higher
national diploma (HND) or vocational programmes have a signifi cant component
on engineering ethics, and even fewer, if any, try to integrate engineering ethics
into all aspects of the curriculum.
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Overview of the Topic
Ethical engineering is a very wide subject. Therefore, I have chosen to focus on
ethical engineering in the context of two very important global problems: sustainable
development and international stability. Even with this restriction, it would be
diffi cult within a reasonable length to cover everything, and the focus has been
more on physical engineering than, for instance, biotechnologies. However, most
of the ethical issues covered and solutions proposed are relevant across all of
engineering.
In addition to the introduction and conclusion parts, the topic is divided into
three main parts, which examine the following important topics:
Ethical impacts of advanced applications of technology.
Engineering ethics and sustainable development.
Engineering ethics and international stability.
Particular features of the topic include the following:
The application of ethical engineering to the two vitally important issues of envi-
ronmental and international stability.
The international perspective and authors, their expertise and experience and
very different backgrounds.
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