Cradle-to-Cradle design represents a paradigm shift in thinking. Instead of thinking about what to do with the waste we create, cradle-to-cradle design aims at limiting the waste we need to dispose of by reusing our wastes in a closed loop system. This is a brilliant idea, and so long as it works, it is a huge step towards achieving sustainability. This article made me much more aware of certain things.
Engineering is going to be an extremely important field in the near future. We are going to continue to rely on engineers to design new mechanisms to further technological advancement in order to be sustainable. Perhaps an engineer (Patrick?) will design a way to harness solar energy more efficiently, or devise a better way to harness wind energy. Maybe engineers will have a breakthrough in space travel design and become able to visit other planets. Maybe on these other planets we will find alternate sources of energy that we need so very badly.
I think the three tenets of cradle-to-cradle design make perfect sense and should actually be followed. The phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” comes to mind when it comes to “waste equals food”. In an ecosystem, there is no waste, because everything occurs in equilibrium and is constantly being utilized. For example, in humans require oxygen for respiration and plants require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. Conveniently, humans release carbon dioxide as a waste product and similarly, plants release oxygen.
I think we all know that our future is in solar energy. This goes along with tenet 2, which states, “Use current solar income”. All ecosystems rely on the sun to sustain life. We do too, but we should further our use of the sun. Solar energy is the most natural energy because the sun is always shining down on us. We need to create more efficient ways to harness the power of the sun to fuel our society. If we can do this, many effects of fossil fuels and other harmful sources of energy can be reversed or at least stopped. The keyword when it comes to solar energy is renewable. We would finally have a renewable source of energy. We cannot continue to rely on fossil fuels because they are non-renewable meaning the Earth will eventually become entirely depleted of them.
Diversity is such an underrated part of successful ecosystems. We need to make sure we do not generalize about all ecosystems, but rather look at them specifically. We give ourselves intrinsic value and so we must move away from our anthropocentric ideas and assign intrinsic value to all living things. This will help promote diversity.
Hopefully, engineers will be able to follow the principles of green engineering and begin to make more significant progress in the near future. These principles make a strong foundation. Words are nice, but I always feel better when I see real action occurring. A good thing to do that Ford has started, is to make cars that follow the principles of green engineering. They used reusable material for the upholstery. We could make all cars the same, instead of having luxurious, more harmful cars. Why not have all cars follow the green principles?
