Clidemy Poll – Should Engineers be Allowed to Lead Climate Action?
Here’s the next poll from CliDemy – the Climate Academy
Some months back, I wrote a brief post titled
“𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭; 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠” – https://lnkd.in/gciPw82F
Even though the provocative title might suggest it, the core of my argument was not that engineers were solely responsible for the mess we are in. Rather, it was that the engineers simply provided wonderful solutions to the world’s needs and pain points, but unfortunately, they did not factor environment in most of these solutions. They shaped the world of today with all its amazing technology and conveniences, but they never bothered to have a dialogue with the environment.
The next 70-100 years will see a great deal of climate action. Engineers undoubtedly will – and should – play a crucial role in the whole gamut of things. But should they shape it, as it appears they will?
If they shape it, is it possible that they will get us out of one environmental problem, but we could land into another? For example, perhaps engineers will be able to pump a few 100 billion tons of CO2 into the ground and the oceans and tame global warming, but if they again do not “listen” to the earth and oceans, we might be in for bigger environmental shocks. I read recently that even the best of scientists have no clue how the ecosystems deep down the oceans work. And we want to pump in billions of tons of CO2 there.
Engineers are great problem solvers, but we need great thinkers who can lead us to a different type of world, not to a different type of problem. Perhaps philosophers should lead climate action? Perhaps artists should? Perhaps farmers should? Perhaps spiritual leaders should?
Tell us in the following poll from 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐲 who you think should LEAD the climate action movement worldwide? (You can also type in Comments if you think someone else should lead it)
See my LinkedIn post on this topic