The practice of the profession of engineering is defined as performing professional service such as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design or supervision of construction or operation in connection with any utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works, or projects wherein the safeguarding of life, health and property is concerned, when such service or work requires the application of engineering principles and data.
PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEER
11.100 Definition.
The term public health engineer shall mean a person who applies engineering principles for the detection, evaluation, control and management of those factors in the environment which influence the public's health.
From Greta Thunberg's FB page, 15 June 2019:
Here is my speech from the Brilliant Minds conference in Stockholm.
Since I don't have the video yet, I'm sharing it like this.
Around the year 2030, we will be in a position where we probably set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, that will most likely lead to the end of our civilization as we know it.
That is unless in that time, permanent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of industrialized society have taken place.
Including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%.
And please note that these calculations are depending on inventions that have not yet been invented at scale.
Furthermore these scientific calculations do not include most unforeseen tipping points and feed back loops.
Nor do these calculations include already locked in warming hidden by toxic air pollution.
Nor the aspect of equity, which is absolutely necessary to make the Paris Agreement work on a global scale.
And these calculations are not opinions or wild guesses.
These projections are backed up by scientific facts, concluded by all nations through the IPCC.
So if we are to stay below the 1,5 degrees of warming limit, which is still possible within the laws of physics, we need to change almost everything.
We need to start living within the planetary boundaries.
This will be a drastic change for many, but not for most.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles of a substance.
The higher the temperature of an object, the higher is its kinetic energy.
Kinetic energy is a type of energy associated with motion.
Relative humidity tells us how much water vapor is in the air, compared to how much it could hold at that temperature.
It is shown as a percent.
For example, a relative humidity of 50 percent means the air is holding one half of the water vapor it can hold.
What happens when air is heated?
As the molecules heat and move faster, they are moving apart.
So air, like most other substances, expands when heated and contracts when cooled.
Because there is more space between the molecules, the air is less dense than the surrounding matter and the hot air floats upward.
Does air move from cold to hot?
Cold air flows downward according to hot air because it is more dense and sinks while hot air rises.
In hot room the air will be much thinner thus reducing the pressure so the air flows from cold room to hot rooms.
Cold air sucks out the energy of hot air!
Moisture always is attracted to cold!
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
- Donald Trump, 2012
"We should be focused on magnificently clean and healthy air and not distracted by the expensive hoax that is global warming!"
- Donald Trump, 2013
"It's late in July and it is really cold outside in New York."
"Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING???"
"We need some fast!"
"It's now CLIMATE CHANGE"
- Donald Trump, 2014
EDITOR'S NOTE:"I'm not a believer in man-made global warming."
"It could be warming, and it's going to start to cool at some point."
"And you know, in the early, in the 1920s, people talked about global cooling..."
"They thought the Earth was cooling."
"Now, it's global warming..."
"But the problem we have, and if you look at our energy costs, and all of the things that we're doing to solve a problem that I don't think in any major fashion exists."
- Donald Trump, 2015
To anyone just stopping by in here, and wondering exactly what is meant by the term "environmental hysteria mongering," it is a derogatory and pejorative term coined by those I will term as "science deniers" on the "right" or "conservative" (think Donald Trump) side of the political equation to pooh-pooh the theories of those on the left, in this case particularly, the subject of "climate change," where there is indeed a lot of hysteria-mongering, with people telling us that if we DO NOT stop ALL use of fossil fuels right exactly now, the world as we know it is going to be destroyed somehow in ten years.
The science deniers on the right, like Trump, do their "pooh-poohing" of the hysteria-mongering of those on the left, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, by doing something known as "SIMON-izing," which is the practice of simply disregarding and denigrating all data and evidence that the activities of mankind do in fact impact the climate based on alleged claims by the economist Julian Simon 30 years ago in an article in Science magazine entitled “Resources, Population, Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News” that they don't, which in essence is a complete and total dismissal of all "science" as a fraud on the public, which is what brings me into the discussion as someone who is a "scientist," an engineer, actually, which profession applies "science" and "scientific principles" to real world situations, supposedly, at least, which brings us back to "SIMON-izing," which is making fraudulent claims based on no evidence, at all.
