In “dropping Acid,” author Kolbert talks about her “accidental” time spent on One Tree Island in southern Australian. She describes One Tree Island as “consisting of coral rubbing, ranging in size from small marbles to Hugh holders. “Throughout her stay she interacts with a scientist names Ken Calderia, and through these interactions, gets a chance to explore the Island. She gets to go diving and capture pictures of the marine life around the great barrier reef. While snorkeling on the island, she marvels at the beauty of the coral reefs, and reflects on the enigma of the amount of animals able to survive in a area where biodiversity should not thrive because on the concentration of the water. She also discusses other coral reefs such as biosphere 2 and the research that was done there to evaluate how CO2 affects coral reefs. The chapter was a mix between Kolbert’s internal thoughts about her journey to the reef and scientific statements about the ocean acidification regarding the reefs. She ends the chapter talking about the corals being ready to “spawn,” (also known as reproducing), which leaves readers with a positive taste in their mouths about the future of the reefs.

One of the most profound assessments that Kolbert made was when talking about about the way that coral changes the world. It sounds over-dramatic, but her profound statement that, “with huge construction projects spanning multiple generations-might be likened to the way humans so, with this crucial difference. Instead of displacing other creatures, corals support them.” (131). Kolbert’s point is that while human development is an ever-growing process, the destruction that comes with it, is entirely contrast to the way the coral reef expands. Moreover, with the process of human expansion, comes the cost of biodiversity, such as coral reefs.

Kolbert’s statement, while depressing, is undoubtably true in my eyes. Her quote elicited a pathos from me for the environment more than anything else. The scientific evidence to suggest that humans take from the environment, but do not give anything in return to it, is astoundingly high. We are not a self sustaining society, and to Kolbert’s amazement, something as ascetically simple as the coral reef is. Likewise, Ward adds to readers fears when he says,”Broadly Speaking, all out results have been negative so far. If we continue the war we are, without making dramatic changes to our carbon emission immediately, I thinner we’re looking at a situation where in the future, what we’ve got at best is remount patches of coral.” (147). Ward is further reiterating that humans are killing the reef faster then science can save it.

Although this reading would have probably been more relevant to me if I was an environmental engineer, I still felt deeply affecting by it. As an industrial engineer, I will one day help to fuel the hub of American industry, something I greatly fear will add to environmental damages. How ever as an engineer, I will make sure to look for environmentally sound way to solve problems as one of my priorities in the future. I considered switching to environmental engineering after my trip to Hawaii in December because I was mesmerized by the giant Windmill system they have in place to promote sustainability. I decided to stick with industrial engineering because of my passion for business, but hopefully I can still make a positive impact on the environment. I want my children to be able to visit the coral reef someday, and see the wonder up close. Not only just for beauty, but the coral reef’s keeps the ecosystem on the ocean running successfully, and it is vital that humans do a better job of protecting it.

My whole high school career, I was entirely stem focused. I devoted my time and energy into solely math and science based classes, and was positive I wanted to be a chemical engineering major. However my desire to attend University of Miami overcame my disappointment at the lack of a chemical engineering major. I enrolled in the 2018 fall semester as a mechanical engineer, still very unsure of whether or not I was passionate about that particular engineering field as I was about chem E. After meeting with my advisor, and doing extensive research on mechanical engineering, as well as experimenting with skills needed for that specific field, I came to the conclusion that it was not for me. As of Spring of 2019, I em enrolled as an industrial engineer.

Industrial Engineering is the advanced intersection of business and stem worlds. Industrial engineers use business administration, management, and economics, along with the more traditional engineering skills like coding, sketching and spreadsheeting. Industrial engineering was most appealing to me because of the flexibility of the job market within it. Industrial engineers mostly tend to work with production/operational systems and maintaining those systems or even building them. The University of Miami states possible career paths for industrial engineers in “Airlines, Transportation/ Logistics, Power Utilities, Healthcare Systems, Publishing, Amusement Parks, and Space Systems. ” Industrial engineers often are development orientated and have vast knowledge of systems and how they work. With my undergraduate degree in industrial engineering, I hope to enter the business world working for a manufacturing firm.

An example of what an industrial engineer might do is to help design procedures to optimize the use of facilities such as in a hospital or an airline. I have always been interested in the design and benefit of prosetics and mechanical devices and how the design process could be further improved to not only benefit people with missing limbs, but also to develop a technology that ease elderly people or paralysis victims. An issue that is relevant to this topic is the issue of elderly people dying fast because of their inability to exercise and pick up their feet. My own grandmother has to shuffle her feet because of the weight on her knees and she is minimizing the amount of fitness she is getting, thus affecting herself. An industrial engineer could design an manufacture a mechanical device to attach to the calves of elderly people to help this problem. (This is an entirely original idea, (could be entirely unrealistic as well).

One useful skill I am learning within the field of industrial engineering is advanced excel spreadsheeting. It allows users to organize any information they need and is especially relevant in the business world because of the statistical formulas and graphing that it provides. (A great use for an accounting firm). Luckily, in the modern day era, business understand the value of engineers with these types of skills. Many small business especially recruit engineers because they understand how tech oriented they are. Although I am not completely sure of what I want to do in life, I see industrial engineering as a perfect Segway into the business world.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton