Chapter5EnvironmentalImpact-SantaClaraUniversity.docVIP

CHAPTER 5. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT One of the unintended consequences of much of what we do in engineering is a negative impact on the environment. Our intention is to generate electric power. But in the process we pollute the air, and warm our rivers or oceans. Our goal is to extract oil from the ground. But in doing so we spill some of it, polluting a fragile landscape or seashore. Our plan is to build a highway to allow people to move easily from one place to another. But the highway leads to traffic noise that makes living near the freeway less pleasant. In these and many other ways our work, and sometimes the work of nature, serves to degrade our environment. (For a paper on unintended consequences see: /ethics/publications/submitted/healy/consequences.html) Engineers have two ways to affect this situation. The first is to clean up existing environmental degradation. People who do this are commonly called “environmental engineers”. The second approach is for all of us to do all of our engineering work is such a way as to minimize the amount of environmental degradation that we cause. Since virtually all of what we do can have some negative effects, in a larger sense we are all environmental engineers. All of us can do our engineering work in ways that recognize environmental impact, and minimize environmental degradation. In this Chapter we look at some ways that engineers can reduce the effects of existing problems and mitigate future environmental problems. 5.1 Environmental Engineering The goal of the environmental engineer is to reduce or eliminate existing pollution. Environmental Engineering is often seen as a subset of, or linked with, Civil Engineering. This is a historical result of the fact that much early pollution involved contaminated water and earth, two natural venues of the civil engineer. Today, however, the field is broadening significantly with important contributions from other sectors, including mechanical, electrical and co