Articles
Student survey
‘Engineering needs everyone’ in issue one of 2025 was the latest in a long line of articles highlighting the importance of diversity in our profession. However, nothing seems to substantially change the balance of the workforce. With the ideas for improvement so often being sought from those already in the industry, might there be a recurring issue with survivorship bias?
The article highlights that engineering is the second most popular future profession for 13- to 16-year-olds. As a start, perhaps as a profession we could find a way to survey those at university about why they did not pursue engineering and react accordingly to address the issues we find.
Ben Ravenscroft, CEng
Global cooling
Not many readers might agree with me that, regardless of achieving zero carbon, we are already past the tipping point to climate disaster. I therefore urge this and other engineering institutions to campaign for urgent engineering efforts to actively cool the Earth.
Several methods are already known or under review. A recent contributor to ‘Your voice’ stated that if every house erected just one square metre of upward-facing aluminium foil, this would be enough to significantly reduce the Sun’s heating effect. I urge going much further and actively cooling the Earth by the use of highly reflective roof surfaces. These would need to be of a textured nature so as not to dazzle pilots. They could be compulsory on new roofs while existing roofs could be treated with a reflective spray-on paint.
Back in the 1970s, I was involved in a roof insulation project that finished with a brushed-on aluminium paint that would have had the required effect, so better should be easily available these days.
Money spent on such a project would be the best way of compensating low-income countries suffering from the warming generated by richer nations. International disputes might result from the possibility of a cooling Earth creating its own freak weather conditions. Success could allow a partial return to the oil-powered lifestyles so many of us have enjoyed in the past!
Denis W Oglesby, associate member
Heavy metals
I must congratulate you all on your excellent article on nuclear fusion. However, the author should be picked up on his units of weight. While the weights of an aircraft carrier or fully loaded jumbo jet are highly descriptive, they are meaningless unless accompanied by the weight in tonnes. Only designers of those gigantic beasts would know what they weigh. We are all engineers and should be told in units we can all understand.
David Bruton, FIMechE
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