Air travel chaos – or opportunity?

As the world now knows, air travel to and from the UK has pretty much come to a halt over the past few days due to an Icelandic volcano and the ash cloud it created. While the news is bemoaning stranded travellers and a lack of fresh vegetables flown in from Africa, people who are not so keen on air travel, like me, are feeling a rising sense of something that is a combination of schadenfreude and hope. Schadenfreude because we don’t feel air travel is a necessity, or use food suppliers that don’t use air freight. Hope because if there is one positive outcome from all of this it is that people are starting to realise not only what reliance on air travel in a world of impending peak oil could mean, but there is also attention being focussed on the environmental impact of air travel, with graphics like the one below showing just how destructive air travel is to the environment:

Sourced from http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

(As an aside – when we visited Leeds Castle on the weekend, Willem had a conversation with the parking attendant about what a lovely day it was. The parking attendant pointed out one good thing was no air-traffic noise. Willem put on his serious face and pointed out it was also a good thing because it meant a reduction in CO2 emissions. This from the boy who complains that we ‘never get to go on a  plane any more’!!)

Of course, for all my crowing I realise that this is having a negative impact on a lot of people – many people are stranded in holiday or business destinations and just want to get home. Business is grinding to a halt in many areas of the world, and while the current situation may lead to a re-thinking of supply chains in the future, it could mean a losing of jobs in the short term. And yes, it impacts upon me – I have parcels I am sending to love ones outside of the UK and have no idea when they will get there, as airmail will be banking up. So while some of us may see the current situation as an opportunity, it is probably best to keep our crowing to ourselves.