People inherently depend on their environment for air, water, food, and materials for
clothing and shelter. In primitive society, human-made wastes were naturally recycled
for repeated use. When open sewers and dumps were introduced, nature became
unable to reclaim and recycle these wastes within normal time periods, thus interrupting
natural ecological cycles. Traditional economic systems enable products to
be mass-produced and sold at prices that often do not reflect the true cost to society
in terms of resource consumption and ecological damage. Now that society is
becoming more generally aware of this problem, legislative requirements and more
realistic “total” cost provisions are having increasing impact upon engineering
design. Certainly, it is important that the best available engineering input go into
societal decisions involving these matters.
We can perhaps state the basic ecological objectives of mechanical engineering
design rather simply: (1) to utilize materials so that they are economically recyclable
within reasonable time periods without causing objectionable air, ground and
water pollution and (2) to minimize the rate of consumption of nonrecycled energy
sources (such as fossil fuels) both to conserve these resources and to minimize thermal
pollution. In some instances, the minimization of noise pollution is also a factor
to be considered.
As with safety considerations, ecological factors are much more difficult for the
engineer to tie down than are such matters as stress and deflection. The following is
a suggested list of points to be considered.
People inherently depend on their environment for air, water, food, and materials forclothing and shelter. In primitive society, human-made wastes were naturally recycledfor repeated use. When open sewers and dumps were introduced, nature becameunable to reclaim and recycle these wastes within normal time periods, thus interruptingnatural ecological cycles. Traditional economic systems enable products tobe mass-produced and sold at prices that often do not reflect the true cost to societyin terms of resource consumption and ecological damage. Now that society isbecoming more generally aware of this problem, legislative requirements and morerealistic “total” cost provisions are having increasing impact upon engineeringdesign. Certainly, it is important that the best available engineering input go intosocietal decisions involving these matters.We can perhaps state the basic ecological objectives of mechanical engineeringdesign rather simply: (1) to utilize materials so that they are economically recyclablewithin reasonable time periods without causing objectionable air, ground andwater pollution and (2) to minimize the rate of consumption of nonrecycled energysources (such as fossil fuels) both to conserve these resources and to minimize thermalpollution. In some instances, the minimization of noise pollution is also a factorto be considered.As with safety considerations, ecological factors are much more difficult for theengineer to tie down than are such matters as stress and deflection. The following is
a suggested list of points to be considered.
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