Our current approach to sustainable development, meetings the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations (of humans) to meet their own needs, places humanity in a position of pre-eminence. This centering of humans contributes to the problems we witness in the Anthropocene, which is the current period wherein human activity dominates planetary systems. Environmental engineers and scientists need to challenge our own thinking and ask ourselves, should sustainable development be defined using a conceptual framework where the lived experience of being human is separated from the natural world? The profession of nursing provides an intellectual roadmap we may follow as we ask ourselves, “have we ever really been environmental engineers?”
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