Engineering has a complicated relationship with the environment. By-products of manufacturing such as carbon fuel emissions and deforestation may have made an unfortunate contribution to many of the problems our planet is currently facing, but it's also engineers and innovators who are making some of the most significant strides towards addressing those problems.
Here are three important ways in which engineers are leading the way in terms of making our planet healthier and more sustainable for all.
Providing Access to Clean Water for All
Around 750 million people - almost 2.5 times the population of the United States of America - currently lack access to clean, drinkable water. A growing population and declining water supplies threaten to intensify this problem, presenting a potential global crisis in the coming decades. However, engineers aren't giving up hope.
One example of a persistent and creative advocate for clean water access in the engineering space is Dean Kamen. Along with his team of engineers, Kamen created the Slingshot, a water purification device that uses a Sterling engine to convert nearly any contaminated water into suitable drinking water. An important feature of the device is its ability to use a wide variety of items as a fuel source, including widely available resources such as manure. Although much more needs to be done to overcome water scarcity, low-cost and low-maintenance devices such as the Slingshot provide engineers with a model of success to improve and expand upon in the future.
Pioneering Affordable Solar Energy
In the same way that availability of clean water is diminishing, a depleted supply of fossil fuels has forced engineers to seek alternative sources of energy. As the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available, solar energy has the potential to solve our energy crisis once and for all, if it can be harnessed in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Commercial solar cells convert sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of only 10 to 20 percent which, when factoring in the cost of manufacturing solar cells, can actually raise the price of electricity. Before solar energy cells ever become a common sight in households everywhere, questions surrounding cost and effectiveness must be addressed. But significant progress is being made, and with the help of the engineers working tirelessly on new, more efficient ways to harness it, solar still has a major role to play in the future of our relationship with the modern world.
Developing Zero-emission Aircraft
Aviation currently accounts for 11% of carbon emissions from transportation, and 2% of all world emissions, and is growing rapidly, presenting a serious problem to an increasingly globally connected world. However, the next major chapter in humanity's relationship with air travel may not be too far off in the distance. Between March 2015 and July 2016, the Solar Impulse - a long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, became the first aircraft to make it around the world without fuel. The journey took 17 legs and encountered several problems, but it proved what can be achieved when dedication and innovation meet. Perhaps in the future, all air travel will be powered by renewable energy, helping us all to travel around our planet without causing her unnecessary damage.
Can engineering really save the world? Tell us about your favourite environmentally-friendly innovations in the comments section below...
