A seminar on green engineering for sustainable environment was held here Friday by the Indian Youth Welfare Association (IWYA) in which experts from universities, research centers and the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) discussed a number of environmental issues. Eng. Ashish Misra, an electrical engineer from Birla Engineering College, explained the dangers of global warming and what individuals can do about it. “We are the main cause of the earth's climate change because of the ever growing number of automobiles, the number of trees that we cut and our extreme dependence on fossil fuels,” Misra explained. He added that, fortunately, there is a solution and “it is the time to wake up and do something about it”. He then went on to point out a number of small, practical steps that we can take every day, such as unplugging electronic devices when they are not in use, turning off lights when leaving the room, switching to energy efficient lighting, regulating home temperature, and using microwaves rather than conventional ovens. B.S. Mubarak, speaking on Sustainable Development and Sustainable Strategies, compared people to parasites. “Parasites suck the life of the plants or animals they live on, and if that plant or animal dies, the parasite does not have a place to live. Now human beings are becoming parasites on planet Earth,” Mubarak said. “If we look at the model of sustainable environment, we see that it does not need any additional input and it does not produce any waste. Forests take light from the sun, water from the rain and have lived generation after generation for millions of years. But our mega cities are the opposite. We import everything and generate too much waste, and ultimately what we do is destabilize the environment,” Mubarak explained. Dr. Muhammed N. Al-Shoukany, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Saudi Gazette, who was the guest of honor, talked about the change in the environment in his hometown in the Asir region. He said that he grew up in a village that used to be pure, clean and green. “I left for more than twenty years and when I came back in the early 1990s, I was shocked. I could barely recognize the area that I grew up in. It had changed completely because of tourism. The green was gone, the animals were gone, and all in only 20 years,” Al-Shoukany said. Dr. Abdulbaset Sairafi, Deputy Assistant for Sustainable Development in the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, said that there are countries which “consumed a huge amount of the earth resources and now they want us to clean up the mess they have made”. He added that we would help “because the world is just one community and everybody is affected”. Other sessions were held on forms of alternative energy, smart building technologies, global resources, and sustainable development and the role of engineering professionals.
