Engineering Ethics, Environmental

Justice and Environmental Impact

AnalysisA Synergistic Approach to Improving Student

Learning

Roger Painter Ph.D. P.E.

Environmental Impact

Assessment

Engineering Ethics

Environmental Justice

Environmental Impact Assessment

Requires EIS for major federal actions

Major implications for environmental protection

No enforcement powers

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/ Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

Environmental Impact

Assessment

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President (EOP)

Through interagency working groups and coordination with other EOP components, CEQ works to advance the President's agenda.  

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/ Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

Environmental Impact

Assessment

Created shortly after NEPA/CEQ

Resisted by pro development interests

EPA has no constitutional “right” to protect or enforce

• USEPA

Environmental Impact

Assessment

Specific environmental regulations are strictly enforced

State Common Law: Nuisance, Trespass, Strict Liability, Negligence

• Enforcement and Deterrence

Environmental Impact

Assessment

Environmental Justice

Engineering Ethics

Environmental Justice

Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Justice

• “The following goals, set forth in NEPA, make clear that attainment of environmental justice is wholly consistent with the purposes and policies of NEPA:”

to “assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, pleasing surroundings”;

to “attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation, risk to health or safety,”

to “preserve…our natural heritage, and maintain, an environment which supports diversity and variety of individual choice”; and

to “achieve a balance between population and…and a wide sharing of life’s amenities.“

The primary goal of the Clean Air Act is to impose a standard to reduce ambient pollution, “allowing an adequate margin of safety...to protect public health…”

• Letter of the Law Versus Intent of the Law

Environmental Impact

Assessment

Original executive order by President Clinton

“each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its activities on minority populations and low-income populations”

Environmental Justice

Redefined by USEPA under President Bush

“fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies....”

• Politics and Environmental Justice

• 1984 Cerrell Associates report “Political Difficulties Facing Waste-to-Energy Conversion Plant Siting”

Coleridge "houses fairly wealthy" out

Snow Camp "fairly affluent" out

Cherry Grove "residences of site minority-owned" in

Farmington 1 "fairly affluent" out

Gold Hill 1 "dynamite company--explosives" out

Gold Hill 3 "very depressed area" in

Slocumb "affluent" out

Watson "some new homes--affluent" out

Ghio "trailers everywhere" in

Marston "game land" (which violates state criteria) out

Hoffman "distressed area" "major wetlands" in

Millstone Lake "Sheriff Goodman -- concerned about job loss" in

Berea "distressed county" in

Environmental Justice

The role playing exercise extends over three two hour class periods. During the role play the instructor and selected students play the roles of elected official, corporate official, concerned citizens and environmental activists.

The remaining students role play as engineers from a firm representing the entity proposing the action .

Successful completion of the role play exercise required that students representing various stakeholders reach a consensus agreement.

The exercises were characterized by highly emotional debate of controversial issues.

Environmental Justice

• Role Playing Exercise Example: Claiborne Enrichment Facility, Homer, Louisiana

Environmental Justice

What mistakes were made? By who?

Can a unlined landfill sited adjacent to a neighborhoods drinking water wells be protective of human health and the environment?

Why do you think the residents near the landfill were not informed about the contamination?

Coffee County Landfill, Manchester, TN.

Engineering Ethics

Engineering Ethics

Environmental Justice

Environmental Impact Assessment

“To educate students to cope with ethical problems, the first task of the teacher is to make students aware of ethical problems and help them learn to recognize them. A second task is to help students understand that their projects affect people for good or ill, and that, as “moral agents” they need to understand and anticipate these effects. A third task is to help students see that, as moral agents, they are “responsible for helping to develop solutions to the ethical problems they encounter”

• ASEE’s High Bar for Teaching Engineering

Ethics

Engineering Ethics

Microethics:

Individual engineers perceive themselves being able to reach clear right or wrong decisions.

Can lead to engineers making ethical decisions in a vacuum .

Engineering Ethics

• Microethics Versus Macroethics

Engineering Ethics

• Microethics Versus Macroethics Macroethics:

Engineers perceive themselves making ethical decisions as part of the broader social collective 3.

Does not fit neatly into traditional engineering education.

There is often no concise “right answer”

3. Herkert, J. R., 2003, Microethics, Macroethics, and Professional Engineering Societies. Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues in Engineering: Papers from a Workshop October 14-15, 2003. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2004.

This approach has its roots in critical pedagogy that seeks to challenge the worldview of engineering.

This worldview left unchallenged largely precludes critical thought and reflective judgment regarding ethics because it shores up the paradigm that “technology is neutral 1.

1. 1. King, P.M. and Kitchener, K.S. Developing reflective judgment: understanding and promoting intellectual growth and critical thinking in adolescents and adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

• Engineering Ethics Through the Critical Lens of Environmental Justice

Engineering Ethics

Studies suggest that stressing the social aspects of engineering can leverage the interest of students that otherwise may lack motivation to study engineering ethics 2.

Case studies that demonstrate failures implementing NEPA and resulting in environmental injustice, intrinsically involve ethical conflicts for engineers involved in the cases.

2. Herkert, J.R. (1999), ""Ethical Responsibility and Societal Context: The Case for Integrating Engineering Ethics and Public Policy,"" in H. Luegenbiehl, K. Neeley, and D.F. Ollis, eds. ,Liberal Education in 21st Century Engineering, Peter Lang, New York.

