• Question: Looking far into the future, what will be the biggest challenges that engineers will face?

    Asked by rattyvlogger to Graham, Luke, Maksim, Ruth on 17 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Graham Wiggins

      Graham Wiggins answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      rattyvlogger – Biggest challenges ?
      Hmmm…. biggest challenges to society as I see them are,
      1/ water. supplying enough fresh, clean, water to everyone Worldwide is going to be a nightmare
      2/Security. Staying safe from terrorism/crime will be important ( as it always has been )
      3/ resources. Modern technology needs rare elements ( special materials ) that are in limited supply, so that will be an issue.
      4/food. ( see water )
      5/energy…. again it’s always been an issue. the UK ran low on trees when we all burnt wood, so running low on oil is not a new issue.
      6/fresh air – a lot of people look for replacements for oil/gas/coal/wood, and ignore that the only burn with air. air needs to be relatively clean to sustain life.
      7/ The sun blowing up. Oneday in the future, the Sun will explode, in a supernova, making the climate change debate pointless. The clock is ticking, it’s got ages o run, but that will happen. The sun will expand first, which will eat our planet, and several more besides. so we as aspecies need a space program….
      – I know these are the easy answers, Humans have always struggled with them !
      and I hope I haven’t got you all worried 🙂

    • Photo: Luke Fry

      Luke Fry answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Graham’s hit the nail on the head there pretty much! Resource management, and of course how to get off of this little space rock and find a new home!!

    • Photo: Ruth Gregory

      Ruth Gregory answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I would agree Graham to be honest.

      My main concern is how we survive. We need to ensure we don’t use all resources in the planet and how we are to live on past the earths existence.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      All 3 great answers, it is going to be about resources and finding new ones to survive in a world were we use them up pretty quickly.

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