Title: Quo vadis global environmental sustainability? A proposal for the environmental education of engineering students

Authors: Bhaskar Nath, Krassimira Kazashka-Hristozova

Addresses: European Centre for Pollution Research, Unit 1A, 289 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 6NX, UK. ' Ministry of Environment and Water, 67 William Gladstone Street, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria

Abstract: In this paper, the inextricable link between sustainable development and sustainability of the natural environment is pointed out and a heuristic for developing a unique operational definition of sustainable development is proposed. It is argued that if the international community is at all serious about achieving even a modest degree of global environmental sustainability and global sustainable development, determined efforts must be made to reduce consumption by the affluent; that science and technology, however advanced, can only help the process of global sustainable development in a limited way but cannot deliver it; and that moral and ethical education is needed to achieve global environmental sustainability by changing people|s attitude to nature and the environment – from one of gross exploitation as at present to that of genuine concern and respect. To this end, a generic outline syllabus, including essential elements of moral philosophy, is proposed for the environmental education of undergraduate engineering students.

Keywords: environmental education; engineering education; undergraduate students; sustainable development; ethics; morality; environmental sustainability; moral philosophy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2005.006392

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2005 Vol.23 No.1, pp.1 - 15

Published online: 03 Mar 2005 *

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