Should engineers be concerned with climate change

This paper examines the arguments and counter arguments surrounding the issue of global warming and concludes that engineers should regard the problem as a real issue and prepare strategies to deal with it. Past records of climates and world temperatures have shown that they are continuously changing. This has made it very difficult to determine whether the anthropogenic (produced as a result of human activities) greenhouse gases are having an effect on climate. Consequently there has been much debate on this issue. The paper describes the phenomena - both long- and short-term - involved in the changing global climate. It looks at arguments presented by individuals who deny that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are causing global warming, the specific aspects being the maximum possible temperature rise, the level of saturation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the time needed to double the carbon dioxide concentration, the maximum concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the contradictory evidence obtained on temperature rise from ground and satellite measurements. It concludes that, while no-one can be completely sure that the anthropogenic gases are causing a temperature rise, the indications for it are present. The precautionary principle should therefore be adopted and engineers should be considering ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.