Four years of growth: India at night in 2012 (left) vs 2016 (right) source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/new-night-lights-maps-open-up-possible-real-time-applications
India and China, two increasingly populous countries driving local development and deleterious emissions, will inevitable be limited by the natural resources available for their use, much like a chemical reaction (Steffen). In this manner, the planet checks the expansion of humanity. However, between biofuels and antibiotics, our species continues to defy the parameters that hinder the advance of other life forms. While such innovations allow us to live more freely, they simultaneously stress the very conditions that sustain our species. Our desire to promote life ironically threatens our existence. At what point will we, humanity, sacrifice our own prosperity—including the successes of engineering— for the sake of our environment?
While a sector of the global population has evolved its purpose of life to primarily concern maximum well-being, a significant portion of the world still focuses on survival. Thus, impoverished communities will likely favor any invention that may improve their quality of life, regardless of its environmental impact. Hunger pains eclipse carbon gains. Socioeconomic factors shape our subjective stances on life— our philosophies of what is beneficial. Our varying circumstances, I fear, will prevent any united, global efforts with the aim of protecting our planet. Indeed, the prospect of short-term relief is all too appealing for many.
A global poverty representation; source: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/#extreme-poverty-around-the-world-today
As I commence my education in engineering, I am being forced to examine the merits of manipulating the natural world, for seemingly noble innovations such as biofuels may indirectly contribute to the exacerbation of the overarching environmental problems they aim to solve (Steffen). As James Watt and Fritz Haber have demonstrated, the cutting edge of technology can unintentionally inflict self-injury (Bradshaw). It now seems that engineers—and everyone for that matter— must not only serve humanity but also its environment.
How, though, do we remain sensitive to the aspirations of some while working to protect the whole? Can we find a way to all win?
Works Cited
Bradshaw, S., Richards, Jenny, Kyriacou, Sotira, Gabbay, Alex, Ostby, Magne, Cassini,Stefano, . . . Bullfrog Films, publisher. (2015). Anthropocene. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Steffen, Will, et al. “The Anthropocene: Conceptual and HistoricalPerspectives.”PhilosophicalTransactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol. 369, no. 1938, 31 Jan. 2011, pp. 842–867., doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0327.