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US Engineering Societies’ Statement of Sustainable Development For Rio+20
(Web Page on this Site)
Essay
The US engineering community under the auspices of American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) developed a statement for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 as a demonstration of the U.S. engineering community support for sustainable development. In 2012, the AAES Engineers Forum for Sustainability (EFS) established a small working group to develop a similar statement for Rio+20. The small working group analyzed a number of statements for common threads and prepared a draft statement which was vetted and refined by interested members of the EFS. The final 2012 statement was approved by the AAES Board of Directors.
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Learning from Failures
(Web Page on this Site)
This article by Nathan Khal was originally published in the CEES Ethics Column in November of 2009. It describes the Koror-Babelthaup Bridge collapse and the difficulties encountered by engineers attempting to examine the records for useful lessons. It highlights issues of confidentiality in failure investigations and the right scientists and engineers to examine documents that have been sealed by litigation.
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Cars That Won't Stop: Are Computers the Problem?
(Web Page on this Site)
Article
This article by Stephen Unger examines the causes behind the Toyota vehicle recalls of 2009 and 2010. It also discusses the role of computers in controling vital components of automobiles and some useful lessons from the incident.
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Ethical Issues in the Design of Ultra-Lightweight Vehicles
(Web Page on this Site)
Hypothetical Case
This web-based case study presents the major safety and sustainability points in the ethical debate over ultra-lightweight vehicles and then asks the reader to consider a series of thought-provoking questions for both topics.
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Ethics in the Machine Shop: A Student's Guide
(Web Page on this Site)
A student project that investigates waste disposal practices in a college machine shop.
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Ethics in the Biological Sciences
(Web Page on this Site)
Resources for information about ethics in the biological sciences for educators, scientists, and students.
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Disaster Relief: Public Safety and Public Opinion after a Plant Emergency
(Web Page on this Site)
A student project that looks at the balance between ensuring safety and managing public opinion in the aftermath of a chemical spill at a manufacturing plant.
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Brownfields and Environmental Justice: Income, Education, and Race
(Web Page on Another Site)
Article
Written by Jeffrey F. Miller, Cliff I. Davidson, Deborah A. Lange, and Meredith L. Meyer Grelli. Abstract: Brownfields are parcels of chemically contaminated land that are not redeveloped due to the expense of cleanup. Correcting any environmental injustice associated with brownfields can involve redevelopment efforts that account for economic disparities. Here we show that economic conditions in communities with brownfields that have received funding from the United States government are significantly worse than in the nation as a whole. These results suggest that there is an opportunity to right this environmental injustice by choosing to remediate brownfields in economically depressed areas in ways that address both environmental risk and the economic health of communities with brownfields.