Overconsumption as an Ethical Challenge for Engineering Education

Abstract

One of the most important and yet most difficult of the ethical challenges facing technological civilization is ‘excessive’ consumption in the affluent nations. This includes dissipative use of raw materials and production of waste at rates higher than sources or sinks regenerate. Are design engineers ethically compelled to resist designing new products that abet ‘overconsumption’? Should undergraduate engineering curricula be targeted toward avoiding overconsumption? Technical professionals may be uniquely positioned to work against some aspects of overconsumption, and it is worth inquiring into whether and how the topic might be incorporated into engineering education and practice.