Week 8

Engineers can sometimes be viewed in a cold and calculating light and often times I can see where both sides make valid arguments. No one should have their property, that holds so many of their cherished memories, torn away from them. While at the same time, humans are constantly progressing and change is an inevitable and a natural part of modern day civilization. Engineers get the bad reputation of unintentionally destroying peoples personal valuables by building new structures that are more efficient and utilize better technology. But if you look at the big picture, engineers are just trying to help accommodate everyone by making energy systems more efficient and more available to all citizens. For example here at the U of M, a new oil line was turned down by the residents here because it was deemed 'Dangerous' and people thought it was infringing on their rights. But when I drive by the area where it was to be built, I see them shipping the oil by train! This seems like a much more costly and dangerous solution than just building the pipeline in the first place. There is a healthy balance between what the numbers say and what the people say, but often times the result is leaning heavily towards one extreme.