Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on negative impacts of engineering projects.

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on negative impacts of engineering projects. Mostly, engineers address the issues affecting society, but in the course of solving a given problem, an adverse effect is produced. Oil has been a globally contentious issue since man first discovered its existence and uses. When mechanical engineers are setting their machinery at an exploration site, society is cheering and praises their work that could lead to cheaper products and enhanced transportation services. In the process of extracting, some of it is spilled causing seashore or landscape pollution. In other cases such as automobiles, extensive damage arises due to emissions and air pollution through carbon monoxide release to the environment. The past years have been a time for tremendous industrial growth and over the years we recognized environmental degradation and did something at the time that they abandoned for later.

In producing artifacts, engineers are not concerned with the environment but rather economic benefits. The public shares the benefits of an environmentally friendly design while individuals enjoy economic benefits. Most mechanical engineers find it easy to ignore environmental issues especially in the fast-paced and competitive process of bringing artifacts to the market (Skerlos et al., 2004, p.477). To further complicate the issue, engineers find the environment as dependent on the consequences of particular stressors rather than the process causing it. Healy (2014) claims there are two categories of effects: unintended and undesired consequences. Unanticipated consequences are those not foreseen and those we cannot deal with in advance of their occurrence. Undesired effects are those that we are willing to accept in that we can identify the risk and take its existence. In developing a nuclear power plant, the goal is to achieve adequate electric power to serve the community. However, during production nuclear waste becomes an enormous problem that needs care when handling its highly radioactive nature. A single leak can cause extensive radiation rendering the area inhabitable.