| Location |
Canada - Toronto, Ontario
|
|---|---|
| Start Date | Aug 13, 2016 |
| End Date | Aug 14, 2016 |
For the past 150 years, engineering practice has been based on a paradigm of controlling nature rather than cooperating with nature. In the control-of-nature paradigm, humans and the natural world are divided, and humans adopt an oppositional, manipulative stance toward nature.
As we enter the twenty-first century, we must embark on a worldwide transition to a more holistic approach to engineering. This will require: (1) a major paradigm shift from control of nature to participation with nature; (2) an awareness of ecosystems, ecosystems services, and the preservation and restoration of natural capital; and (3) a new mindset of the mutual enhancement of nature and humans that embraces the principles of sustainable development, renewable resources management, appropriate technology, natural capitalism (Hawken et al., 1999), biomimicry (Benyus, 1997), biosoma (Bugliarello, 2000), and systems thinking (Meadows, 1997).
Furthermore, engineers will be critical to addressing the complex problems associated with refugees, displaced populations, and the large-scale movement of populations worldwide resulting from political conflicts, famine, shortages of land, and natural hazards. Engineers of the future must be trained to make intelligent decisions that protect and enhance the quality of life on Earth rather than endangering it. They must also make decisions in a professional environment in which they will have to interact with people from both technical and nontechnical disciplines. Preparing engineers to become facilitators of sustainable development, appropriate technology, and social and economic changes is one of the greatest challenges faced by the engineering profession today.
Creating a sustainable world that provides a safe, secure, healthy, productive, and sustainable life for all peoples should be a priority for the engineering profession. Engineers have an obligation to meet the basic needs of all humans for water, sanitation, food, health, and energy, as well as to protect cultural and natural diversity. Improving the lives of the five billion people whose main concern is staying alive each day is no longer an option; it is an obligation. Engineers to become facilitators of sustainable development, appropriate technology, and social and economic changes represents one of the greatest challenges faced by the engineering profession today.
Main Themes of the conference