CEE Discusses Climate Ethics and Engineering with City College’s Grove School of Engineering
“Ethics is the discernment of right and wrong and the implication for our behavior as individuals and collectives,” says Karenna Gore. “It often becomes most powerful when laws and social norms are out of step with deeply felt moral truths.”
Gore, CEE’s executive director, made this observation to students and faculty at City College’s Grove School of Engineering in a discussion on climate change, ethics and engineering on November 18. The seminar, hosted by Professor Carol Steiner of the Chemical Engineering Department, was an opportunity for emerging engineers to explore the ethical dimensions of their field and its intersection with the climate crisis.
She opened by acknowledging the “great contribution this college has made to the intellectual life of this great city and the whole country and world.” She highlighted notable graduates, including Nobel Prize winners, Dr. Jonas Salk, and Supreme Court justices Felix Frankfurter and Benjamin Kaplan, who tackled “some of the most challenging ethical questions of their time.”
She framed the climate crisis as one of the defining ethical challenges of our time, and addressed the critical role engineers play in shaping solutions. She called on students to consider their responsibility to work on projects that contribute meaningfully to systemic change.
Instead of going to the moon, we’re trying to stay here on earth—and we need the help of engineers.
Gore illustrated this point by discussing challenges that engineers are uniquely positioned to address, such as improving infrastructure to withstand new extreme weather patterns resulting from climate change. Hurricane Ida brought unprecedented rainfall and flooding to New York City, resulting in multiple fatalities. “There are infrastructure issues that need engineering solutions, now that the weather is so different,” she said. “Our systems haven’t been designed for it.”
She highlighted the need for innovation to replace harmful materials like plastics with sustainable, biodegradable alternatives. This shift, she noted, requires engineers to work with a broader ethical lens that prioritizes the health of communities and ecosystems.
At the same time, Gore cautioned against overreliance on technological “fixes” like carbon capture, geoengineering, and solar radiation management—approaches she described as steeped in “moral hazard.” These technologies, she explained, often serve as distractions that delay essential efforts to reduce emissions at the scale required to address the crisis.
Gore closed by drawing parallels to the Apollo mission era, when President John F. Kennedy challenged engineers and scientists to put a man on the moon within a decade. “And here we are now, full speed ahead. Instead of going to the moon, we’re trying to stay here on earth—and we need the help of engineers.”
In a statement after the seminar, Professor Steiner affirmed that “it is extremely important for engineering graduate students to consider these environmental and ethical concerns. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, I hope this new generation of researchers will steer their research efforts towards mitigating and solving this pressing problem.”
