ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some aspects of fluid mechanics that deserve particular attention in the changing world around us. The fundamental principles of the mechanics of fluids remain constant, but the broader context into which the world of engineering fits is changing. The chapter reviews two topics — climate change and fresh-water management — that present rapidly increasing challenges to human resourcefulness. A major strategy to reduce the severity of global warming is to replace heat and power generation, which is currently heavily based on the use of fossil fuels — coal, gas, oil — by alternative approaches that do not give rise to CO2 emissions. Among the alternative forms of energy generation under consideration are wind energy, wave energy, tidal energy, solar energy, geothermal energy and nuclear energy. The major application of wind turbine technology is as a substitute for power generation using fossil fuels.
