Society must make science and technology sexy again
1 min read
All developed and post-industrial societies seem to have problems attracting young people into science and engineering careers, while developing economies have the opposite problem of not being able to build technical universities quickly enough. Jeff Whiting, Mitsubishi Electric’s energy spokesman, says this imbalance need to be redressed urgently if global warming is to be contained.
“I am of an age where I can say that I know that science and engineering had a golden age in this country. It was actually quite a bit before my time, but between the end of the war and about 1970 a scientific degree was seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the land fit for heroes. Engineering qualifications were seen in almost the same light, although the fact that they could be won through non-academic routes downgraded them a bit.
“An American colleague extends his country’s golden age by several decades, while in Germany it is only in the last ten years that recruitment into such professions has become more difficult. Japan fought shy of technology until well into the 20th century, but used it as the bedrock on which to build the world’s most dynamic economy of the 1960s-1990s.
“From about 1990 many of Japan’s near neighbours began to emerge as technology and manufacturing powerhouses. And now we are experiencing a second wave with China aiming much much higher than any country before.
“Most Chinese know that their best route a better standard of living is a degree in science or engineering. China now produces hundreds of thousands of technology graduates each year – and they have no trouble finding work.
“But there is a bit of a problem here. Engineers and scientists in developing countries are charged with growing their national economies as fast as possible – to catch up with Western levels of affluence. They are not generally concerned with protecting the environment or containing global warming.
“Political pressure must be applied to get them to aspire to best practice. And it has fallen to Europe to demonstrate best practice, and to keep pushing the envelope forward.
“We Europeans have made considerable strides in the ecology race in recent years. The backbone of this is technology; our engineers and scientists are constantly resetting the barriers of understanding and the state of the art of green technologies.
“But we cannot now rest on our laurels; we have to produce at least one new generation of technology leaders to continue the fight. And we need big numbers of graduates to achieve realistic goals, so society must make science and engineering sexy again.”
