![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/eye_crystal.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The thermo-industrial civilization has produced remarkable teaching and learning methods in the service of its development on the basis of science and technology.\u00a0Thus the success of the engineer’s model and associated schools.<\/p>\n
Today, we must build collectively and on a planetary scale, a shift of this civilization, towards the abandonment of fossil fuels.\u00a0Already, and even if it is very difficult, the university is producing educational experiences that seek to support students towards this threatening future.<\/p>\n
Can we situate them in the long term and appreciate in what way they are located in a continuity or a break compared to the models so efficient for the preceding generations?<\/p>\n
In the XIX\u00a0th<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0century, even before the time of Sadi Carnot, then when the thermo-industrial civilization begins a ramp that will always be faster, the education system follows and is implementing the associated training.<\/p>\n We do not study, we do not learn the same knowledge in a society based on agriculture, or in the one which then settled down, first industrial and increasingly anchored in technical and scientific knowledge.<\/p>\n The figure of the engineer has settled in with its engineering schools and engineering sciences.\u00a0A century and a half later, my generation, that of the \u201cbaby boomers\u201d, that of the final C, hardly made any biology or earth sciences in high school.\u00a0Unsurprisingly, scientific preparatory classes and engineering schools determine the necessary scientific education on the basis of mathematics, physics and chemistry.<\/p>\n In Grenoble, the various schools that will found the National Polytechnic Institute will come to structure themselves around the major questions related to energy and materials: electrotechnics, electrochemistry, metallurgy, hydraulics and mechanics.<\/p>\n Generations and thousands of engineers whose training has been magnificently included in the program of Sadi Carnot.\u00a0Of course, nothing so specific to Grenoble.\u00a0We could multiply the examples in France or in most European countries which would reflect a very successful scaling up.<\/p>\n At the heart of this training, there is a working method and also a learning method.\u00a0It is based on science and engineering.\u00a0More compact in English: \u201cA scientific-engineering approach.\u00a0“In a shortcut certainly a little quick:” to any problem well posed, its rational, effective solution, for the good of all!\u00a0”<\/p>\n The observation is there: according to the intuition of Sadi Carnot, with an immense production of energy in constant and rapid growth, the control of its distribution and its implementation, a change of individual and collective life occurs, in fact a change of civilization, for a huge part of humanity, in a few decades.<\/p>\n The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015). \/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/fr\/objectifs-de-developpement-durable<\/p><\/div>\n In the service of this development, on the basis of this method, the implementation of scientific and technical knowledge is built, with the organization of work, the associated modes of collective and hierarchical collaboration.<\/p>\n Following the example of engineering schools, technical and scientific education is structured around content, training and working methods in line with this development and structuring of thermo-industrial society.\u00a0Of course, this sketchy picture is too cartoonish and too quick.\u00a0But it seems to me to capture essential elements of this story.<\/p>\n From the university, scientific knowledge around global warming and the collapse of biodiversity has been accumulating, refined year by year, for decades.\u00a0How can we use them to build the rapid and massive response now needed?<\/p>\n In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a proposal “to build a better and sustainable future for all” on the basis of a list of 17 planetary objectives.\u00a0The reflection\u00a0around the SDGs<\/a>\u00a0in academia is underway.\u00a0The Conference of University Presidents and the Conference of Grandes Ecoles with a collective of national actors are putting online a 132-page book entitled:<\/p>\n \u201cSustainable development goals, what contributions from higher education and research professions in France? “<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n Of course, if we are based on\u00a0the article by Jean Jouzel in The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0, we are clearly very far from having led the transformation of the academic world that he calls for:<\/p>\n \u201c\u00a0\u00a0Universities pride themselves on preparing their students for a bright future.\u00a0But faced with a climate in crisis, where disasters of \u201cunprecedented\u201d magnitude and impact are becoming the norm, what future can our students promise?\u00a0In the face of environmental degradation and the very significant loss of biodiversity, universities and other educational institutions should prioritize the adequate preparation of their students and staff for increasingly difficult times.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Obviously, that answer is not there today.\u00a0We can think that it will happen.\u00a0In view of the stakes and the urgency, it seems inevitable.\u00a0And student pressure will certainly push us forward much faster.\u00a0Fortunately.\u00a0Many student initiatives are already underway.\u00a0An example to 30,000 students<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0But, even in the face of the magnitude of the threats, this revolution on campus is very difficult to lead in the allotted time.<\/p>\n I will take an example of a successful first transformation before my eyes.\u00a0My colleagues from Grenoble have transformed two engineering schools on the basis of the SDGs.\u00a0And this before the SDGs existed …<\/p>\n“A scientific-engineering approach”, the method of thermo-industrial civilization<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/globalgoals-copy.jpg\")
Rebuild the university around the objectives of sustainable development<\/strong><\/h4>\n
First and foremost, water, energy and the environment<\/strong><\/h4>\n