former chief engineering for sk ministry of environment
a study and initial findings
Relationship between society and air quality
Sociaty gets more mad over water quality than air because, of how fast its conequenses react
Water quality
texas vs walerton,⇒ brain eatin amoeba found in texas water supply
Tap water vs bottled water
Both are regulated..
dasani is filtered calgrary water
bottled water is great when no potable water is available
water treament
waste water gets dumped in the ocean but for land locked regoins its dumped anywhere
if the waste water isnt treated properly people can get very sick
should it be up to engineers to plan or to use a reactonary approch
ENgineering and Development
Big technologies for developing nations
bad idea
requires skilled labour, expnsive and requires a lot of maintance
Appropriate technology
clear, cheap and relable
an ideal solution may be “sub-optimal”
Appropriate projects
Not appropriate
the kenya chavao water project
used a diesel water pump but the chief would keep the money
Simputer Project
a low cost computer for children/poor
attempt to digitize local region, 240$ usd
240 is cheap for westerners but extreamly expensive to a vilager
Iron cow
a bike attached to a grinding wheel to pulverize grass
converts indigestble grass to something consumable
who wants to eat grass?
successful
Kenya solar lamp
generated electriyty to charge a battery/bulb
kenya jiko
cooking pot would sit on open coals
”…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of futures generations to meet their own needs”
- world commission on the environment and development
Triple bottom line
Strong vs weak sustainability
Strong sustainability
human capital complements natural capital and are not interchangeable
Natural capital does not decrease
weak sustainability
human capital substitutes natural capital
human produced plus natural capital does not decrease
population growth
people are worried that human population growth would fuck up sustainability
“a mininmum of 3.5million people will starve to death this year, mostly children. but this is a mere handful compareed with the numebr that will be starving in a decade or so. AAnd it is now too late to take action to save many of the people”
the actual population growth is that growth rate goes up but death goes with it
food production increases faster than the death rate because of technology
four factors that postpone deplation
1. scarity increases the price
2. extration methods improve\
3. subsatutes
The Energy system
first it was biomass
Then coal is added and slowly overtakes
oil
solar
nuclear
consumers dont really care about oil and gas all they care it is charged by electricity
Global warming
The Carbon Cycle
Carbon sequestration -(mark jaccard)
11 engineering criteria that lead to sustaniabilyt
process at ambient or lowe teperatures and pressures
optimally selected molecular composition
Product lifecyce
Planned obsolencens
Right to repair
instead of buying new we can maintain and fix
Cradle to grave
design → useful life → landfill
design → usful life → usefull life → land fill
desgin → usful life → design
C2C quote
relying on eco-efficiency to save the environment will in fact achieve the opposite — it will let industry finish of everything quietly, persistently and completly - William McDonough and micheal braungart