• Engineering Ethics Through the Critical Lens of Environmental Justice

Engineering Ethics

Q4: How much has your undergraduate education helped prepare you for coming to grips thoughtfully and effectively with engineering ethical challenges that you might encounter in your career?

0

1

2

3

4

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

McGinn SurveyAfter EIA

EIA Course McGinn Survey0-5.9% 0-15.7%1-11.8% 1-54.3%2-29.4% 2-22.9%3-47.1% 3-5.7%4-5.9% 4-1.4%

0-Not at all1-Little bit2-somewhat3-good deal4-great deal

Engineering Ethics

Including EIA Course

McGinn Survey

Yes No Yes No13 (76.5%)

4 (23.5%)

20 (29.9%)

47 (70.1%)

This (EIA) Course

Other Courses

8 (61.5%)* 5 (30.5%)

Q2.a: Has any engineering-related ethical issue ever been discussed (not just mentioned) in any of your technical engineering classes?

Q2.b: If you answered yes to 2.a, what issue in what course?

1 2 30

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

YesNo

Percen

t

Including EIA Course

Excluding EIA Course McGinn

Survey

Engineering Ethics

Q3: Have any of your engineering instructors ever conveyed anything specific to you about what is involved in being an ethically or socially responsible engineering professional in contemporary society?

EIA Course McGinn SurveyYes No Yes No14 (82.4%)

3 (17.6%)

9 (13.2%) 59 (86.8%)

1 20

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

YesNo

Percen

t

EIA Course

McGinn Survey

Engineering Ethics

• References

Schimmel, K (2000), “ABET 2000 – Can Engineering Faculty Teach Ethics?”, http://engr.calvin.edu/ces/ceec/schimmel.htm ABET (1998), Engineering Criteria 2000, http://www.abet.org/eac/EAC_99-00_Criteria.htm. Stephan, K.D. 2002, Is Engineering Ethics Optional?", IEEE Technology & Society Magazine, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 6-12, Winter 2001/2002  American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE), 1999, ASEE Statement on Engineering Ethics Education; http://www.asee.org/about-us/the-organization/our-board-of-directors/asee-board-of-directors-statements/engineering-ethics-education Herkert, J. R., 2003, Microethics, Macroethics, and Professional Engineering Societies. Emerging Technologies and Ethical Issues in Engineering: Papers from a Workshop October 14-15, 2003. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2004. Riley, D., 2008, Ethics in Context, Ethics in Action: Getting Beyond the individual Professional in Engineering Ethics Education. In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, June 2008. Bullard, Robert, 1990, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Costner, Pat, and Thornton, Joe, 1990, Playing With Fire: Hazardous Waste Incineration. Washington, DC: Greenpeace. Goldman, Benjamin, and Laura Fitton, 1994, Toxic Wastes and Race Revisited. Washington, DC: Center for Policy Alternatives. Mohai, Paul and Bunyan Bryant, 1992, Environmental injustice: Weighing race and class as factors in the distribution of environmental hazards. University of Colorado Law Review 63 (1): 921-932. 

• References

United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, 1987, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States. New York: United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. Painter, R. and King, L., 2006, The Role of Environmental Justice Issues in Environmental Engineering Ethics. In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, June 2006. Harris, C., et. al., 1996, “Engineering Ethics: What? Why? How? When?," Journal of. Engineering Education, Vol. 85, No. 2, April I996, pp. 93~l01. Davis M., 1993, “Ethics Across the Curriculum: Teaching Professional Responsibility in Technical Courses,” Teaching Philosophy 16, September 1993, pp.205-235. Herkert, J.R. (1999), ""Ethical Responsibility and Societal Context: The Case for Integrating Engineering Ethics and Public Policy,"" in H. Luegenbiehl, K. Neeley, and D.F. Ollis, eds.,Liberal Education in 21st Century Engineering, Peter Lang, New York. Benner P, Sutphen M, Leonard-Kahn V, Day L. Educating Nurses: Teaching and Learning a Complex Practice of Care. San Francisco and Stanford, CA: Jossey-Bass and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In press. King, P.M. and Kitchener, K.S. Developing reflective judgment: understanding and promoting intellectual growth and critical thinking in adolescents and adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994. Kabo,J., 2010, Seeing Through the Lens of Social Justice: A Threshold for Engineering, A thesis submitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, April, 2010. 

• References

Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult. In Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3-33). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. McGinn, RE 2003. "Mind the gaps": an empirical approach to engineering ethics, 1997-2001. Science and Engineering Ethics 9: 517-542. Rest, JR 1986. Elander, J, Pittam,G. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol. 35, No. 2. (2010), pp. 157-171, doi:10.1080/02602930802687745 Shuman, L. J., M. Besterfield-Sacre, and B. M. Olds. 2005. Ethics assessment rubrics. In Vol. 2 of Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, eds. C. Mitcham, L. Arnhart, D. Johnson and R. Spiers, 693–695. NY: MacMillan Reference Books. Colby, A., & Sullivan, W., M. (2008). Ethics teaching in undergraduate engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 97(3), 327-338. Astin, A. W. 1993. What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishing, Inc.