Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
more greedy; rather, the new technologies including IT have made it possible for
the same greed-level to steal much more (e.g., Enron et al.).
Application of this principle to the field of environment gives a gloomy picture.
Although the new technologies have created enormous new wealth, so it's much
more feasible now to care for the poor and to protect environmental values — the
money is there — there seems to be little hope for environment because human greed
will continue to give its primary attention to using the technologies to making the
rich richer, with environment going down the drain. The world will wake up to the
environmental problem and face up to it only when the “roof falls in.” However,
even then it may not be too late; for example, even it jillions of species are lost,
Man may well be able to do very well with what's left in terms of tending to human
economy (health and welfare), using ever new technologies to fill the gaps.
Economic-cum-Environmental Development Planning
The need to incorporate the environmental (E2) parameter into economic (E1)
development planning, as the only way for the DC to affair sustainable develop-
ment, has been long recognized, but an acceptable methodology for this is now
available as discussed in the section “Development Planning.”
Value of Human Life
A key parameter to be taken into account when modifying IC environmental
design criteria and matching standards is the DC's situation on the value of
a human life. The author moved from the United States to live in Bangkok
in 1973, and at that time had a public liability policy for auto driving that
included provision of $1 million in case of causing accidental death (today this
is many times higher). He asked his Bangkok insurance agent to furnish a sim-
ilar policy for Bangkok. The provision for accidental death was only $10,000,
and this because the author was a foreigner — The normal Thai policy amount
was $1,000. This, of course, doesn't mean that an American life is worth 1,000
times more than a Thai life, but it does mean that the actual market value of
a life must be taken into account in modifying IC design criteria to suit DC
conditions.
At that same time, the author's brother's firm engaged in heavy engineering
construction. He noted that the cost in the United States for building a dam, which
in 1950 was, say, $100 million, by 1970 had increased to $200 million due to
stiffer safety construction regulations which reduced the average construction
death rate from three to one — at a cost of $50 million per person. Obviously,
most DCs can hardly afford the original $100 million. The same problem applies
to modifying construction requires for setting design criteria for protection against
earthquakes for dams and superhighways.
Protecting Precious Eco-Resources
Another need for economic analyses DC project planning is to assign some
appropriate money values representing the value for sustainable development of
