Poor engineering design and ethics

The press frequently reports on incidents where it appears that disastrous outcomes may have been avoided if engineers had focused more on the common good or public safety.

GHG emission management

 

Danny Crichton, writing in TechCrunch,  suggests there is a fundamental thread that binds the disparate and heinous stories of the decline of engineering ethics together. The increasingly noxious alchemy of complexity and capitalism is a thread that binds the 737 MAX, FB data leaks, PG&E grid fires, and VW's emissions.

Ethics starts with leadership at the top, and specifically with better communication around safety and regulatory concerns to all stakeholders, but most definitely shareholders. Owners of stock in companies with complex technical products need to be told — again and again — that the companies they own will prioritize safety over immediate profits. The tone must always be to value long-term growth and sustainability… Yet, short-term traders aren’t the only investors available. The capital markets are diverse, and there are trillions of dollars of wealth handled by managers seeking to invest in long-term growth, without the downsides of inevitable disasters. One key part of investor relations is to acquire the investors that match the culture of the firm. If your investors don’t care about safety, no one else will either.1

 

The website of Engineers Nova Scotia states that Members of Engineers Nova Scotia must adhere to the Code of Ethics adopted by Council motion, effective September 30, 2012. This was adopted based on the Engineers Canada Code of Ethics as set out in the Engineers Canada publication “Guideline on the Code of Ethics”, dated April 2012.2

 

Facebook post from someone who takes the engineer's oath seriously 

Hyunjoo Jin reports, for Reuters, that the South Korean engineer Kim Gwang-ho flew 7,000 miles to Washington last year to do something he never dreamed he would: he reported alleged safety lapses at Hyundai Motor Co - his employer of 26 years - to U.S. regulators.

In a culture which values corporate loyalty, Kim was moving against the tide when he handed the NHTSA 250 pages of internal documents on the alleged defect and nine other faults. South Korea has been buffeted by corporate scandals, many within its family-run conglomerates or chaebol, but has seen few whistleblowers. A high proportion are sacked or ostracized, despite legislation to protect them, according to advocacy groups. Kim, fired in November for allegedly leaking trade secrets about the company’s technology and sales to media, has since been reinstated by Hyundai after a ruling by a South Korean government body under whistleblower protection laws. Hyundai has filed a complaint disputing the decision. “I will be the first and last whistleblower in South Korea’s auto industry. There are just too many things to lose,” Kim said in an interview at a bakery cafe run by his eldest daughter. “I had a normal life and was better off, but now I’m fighting against a big conglomerate.”3 

The ambiguity between loyalty to employers and clients who support the engineering enterprise and the safety or common good of society in expressions of engineering ethics makes decisions about inadequate designs an exercise in tension for practicing engineers.

 

References

 

1(2019, April 28). The demise and rebirth of the ethical engineer | TechCrunch. Retrieved May 1, 2019, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/28/the-demise-and-rebirth-of-the-ethical-engineer/ 

2(n.d.). Welcome to Engineers Nova Scotia. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://engineersnovascotia.ca/ 

3(2017, May 14). Blowing the whistle in South Korea: Hyundai Man takes on chaebol .... Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-whistleblower/blowing-the-whistle-in-south-korea-hyundai-man-takes-on-chaebol-culture-idUSKCN18B0J5

 

Loosening the knots in the cry of the earth

Ruth Holgate, a member of the Jesuit Young Adult Ministries team, based at the Laudato Si’ community in Clapham,

Building for the future

 

asks how might the gift of wisdom help us to untie the complicated knot of responding to the ‘cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ as individuals and as communities?

 

Let us consider how such an approach might help to loosen that particular knot in all of our lives that I mentioned previously, our need for ecological conversion – to respond urgently, as individuals and as the whole human race, to the ‘cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’. When a person looks at the mess human beings have made of the world, the climate crisis, the extreme inequality between peoples, a culture of careless over-consumption, etc., how can considering God’s perspective help us to respond? We might initially guess that God is sad or angry at what we have done, inducing feelings of guilt, helplessness and a sense of being paralysed – after all, what can one person do in this awful mess? But if we sit longer with the question of how God sees things, perhaps we recall God as creator, as creative, as one who lovingly attends to the world. We may want God to intervene to make things right – but we also notice as we grapple with these thoughts that God invites us to notice our own sense of wonder at creation, perhaps the delicate blossom on a tree or the surprising amount of busy, noisy birdlife in a local park. As we attend to the creation we see around us, we might notice within ourselves a desire to care, to act more gently toward this created world, to exercise more self-control over our own consumption, recognising that we do have an impact on the created world, however small. Over time, as we continue to dwell on how God sees things, our perspective can change, can become more attuned to those fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)  that can point us toward a greater care for others and for our world, and this wisdom will enable us to face small and great challenges.1

References

 1 (2021, April 19). Loosening the knots: Wisdom | Thinking Faith. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/loosening-knots-wisdom

Engineering and Implementing the Net Zero Grid

Binnu Jeyakumar and Jan Gorski offer an opinion in the National Observer that creating a net-zero emissions electricity grid by 2035 in line with International Energy Agency targets is essential for Net-Zero by 2050.

Net Zero Grid

 

They ask how will Canada deliver this bigger, cleaner, modernized grid to electrify our vehicles, buildings, and businesses, and take advantage of the opportunity to export in-demand clean electricity to our neighbours to the south?

We need to act quickly. Asset planning, development, and turnover can take decades. If we don’t move swiftly now, we will lose windows of opportunity. There are four key pieces of the puzzle: renewable energy to provide zero-carbon electricity; energy efficiency to reduce how much electricity is needed; demand response to match when electricity is needed with its availability; and, increased storage capacity… But there is a fifth piece that is critical to bringing it all together: Canada needs more transmission lines to connect provincial grids and allow us, as a nation, to play to our strengths. Unlike the first four pieces of the net-zero grid puzzle, transmission requires interprovincial co-operation. The rewards for succeeding should not be underestimated.1 

In 2019, Emily Chung of CBC News reported that the next wave of innovation are the nuclear reactors of the future that are small and modular.

Small nuclear reactors could make Alberta's oilsands cleaner, industry experts say Such reactors are considered "modular" because they're designed to work either independently or as modules in a bigger complex (as is already the case with traditional, larger reactors at most Canadian nuclear power plants.) A power plant could be expanded incrementally by adding additional modules.2 

Joanne Liou of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Office of Public Information and Communication explains Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Achieving the Net Zero electrical grid in Canada will require a great effort in power system engineering, construction and commissioning.

Today, nuclear power provides 10% of the world’s electricity. But to stem climate change, we’re going to need far greater amounts of clean and reliable energy. Thirty countries currently operate nuclear power plants. More than two dozen others are looking at nuclear energy to meet their power and climate needs. In the western United States, more than 30 towns and cities are also looking to the future. They want to go carbon free. And they’re betting on small modular reactors (SMRs) to get there.3

 

At this time, we urgently need to provide education and training to ensure we have the engineers, technologists, technicians, and tradespeople to get the job done on time.

 

References

 

1	(2021, November 8). No better time to invest in an electric future - National Observer. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/node/28586
2	(2019, June 25). 'The next wave of innovation': Nuclear reactors of the future are ... - CBC. Retrieved June 25, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/small-modular-reactors-nuclear-smr-1.5187469
3	(2020, January 8). Nuclear Power: The Road to a Carbon Free Future | IAEA. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/videos/nuclear-power-the-road-to-a-carbon-free-future