Simply stated, with respect to "climate," the "SIMON-izers" have as their operative theory the ridiculous premise that more and more people can use energy without there being any net increase in the energy used, which is a total negation of basic science.
People themselves alone generate "heat energy," which is why places where large groups of people congregate are air-conditioned.
According to the "SIMON-izers," you could keep putting more people into a room, and there never would be a change in temperature.
"It wouldn't happen," they would tell you.
So one of the subjects we will be studying in here is who exactly is Julian Simon, and why should we today be heeding a word he has said, especially given that he has been dead now since 1998, and thus, had none of the data we have today to base his surmisals on, which actually had nothing to do with the subject of climate change, at all.
Which is another of the subjects we shall study in here - exactly what "climate" means, so we can independently determine whether or not the activities of humans can affect the "climate."
As for me, I have been on this green earth now for over 70 years, and I entered the field of public health engineering as a technician conducting investigations of atmospheric conditions, among other things related to air pollution control.
In 1974, the United States Environmental Protection Agency provided me with a fellowship to pursue an advanced degree in environmental engineering, and in 1975, I was inducted into Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, which is the international honor society of science and engineering.
One of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world, Sigma Xi has a distinguished history of service to science and society for more than one hundred and twenty five years.
Scientists and engineers, whose research spans the disciplines of science and technology, comprise the membership of the Society.
More than 200 Nobel Prize winners have been members.
Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering.
Thus, I personally find it disturbing and alarming when public figures like Donald Trump come along and trash all science as fraud and all scientists as fraudsters.
And that total denial of science, people, I consider another form of hysteria-mongering which I find dangerous to rational thinking.
Hence this thread as a form of combatting the mindless hysteria-mongering coming at us from both the right and the left.
As to what follows, we will be taking a walk through the wild side of the crackpot science employed by science deniers like Donald Trump, and as we do that, we shall be visiting the field of economics, which field forms an essential backdrop to understanding the dynamics of this on-going debate between the science deniers like Donald Trump and the hysteria-mongering of AOC, which is based not on any "science," at all, just emotions ( viewtopic.php?f=11&t=84 ).
And we will be exploring terms like "eco-pessimism" to see exactly what they mean and how they might relate to the debate and the complete denunciation of science as article of religious faith based on the beliefs and skepticisms of their guru or cult leader, the economist Julian Simon.
All of what follows therefore will be based on an analysis of the claims made in this following Op-Ed from the Cape Charles Mirror on 18 August 2019 which I think is a perfect example of the closed-minded thinking of the science deniers out there who erroneously believe that the activities of mankind have no impact on the world we live in, its environment, and its climatic conditions, to wit:
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR August 18, 2019
The Danger and Fraud of Eco-Pessimism
By Wayne Creed
This week Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg began her journey to the United States for the United Nations Climate Conference.
While this young girl believes that the planet is headed for an ecological catastrophe, this type of eco-pessimism is not new.
30 years Julian Simon published his article in Science magazine: “Resources, Population, Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News.”
Juxtapose this with The Limits to Growth and the Silent Spring, each over 40 years old, and try to really see which has turned out to be more accurate.
From The Limits to Growth:
“Will this be the world that your grandchildren will thank you for?"
"A world where industrial production has sunk to zero."
"Where population has suffered a catastrophic decline."
"Where the air, sea, and land are polluted beyond redemption."
"Where civilization is a distant memory."
"This is the world that the computer forecasts.”
As Simon noted, the models are just that, and they have turned out to be not that accurate.
In many cases, just the opposite of what the eco-pessimists proposed.
It was Simon’s contention that eco-pessimists ignore history, misunderstand finiteness, thinks statically, has a vested interest in doom and is complacent about human innovation.
Almost everything we read about the environment now is ignoring the poor track record of eco-pessimists – this should produce some skepticism about global warming claims today.
The reality is, it’s hard to find actual data – and not models that show either unprecedented change or change is that is anywhere close to causing real harm.
