So, UK airspace is deemed safe again for air travel. I must say it’s been odd, in a pleasant sort of way, so see such beautiful clear blue skies without the white streaks of air travel marring them. It’s like looking into the sky the way my ancestors would have seen it a century or so ago and that makes me feel a little closer to them. There’s a sort of peace looking into something so vast and yet unmarred.
It’s also been rather odd because Tuesday is usually Repatriation Day for the troops who have fallen in Afghanistan. As Swindon is so close to RAF Lyneham, the building I work in is used as a turn landmark for the military planes bringing them home; this week the skies were free of that sad purpose for the first time since I moved to this town. It added to the peace, I think.
I am amazed at how much the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull has screwed up travel across the world. It’s brought into sharp focus how reliant we are upon a form of travel that has been around for less than a century. It’s also disturbed me to think that no contingency plans are in place for this sort of event: we’ve been blissfully buzzing around in the skies thinking that nothing could touch air travel but that’s simply not true. Eyjafjallajökull is small in comparison to its big sister Katla and in many cases in the past, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull has preceded an eruption of Katla. Maybe the nations of the world will learn to PUT TOGETHER A CONTINGENCY PLAN in case that happens instead of (metaphorically) sticking their fingers in their ears and going “la la la that’ll never happen”.
I really do feel for the people who have been stuck in countries other than their own (in some it sounds as though they’ve been treated almost like criminals); I have at least four family members who are making their way back from Spain by car because a friend has gone to pick them up. However, when I listen to aviation authorities griping about how the flight ban should have been lifted days ago my blood begins to boil. I wouldn’t be surprised if those comments weren’t made on any scientific basis but rather by the sight of profits going down the pan. Yes, it is going to affect air lines but surely they should have been be worried about being certain that nothing will happen to the planes rather than just the lack of money coming it; after all if they’d made the wrong call and something had happened then people might have thought twice about using air travel for a long, long time. Whatever the cost of closing the airspace above most of Europe, it’s not worth the cost of even one life if something had gone wrong.
And if I see any whining from the aviation authorities on the news over the next few days, it’s going to really hack me off. They should have planned for this eventuality; it’s not as though Eyjafjallajökull or Katla haven’t turned active before!
Edit @06:50: Oh, yeah, and the same applies for political parties. More policies, less mud slinging on this particular issue, please..
It’s also quite scary to realise how Eyjafjallajökull is now the first volcano to erupt and yet have a carbon-negative effect on our atmosphere; volcanoes chuck up a heck of a lot of carbon into the atmosphere so it just goes to show how much more carbon we pump into the Earth’s atmosphere on a regular basis. The question we need to ask ourselves is do we really NEED to make all those journeys?
If we’re wise, we’ll start to re-evaluate how we use air travel (easier said than done, I know, considering how dependant we are on it) but, being the human race, how likely is that to happen? I guess I just have to hope that I’ll be surprised.
