Des Moines Register
01-20-07
To save the planet, support engineering programs
Mark Kushner, special to the Register
Keep this vision in your mind because it's a real possibility if issues such as
global climate change are ignored: In the year 2050, Iowa is incapable of
sustaining agriculture as we now practice it, and every coastal city in the world is
under 20 feet of seawater.
Then ask yourself what fundamental, society-changing challenges must be met
now so that there are still prosperous nations in 2050, not to mention a corn
harvest in Iowa? It's what the College of Engineering at Iowa State University
calls the "2050 Challenge." How do we provide clean water, universal access to
information, health care and robust economies for 9.5 billion people? How do we
restore our crumbling infrastructure? How do we sustain our agriculture and
manufacturing? How do we reverse global warming while tapping non-polluting,
renewable-energy sources?
If we don't meet these challenges, it's not clear we will have functioning societies
in 2050. It's not clear that a single country will have the quality of life we enjoy
today. Besting these challenges is not an option. It is mandatory.
Who's going to solve these problems?
It probably won't be governments. Besting the 2050 Challenge will involve every
country on Earth, and governments' track record in global cooperation is poor at
best. And it probably won't be businesses. Although industry likely has the
intellect, it lacks the social mandate and the required long-term perspective.
The only organizations on Earth that have the will, intellectual capacity, social
mandate and ability to provide a return on investment to meet the 2050
Challenge are universities and, in particular, colleges of engineering. It is within
our collective abilities as universities and colleges of engineering worldwide to
literally save the planet.
This is not arrogance. It is a statement of responsible capability.
So what must the business leaders of Iowa do?
First, understand you can't say this is somebody else's problem. Iowa cannot
isolate itself from the global big picture. If Iowans don't become globally engaged
with these issues and work toward solutions, local politics won't matter. If climate
change means the Iowa of 2050 can't grow corn, it will be a result of national and
international policies that continue to waste energy, pump greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere and fail to be stewards of the planet.
Second, live up to your obligations to support your universities. The future of this
planet literally depends on the innovations coming from universities. Given that
reality, it is unfathomable to me that state governments nationwide are
abandoning their obligations to support their universities. The very institutions the
world must depend on to meet the 2050 Challenge by performing cutting-edge
research and educating innovators are being financially marginalized into
ineffective intellectual forces.
The bioeconomy is part of Iowa's meeting the 2050 Challenge, but it's only one
piece. A problem this interconnected can't be solved with monolithic solutions.
Energy independence won't result from solar or wind or nuclear or biomass or
conservation. It will result from all of them. Pursue the bioeconomy to best the
2050 Challenge and as a lever to create a diverse economy that will be
impervious to climate change. If, in 2050, Iowa can't sustain meaningful
agriculture and there's no alternative economy based on technologies that went
undiscovered for lack of support, what will our children tell our grandchildren
about our decisions in 2007? Will they say, "They screwed it up"?
Is this a guaranteed outcome? I don't know. Nobody knows. But why risk that
outcome by not taking action now?
I'm asking you to optimize globally, not locally. I'm asking you to appreciate the
severity of the problem and your obligation to be part of the solution. Given that it
will be universities, and colleges of engineering in those universities, that could
literally save the world, I'm asking you to support them.
MARK J. KUSHNER is dean of Iowa State University's College of Engineering.
This essay is based on a talk he recently gave to the Greater Des Moines
Partnership.