Returning to Simon’s argument that “Incredible as it may seem at first, the term ‘finite’ is not only inappropriate but downright misleading in the context of natural resources…"
"Because we find new lodes, invent better production methods and discover new substitutes, the ultimate constraint upon our capacity to enjoy unlimited raw materials at acceptable prices is knowledge.”
Simon is talking about human engineering and creativity, and in an argument that seems odd, renewable resources such as whales, pine forests, bison are the ones that tend to run out.
Humans are the only creatures that use fossil fuels.
Because of this, we are not competing or stealing resources from other animals.
When the energy source is hydro, wind, timber or crops, you are directly competing for resources with other creatures.
The use of bio-energy, whether in the form of timber or ethanol competes with wildlife for land, or wood or food.
Simon’s argument is based on history.
In the past, we relied on the biosphere (crops and wood), then we discovered that there was something under the ground that actually works better, and doesn’t rob from the surface of the planet and the creatures that inhabit it.
That is the industrial revolution.
Simon’s view is dynamic, and not static.
The economy, culture, and prices cause the substitution of resources.
While it was argued several years ago that malaria would drastically increase as the world got warmer, it actually has disappeared from North America, Russia, and Europe and gone down in South America, Asia, and Africa.
This downtick is not because mosquitos dislike warmer weather.
This is due to people moving inside, controlling standing water, and the use of chemicals and malaria medications.
Design, engineering, and creativity are the forces of change.
Human beings are dynamic, not static.
We adapt, that’s what we do.
Simon was also critical of the environmental movement and the scientific community.
He understood that they are competitive free markets in which there is intense competition for donations, grants, and subsidies.
The so-called Green movement generates billions of dollars annually, basically by scaring people.
If they said that climate change is a very slow, gentle process that takes hundreds of years to affect anything, I doubt the donations would be as generous.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s October 2018 report says that we need to cut global carbon emissions in half in ten years to have any hope of staving off a climate crisis that would existentially threaten human society.
Seriously?
And this is based on what?
In July, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a resolution asking Congress to declare that global warming is an emergency demanding a massive mobilization of resources to protect the U.S. economy, society and national security.
This, of course, has nothing to do with climate change.
This is about the distribution of wealth, power, and enhanced government control.
The IPCC report declared that preventing runaway global warming will require “far-reaching transitions in energy, land … and industrial systems” for which there is “no documented historic precedent.”
Oxford University climate scientist and report author Myles Allen explained, “It’s telling us we need to … turn the world economy on a dime.”
The IPCC says that to make this turn happen, there needs to be a carefully planned and democratically administered emergency program for ecological reconstruction.
None of this is reconcilable with capitalism’s imperatives of profit maximization and growth, as well as private ownership of the means of production.
In other words: The system must change to beat climate change.
When hearing climate change mentioned, what they really mean is a transition to socialism.
People like Sanders and AOC, and 70% of the Democratic party are using fear about climate change as a means destabilize the economy and to force what they dementedly call social justice.
However, they never offer any real data or historical precedents to back up their wailing.
Simon understood just how dangerous eco-pessimism is.
There is an idea that the risk from increasing carbon dioxide calls for cutting emissions by 90 percent or we’re all going to die.
But, cutting emissions by 90% might do more harm to the poor and the rain forest than anything the emissions themselves might do.
The idea that we can decarbonize the economy without severe ecological and economic harm, that we can shut down world trade without starving the poor, that we can grow organic crops for seven billion people without destroying the rain forest is a very dangerous proposition.
Simon understood how miserable this world still is for so many, and how much better we could make it.
We need to stop being so fearful, need to keep inventing and developing new and more powerful technologies that can actually do what we need to keep getting better.
Organic tomatoes are not going to feed the world, genetically modified crops will.
Wind and solar will never produce enough power, small nuclear will.
Simon believed the greenest thing we can do is innovate.
The most sustainable thing we can do is change and adapt.
We need not fear the climate, only fear itself.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/t ... pessimism/