In May 2011, I worked on a project for the class ‘Sustainable Neighborhoods’ in Detroit, Michigan. The main part of our project was to talk to residents in the Delray neighborhood and develop ways in which the community could ask for benefits (such as neighborhood improvement) when a bill for the New International Trade Crossing is passed in Michigan’s state Legislature. What I found most surprising in my two weeks was how the environment so severely affected Delray’s residents.
Surrounded a busy freeway, oil refinery, cement factory, waste treatment center, and steel/coke plant, Delray’s air quality left much to be desired and many were suffering from various respiratory illnesses. Even one of the neighboring communities was ranked to be one of the most polluted ZIP codes in the Michigan, if not the U.S. I found it particularly hard knowing that my chosen profession (engineering) supports a lot of these industries. Even more, being an asthmatic, I saw how a whole community was suffering from an illness that could have been entirely preventable.
In studying ethics, I want to explore some of the questions I’ve asked myself over the last year, mostly regarding concepts of regulation, economic gain, and progress. For me, it seems like a dichotomy still exists between industry and the environment; engineers can make decisions to promote economic growth, but do we (can we?) fully realize the costs?
