Class Discussion and Reading
Questions – Chapter 9 – Engineers and the Environment
There is a lot of material in this chapter. I have included a list of class discussion questions and a much longer list of questions to guide your reading..
Class
Discussion Questions
1. What struck you as most interesting or puzzling about this reading? Which aspects do you think are most relevant to the type of engineering you do or will practice?
2. What do you see as most important about the consideration of the environment and sustainable development in the codes that HPR describe?
3. How does ASCE define sustainable development? (218) What, according to HPR, are the two essential ideas this definition contains? (218) Are there other definitions of sustainable development you are aware of that are similar to or different from ASCE’s? Why do HPR think that the ASCE Code has made an advance? (218) Do you see the ASCE Code as having made an advance that should be incorporated into other key engineering codes?
4. How helpful are the distinctions between health and non-health related concerns and intrinsic and instrumental value to understanding engineers’ professional obligations in your view?
5. According to HPR there are various business responses to environmental concerns. What are the differences between the following types of environmental management: crisis-oriented, cost-oriented, and enlightened? (220-21) Do you think these are realistic “types”? Do you think there are any other “types”?
6. What problem does HPR focus on in the section entitled Searching for a Criterion for “Clean” (222-23)and in Table 9.1? How is this problem related to our discussion of safety and risk in a previous class period?
7. What criterion of clean –whether the ones HPR discuss or another—do you think engineers ought to use? Or, is the idea of a criterion of clean a red herring?
8. Do you think HPR do justice to non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics? Why or why not? In particular do they do justice to how Leopold’s land ethic might be of use to engineers?
9. What are the main
arguments for and against extending engineer’s obligations beyond the health related? How do you evaluate HPR’s two modest
proposals? Do they address the right
questions? What do you see as their strengths
and weaknesses?
Reading
Questions
Note the Holtzapple example of a “virtuous” engineer on 214-15.
9.1 Introduction
Lays out the key topics to be discussed in chapter as follows:
a. Engineers are part of the problem and part of the solution
b. What obligations should engineers as part of the profession assume?
c. Look at Four Codes referring to the environment with special attention to the ASCE Code which refers to sustainable development.
d. Reasons for controversy
e. Survey of environmental laws and court decisions which leads to a definition of “clean”
f. Animal Liberation and Environmental Movements raise question of whether engineers have an obligation to the environment when human health is not an issue.
g. Proposal to be presented which will “allow engineers more freedom to exercise their obligation to protect human health while not violating the consciences of engineers who do not believe engineers have professional obligations to the environment where human health is not at stake.” (215)
9.2 Engineering Codes and the
Environment
Code References to the
Environment
1. What requirements and what recommendations does the ASCE Code make in regard to the environment (216-17)?
2. What requirement does the IEEE Code have with regard to the environment? (217) What questions does it leave open?
3. What does ASME urge its members to consider in relation to the environment? (217-18)
4. Same question for AICH? (218)
Sustainable Development (218)
5. How does ASCE define sustainable development? (218) What, according to HPR, are the two essential ideas this definition contains? (218) Are there other definitions of sustainable development you are aware of that are similar to or different from ASCE’s? Why do HPR think that the ASCE Code has made an advance?(218)
9.3 Controversy over the
Environment
Two Important Distinctions
6. What differences do HPR see between health related and non-health related concerns for the environment? (219) Do you see any differences between the types of environmental concerns that are emphasized in the mountain West and on the East coast in terms of health and non-health related concerns?
7. How do HPR define and distinguish between the intrinsic and instrumental value of nature? (219) How helpful do you think this distinction is?
8. How do the two sets of distinctions—health and non-health as well as intrinsic and instrumental value—play into engineering codes according to HPR? (219-220)
Why the Reluctance to be
Concerned with the Environment
9. According to HPR there are various business responses to environmental concerns. What are the differences between the following types of environmental management: crisis-oriented, cost-oriented, and enlightened? (220-21) Do you think these are realistic “types”? Do you think there are any other “types”?
10. What are two arguments in support of enlightened environmental management according to HPR? To what audiences does each argument seem directed? (221)
11. What are the elements of the Chemical Manufacturers Association Responsible Care Initiative? (221-22) Do these elements seem reasonable? Can you think of additional elements that might be added?
12. How has 3M moved to create an environmental strategy? (220) What business advantages do 3M’s moves have?
Searching for a Criterion for
“Clean” (222-23)
13. What problem does HPR docus on in this section and in Table 9.1? How is this problem related to our discussion of safety and risk in a previous class period?
9.4 What Does the Law Say?
(223-26)
Federal Laws on the Environment
14. What are the various types of standards introduced in the federal acts HPR discuss in this section? (223-26)
The Courts and the Environment
15. What are the implications of court decisions on evaluating environmental standards according to HPR, relying especially on Cranor? (226-27)
So How Clean is Clean?(227-28)
16. Do you agree with HPR that a “rational criterion for a clean environment” must consider both the health of workers and the public and the “financial viability of industries”? --Wealth and Health? Why does this seem rational, if it does? What might some problems be?
17. Mark Sagoff offers a different criterion. What is it and why do HPR think it is too stringent? (227- 28) Do you think it is too stringent?
9.5 Balancing Wealth and
Health: A Criterion for Clean
18. What do utilitarian and respect for persons approaches each stress in relation to balancing health and wealth?
19. HPR suggest a Degree of Harm Criterion (229). What do you see as its strengths and weaknesses?
20. Evaluate HPR’s proposed addition to engineering codes regarding health-related environmental issues. (230)
9.6 The Anthropocentric
Approach to Environmental Ethics
21. HPR hold that both animal liberation and environmental movements are non-anthropocentric. On what bases do each challenge anthropocentrism?
NOTE: In their discussion HPR focus on utilitarian-based animal welfare ethics such as that of Peter Singer. They ignore the animal rights based ethics of philosophers such as Tom Regan.
Environmental Movement and
Engineering Ethics
22. HPR begin with reference to Leopold’s land ethic. What important shifts do they identify in it? (232-33) Do you think they have captured what is essential about the land ethic? About the land ethic as it might impact the engineering profession?
23. Should the question of how we value other than humans be important? Why do HPR move so quickly to justifying non-health related environmental concerns via human welfare rather than intrinsic value?
24. What are some ways that non-health related environmental concerns may be related to human welfare according to HPR? (233-34)
9.7 The Scope of Professional
Engineering Obligations to the Environment (234-37)
25. What are the arguments for extending professional engineering obligations beyond health-related concerns? Are you persuaded?
26. What are the three main arguments against extending obligations beyond the health-related? (235-37) Are you persuaded?
9.8 Two Modest Proposals
(237-40)
27. What are HPR’s two modest proposals concerning engineering obligations that extend beyond the health-related? What are their arguments in favor of these proposals? What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of these proposals?