On the other hand, you could develop pest-resistant crops. To make such choices, as between developing new pesticides or reengineering cotton plants, engineers' minds must be open to many options early in the process. They tend to think about solutions within their respective discipline. Unfortunately, the environment is all too often something of an afterthought. Taking the initiative, CenCITT investigates processes from beginning to end, trying to clean them up early before it's too late.
Decisions made in ignorance can have devastating effects that linger for decades.
The once-ubiquitous use of certain chemicals is a case in point. We still have DDT in Lake Superior fish. Even now, eagles have total reproductive failure when they eat Lake Superior fish. For example, CenCITT researchers have developed innovative ways to destroy petrochemicals that have leached into groundwater. In the past, we've designed industrial systems under the assumption that we would forever have cheap disposal in air, land, and water, and as a society, we accepted that.