Main Areas of Tension between Human Demand and the Natural Environment

Engineers are the mostly unsung heroes of the industrial revolution. Their names were better known and honoured in the last century; Telford, Wheatman, and Pearson are some of those named around the top of this room at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Their role was well brought out in the Declaration of the Council of Academics of Engineering and Technological Sciences agreed at Kiruna last June.

The world engineers have created for us is our world: the ways in which we generate energy; the ways in which we manage water, both fresh and salt; the ways in which we communicate - bridges, roads, railways, by air; the ways in which we extract, use, develop and manage resources; the ways we develop information technology. In short, the ways in which our small animal species have come to dominate the natural environment.