Engineering Ethics, Global Climate Change, and the Precautionary Principle

Introduction

The ethics of engineering includes abiding by professional codes of conduct and of professional proficiency. Thus, the bridges an engineer builds must not fall down, and the tunnels she constructs must not become flooded or undergo the collapse of walls or roofs; and in general obligations to clients should be satisfied. But these responsibilities are only a part of engineering ethics. Engineers should also comply with common morality, for example, treating everyone justly and without exploitation, including those aspects of common morality that are enshrined in international law.

This chapter focuses in part on one such aspect, the Precautionary Principle, which (as we shall shortly see) was unanimously endorsed by the Rio Conference on Environment and Development of 1992, also known as the Earth Summit, and thus has the status of international law, and carries the recognition and support of just under 200 countries which participated in that Summit. This Principle is elucidated, an objection is considered and rejected, and the scope of the Principle is further elicited; its importance turns out to be such that all students of engineering should be introduced to it and its implications. Later the chapter moves on to ethical principles and decision-making related to global climate change, which turn out to have a considerable bearing on decisions to which engineers are party, and on the scope of projects that they should embark upon. But let us focus to begin with on the Precautionary Principle.