Entering an ecological age: the engineer's role

Society's globalising economic system is destabilising the planet's life-support systems and is rapidly becoming unsustainable. This paper, which is based on the author's touring Brunel international lecture, analyses current knowledge and concludes that society could move to a sustainable way of living within environmental limits over the next few decades, allowing for continued human development and population growth as well as adapting to climate change. The paper also addresses the policies and engineering input that will be needed to achieve this transition to a new ‘ecological age’ of human civilisation. In particular there needs to be a continuous adaption of the global economy to match the size of the supporting ecosystem. If use of resources remains within Earth's natural capacity to absorb waste and regenerate those resources, the economy will be sustainable and human development can continue.