The Role of Environmental and Special Interest Groups

It is not surprising to spot NUS Fighting Against Climate Change painted on the campus shuttle buses in National University of Singapore (NUS). It is not uncommon to see different trash bins categorized by the disposed materials. Beneath the phenomena are the environmental and special interest groups, who impose positive effects on the community.

Environmental groups help to spread the knowledge of global warming and to encourage ordinary people to take actions. Environmental groups are usually good at broadcasting non-profit commercials, creating documentaries and other methods to educate ordinary individuals and advise them green-tips. For instance, in Apple Online Application Store, an application for iPhone called Go Green is designed to give various tips on saving the environment. This method definitely helps individuals to concern more about global warming, with the help of the widespread use of iPhone.   

Furthermore, environmental groups manage to encourage institutes to take action against global warming. For instance, excessive use of air-conditioning is one of the contributions to global warming, however, an environmental group in NUS called S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violation of the Earth), which has been aimed at fighting against environmental issues, made the university increase the temperature setting of the Air-conditioning all over the school, which turned out a great success in exercising a relatively large-scale influence in solving global warming.

Moreover, an influential special interest group can bring up an enormous effect on the society. Taking the international non-profit organization Greenpeace as an example, in 2008, six activists from Greenpeace, who damaged a chimney at a power plant in the UK, were claimed justified because they prevented greater property destruction due to climate change. Not surprisingly, this event arose the astonishment of the world and challenged our conventional logic of reasoning.

In brief, the environmental and special interest groups are playing a positive role in solving global warming. They are successful in encouraging the society to take positive action against global warming. They have brought the idea of fighting against global warming to the society, ranging from ordinary people to institutions and political sectors. Indeed, these groups have been making considerable contribution to helping the world realize the importance and urgency in preventing global warming. 

The Expanding World of Engineers

In the technology and information based world, an engineer’s training helps to systematically analyze the complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions. Thus, ranging from manufacturing sector to financial and service sector, an engineer are capable to handle diverse situations, with the systematical way of thinking.    

Many of the problems we are faced with in the real world are complicated; they are influenced by factors like financial funding, environment, besides technology. While encountering a problem, an engineer tends to investigate into the problem and dissolve it into specific pieces of smaller separate problems.  An engineer are capable of identifying the different component problems in accord with the various fields of studies. Therefore, the problem can be systematically tackled by overcoming the element problems. Because there are various fields of engineering such as electrical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, one can not handle everything encountered in a complicated project; it is necessary to modularize the problem and tackle it separately. 

Plus, the process of approaching a solution is intricate. It’s very necessary to progress and eventually reach a solution step by step. It is an advantageous skill that engineers’ training gives.  An engineer is capable of deriving a model from the problem. He/She will ask himself/herself what information is known, what remains unknown or uncertain, and what he/she want to know. Thereafter, he/she will divide his/her section of work into different stages and focus on one every time. An engineer will apply theoretical principles to develop the model and reach a rough solution, optimize the solution by taking some key factors into consideration, which are manufacturing costs, environment, user’s safety, etc., and finally run simulations to experimentally test the model and refine it. By targeting at the problem systematically, an engineer will be able to holistically design the solution.

To sum up, an engineer possesses the skill to analyze complex problems and approach them with a systematic method. This skill appears very essential in the information and technology based society, where one thing is always affected by various factors, for that constructively dissolving the situation facilitates the road to the final solution. Furthermore, an engineer’s way of approaching the problem is straightforward, clear and easy for others to follow.