Engineers in Environmental Protection

Engineers in Environmental Protection
Introduction
Industrialization has brought untold wealth and has transformed the way of life in the last century. Industrialization and urbanization have become a global phenomenon, resulting in serious environmental problems such as resource depletion, climate change, and pollution. Large scale use of natural recourses, their polluting processes and transport infrastructure have exacerbated the environmental problems. Since the beginning of industrialization humankind has been utilizing natural resources-coal, oil, gas, water, minerals-at an accelerating rate. Energy resources are an obvious example of limited resources whose uses have major impact on environment in the form of emission of harmful gases and other wastes and also, inevitably, generates carbon dioxide, a gas which plays a key role in the greenhouse ‘global warming’ effect. Rivers are polluted by factories and becoming a health hazard. The dumping of industrial waste into streams is resulting contaminating clean water supplies. There were reports of rivers that had turned orange or had caught on fire, the smog over some cities was becoming intolerable, and there were signs of negative health consequences from buried waste. Environmental concerns have become increasingly central to social policy. The roles of governments in relation to environmental issue are becoming extremely important. A great many of environmental damage problems are due to industrialization and urbanization. Human beings have developed a capacity to create and use tools or what is now called technology. Technology can provide the means for modifying the natural environment for human purpose. Engineers have professional obligations to society. Engineers are called on to seek solutions to problems that have a far reaching impact on society. The solution of such problems requires careful and responsible application of scientific principles. It is necessary for the engineer to address problems