One strategically located volcano blows and all commercial air traffic grinds to a halt. What if this had happened in 1944? Let's say the Germans had gotten a respite from Allied air bombardment -- then what?
Before, during and after that particular war, lots of people made the Transatlantic crossing by ship. The big ocean liners provided a rite of passage for all sorts of writers and artists in general, certainly. The rise of air travel led to the decline of these kinds of crossings, leaving mostly the luxury cruise liner for one week trips between various ports of call. Today, the entire Transatlantic crossing would only take a few days at some points.
It'll be interesting to see what human ingenuity comes up with to deal with the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud of 2010.
If ships do begin making the Transatlantic crossing again on a regular basis, I suggest not naming any of them The Titanic or The Lusitania, for starters.
Imagine, as after the 9/11/2001 attacks, no air travel in North America for a spell. Would more emphasis be placed on the development of high-speed rail and ship travel? Given the clear vulnerability of air travel, it's probably a good idea to develop alternative forms of getting around.
4 comments:
Roary engine airplanes with special filters would and did make it through this ash cloud. It is the ceramic blades in the jets engines that would get torn up and have stopped air travel to and from Europe.
I think once a persona has seen the violent ocean on something smaller than a cruise ship they come away with the idea that once was enough, hell of a story to tell but certainly one not in need of repeating.
We should have been developing high speed rail for the last thirty years.
"Since the ash cloud first appeared over European airspace Thursday, more than 63,000 flights have been canceled, according to Eurocontrol . . ." NYT today. Amazing.
Thanks for the comment, man!
Erik, I would love to take a train long distance--like from my door to Islamorada!
I had the same thought about ocean liners last week-- that they suddenly may be regretting overdependence on air travel.
In George Monbiot's book on global warming, "Heat," he crunches the numbers on global warming and comes to the conclusion that the numbers on future mass air travel are not good. As he puts it, air travel will probably return to where it started-- as a rare treat for the very rich.
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