Climate Change and the Engineer: What Should We Be Doing?

This paper examines climate changes due to greenhouse gases and the role engineers should be playing in reducing their emissions. There is currently insufficient evidence to clearly show the presence of global warming but even most reputable sceptics agree that temperatures will increase. Although regional modelling is still uncertain, models show that temperatures will increase by 0.5-2 degreesC in New Zealand, precipitation will increase in the north and south but decrease in the centre and sea levels will rise by 10-80cm. Engineers will play a significant role in the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, particularly through increasing the efficiency of energy and material use. They also need to be aware of future scenarios when planing developments as sea level rises, temperature increases and precipitation changes could have a drastic effect on development over the next 20 years.