Blog: Happy Birthday Isambard Kingdom Brunel (but it’s all your fault)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

by Dr. Andy Russell

I was putting together some slides for a talk today, which included a little background about our namesake, and I happened to notice that it was IKB’s birthday today.

Happy 207^th birthday IKB!

But, by the way, I’m also going to blame you for climate change.

Don’t get me wrong, Brunel was a brilliant engineer and innovator. He changed the world. Just not 100% for the better.

So look at these two graphs, Gross World Product (GWP) since 1750 (note the non-linear x-axis) and atmospheric CO2 concentration since 1750:

Need I say more?

I suppose I should.

I’m proposing that Brunel (and his fellow 19^th Century industrialists) kickstarted the Industrial Revolution and, simultaneously, started us on a course towards fossil fuel emission driven climate change.

Of course, this is a silly thing to say as it would be another 100 years or so until we understood the implications of our industrialisation.

Which begs the question: what are we going to do about it now? Now we do know what we’re doing to the climate and yet the CO2 levels keep on rising.

But neither do I want to live in a world where development and innovation is stifled.

Well, what we’re doing about it starting a new MSc course that will allow students to be entrepreneurial and innovative and yet understand and align their vision with the principles of sustainability. It’s not an easy job and we’ve had to collaborate with our School of Engineering and Design and the Brunel Business School to be able to cover everything that students will need to know and be able to do but it looks like a great opportunity for the students who are willing to take on the challenge!

It's called MSc in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Design (with Work Placement)