former chief engineering for sk ministry of environment
a study and initial findings
Relationship between society and air quality
Society gets more mad over water quality than air because, of how fast its consequences react
Water quality
texas vs walkerton,=> brain eating amoeba found in texas water supply
Tap water vs bottled water
Both are regulated..
dasani is filtered calgary water
bottled water is great when no potable water is available
water treatment
waste water gets dumped in the ocean but for land locked regions its dumped anywhere
if the waste water isn’t treated properly people can get very sick
should it be up to engineers to plan or to use a reactionary approach
ENgineering and Development
Big technologies for developing nations
bad idea
requires skilled labour, expensive and requires a lot of maintenance
Appropriate technology
clear, cheap and reliable
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 extremely expensive to a villager
Iron cow
a bike attached to a grinding wheel to pulverize grass
converts indigestible grass to something consumable
who wants to eat grass?
successful
Kenya solar lamp
generated electricity 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 future 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 minimum of 3.5million people will starve to death this year, mostly children. but this is a mere handful compared with the number that will be starving in a decade or so. And 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 depletion
1. scarcity increases the price
2. extraction methods improve
3. substitutes
The Energy system
first it was biomass
Then coal is added and slowly overtakes
oil
solar
nuclear
consumers don’t 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 sustainability
process at ambient or lower temperatures and pressures
optimally selected molecular composition
Product lifecycle
Planned obsolescence
Right to repair
instead of buying new we can maintain and fix
Cradle to grave
design -> useful life -> landfill
design -> useful life -> useful life -> land fill
design -> useful life -> design
C2C quote
relying on eco-efficiency to save the environment will in fact achieve the opposite — it will let industry finish off everything quietly, persistently and completely - William McDonough and michael braungart