Coimbra, Portugal September 3 – 7, 2007 International Conference on Engineering Education – ICEE 2007 Do Engineering Students Need Sustainable Development Courses? F.Pacheco Torgal Civil Engineering Department Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute, Portugal fernandotorgal@est.ipcb.pt Said Jalali Civil Engineering Department University of Minho, Portugal said@civil.uminho.pt Abstract - Traditional Portuguese engineering curricula suffers from a handicap which has already been noticed in other countries. It has been designed to ensure that engineering graduates possess a strong scientific based knowledge. This leads to close minded engineers that are unaware of the world’s problems such as the major importance of environmental degradation, with all the consequences for life on earth. This subject cannot be overcome by adding to traditional engineering curricula a course related to sustainable development, but instead by an integrated vision of engineering curricula, that can emphasize the importance of humanism above all. This paper provides some insights about the importance of addressing sustainable development subjects in a holistic manner. Key Words – Engineering curricula, sustainable development, scientific knowledge. INTRODUCTION Nowadays Our planet faces a major challenge that if it is not solved or if its just postponed, it may lead to the end of our civilization as we know it. Environmentally speaking, the human action has been worse than a grasshopper’s plague. At least grasshoppers uses renewable resources in an igualitarian way without pollution. Humans use any kind of resources, including non renewable ones, leaving a trace of pollution in the consumption process and, to get things worse only some human consume the majority of resources. The final result is a polluted planet that ironically seems to walk towards a new age of ice [1-3]. It is as if nature realized that its future depends on the elimination of human species. Never before the immediate effects of civilization consumption patterns reveal intergenerational and intergeographic dimensions, with consequences in to other countries and also in future generations. A famous Portuguese writer named Eça de Queirós (1845-1900), once wrote a book intitled “O Mandarim”, a very rich Chinese person. In his book the Eça de Queirós writes about the dilemma faced by a common person which may get very rich if he accepts that his choice will mean that the Mandarim (someone he does not know and lives thousands kilometers away), would get killed. The modern version of this dilemma is brought to us by Peter Singer [4]. According to him, a driver of a jeep in an western country is indirectly responsible for the death of a peasant in Bangladesh, because he contributes with a high level of CO 2 to climate change, that is responsible for the ruin of his harvests, the increase of the water level of the sea and the dissemination of tropical illnesses. A recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [5] mentioned that sea rise will bring as a consequence about 200 million refugees. The importance of that subject will require an awareness of each and every one; mainly of those who will have a major role in climate change issues has is the case of future engineers. Some authors [6] had already report the receptiveness of the inclusion of environmental courses in engineering showing that is an important subject. Amoeda [7] analyzed civil engineering curricula having reported that environmental issues related to the construction sector are not properly addressed. ABOUT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Environmental worries of modern society have increased since 1972 when the United Nations Conference about the Environment took place in Stockholm. But it was only in 1987 that they gained a wider impact after the publication of the report "Our common future", also known as the Bruntland report [8], in which it the concept of sustainable development first appears as the one “that alllows the fullfillment of current needs whithout preventing the needs of future generations”. In 1992 the Rio summit took place, with the presence of 176 countries. They unanimously