Conclusions and Looking to the Future - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 359

through the use of remotely operated or even fully autonomous drones, can enable the
killing of large numbers of people at a distance without direct human involvement
or decision-making.
As discussed in Chap. 5 , technological change has impacts on employment, with
regard to both the number of jobs and their terms and conditions. Despite safety
measures, working with technologies which are intrinsically dangerous may pose
risks to workers' healths. By contrast, the new greener, cleaner, energy technologies
present fewer threats and can support sustainable employment
The implication of the various threats and promises explored in this topic is that
engineers of all types have a responsibility to take an ethical stance and to adopt a
precautionary approach to the introduction of technologies with unknown or unfore-
seeable impacts. They may also need to challenge what they consider dangerous
developments and to support developments they consider positive. However, this
does not require engineers to belong to a particular political party or necessarily to
adopt a particular position with regard to, for instance, nuclear power or genetically
modifi ed organisms. It does, however, require them to consider the wider implications
of the projects and technologies they work on and reject involvement in those they
consider unethical. It also requires them to try and infl uence the policies and prac-
tices of the organizations they work for. There are also opportunities and an urgent
need for engineers to express their views and to act on them, whether it is in relation
to energy and water use, climate policy, robotics, telecoms, space exploration,
medicine, defence work or overseas development. As discussed in Chap. 7 in the
context of domestic bathing, engineers should not restrict ethics to their working
lives but behave ethically in all aspects of their lives.
Ethical engineering can involve assisting with the formulation of new regulatory
regimes or policies, speaking out against specifi c threats or abuses and a hands-on
practical role, related to everyday work and producing good technology. Ethical
engineering may also seek to implement new technologies in areas where they are
thought likely to be benefi cial. Some examples of the positive applications of ICT
in a telemedicine centre in Kosovo and to support Deaf people in South Africa were
discussed in Chaps. 9 and 10 , respectively. However, as these chapters illustrate,
even these positive interventions raise ethical issues and have to be carried out very
carefully to avoid negative impacts on local communities. As these chapters illustrate,
the key issue is not just the choice of technology, in environmental and social impact
terms, but also how this technology is developed and implemented. This point also
emerged strongly in the historical studies of ICT/automation systems development
in Poland in Chap. 9 and in the forward-looking study of renewable energy system
options in Chap. 5 , in terms of the nature and conditions of work and power rela-
tionships within society.
A parallel lesson is that new technologies cannot simply be 'parachuted' into
host communities in a development context. The classic case of failure to under-
stand local needs is the case of solar cooking, using cheap parabolic dish mirrors to
focus sunlight. At one time this was offered, for example, in India, as a seemingly
obvious alternative to the use of increasingly scarce wood fuel or the use of dung,
the burning of which has environmental and health issues. However, it was not