By Press Release
This week E&T magazine, a specialist publication for the engineering and technology industry, featured a reader’s letter to their ‘Evil Engineer’.
The letter was from the president of an unnamed small island threatened by rising sea levels. After trying unsuccessfully to secure funds to build a sea wall, he wanted to get the attention of richer nations by sinking the Isle of Wight “to see how the British like being the ones underwater”. The letter was signed by “a somewhat damp villain.”
Evil Engineer replied that islands disappearing into the sea is not uncommon and can be down to rising sea levels, subsidence, coastal erosion and other natural events.
The nefarious nerd pointed out that the Isle of Wight is affected by rising sea levels and coastal erosion, but will be safe for decades. And the Island’s geology means that earthquakes or volcanoes are unlikely to do the job.
The dastardly schemer settled on a nuclear attack to turn the Isle of Wight into a giant crater, using around 150 ‘Bravos’, the bomb tested by the USA in 1954 which destroyed the Bikini Atoll, claiming it would “certainly get the attention of the British government.”
The IW Observer team tracked down Evil Engineer, who also masquerades as award-winning science and technology journalist, Hilary Lamb. She told us: “Dear Evil Engineer is primarily a light-hearted column examining the technical feasibility of absurd challenges – but can also be an opportunity to examine the world’s most serious problems being faced by engineers, scientists, and policy-makers: ecosystem collapse, the development and deployment of unethical weapons, the cybersecurity threat to critical infrastructure, and, in this case, rising sea levels.
“Although the UK is not considered to be on the ‘front line’ of this threat, as countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives are, many of its uniquely beautiful coastal landscapes could be eroded or submerged within a generation, including on the Isle of Wight.
“It won’t take a super-villain – only complacency.”
Pictured: The Evil Engineer aka Hilary Lamb pic: Hilary Lamb
Mal Butler