Where have all the contrails gone?
Filed Under (News, Travel)
I woke up this morning and stared in to the big blue empty British sky.
Yes, an empty sky. Devoid of any contrails.
Why, you ask? Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that volcanic ash from the Icelandic volcano of Eyjafjallajökull (That is actually its name, I’m not even kidding) has spread across most of Europe which has lead to a ban on all air traffic for the past three days. And it doesnt look its going to stop anytime soon. The ban has been increased until tomorrow morning but I highly doubt they will let planes for the next few days, since “experts say the cloud may not shift until later in the week.” The last time the volcano erupted, in 1821, it went on for 6 months and this doesnt bade particularly well for the current situation. My housemate is stuck in Florida, not that he’s complaining, but a lot of other people seem to be.
To add to the misery, every time this specific volcano has erupted in history, it has led to eruptions from its neighbouring and much larger volcano, Katla, which is apparently pretty damn huge. If that actually does erupt, we are all in deep shit. And this led me to the question, what if all air traffic was grounded for say, six months? What would actually happen?

Well, for one thing, coaches, ferries and the Eurostar would be literally minting money with bookings going through the roof. With a virtually endless demand, the companies can charge what they want and get away with it. Simple economics at its best. The airline industry would collapse completely since it is already on the edge of the cliff. All of its employees would be sent home. All the industries that depend on the airline industry would go bankrupt as well. This will include all the restaurants and shops in airports, flight catering companies, plane service and maintenance industry, and might extend as far as aeroplane fuelling companies. Hotels and B&Bs near airports will be making a bundle in the short term due to millions of stranded passengers but will lose customers in the long term since people would stop using airports.
Video conferencing will surge rapidly since businessmen from across the world would be forced to resort to use it as travel from Asia and the Americas to Europe would be practically impossible. People who had gone for holidays in far away countries, would need to get flights to the closest possible land connection in Europe (northern Spain seems to be most likely destination) and continue on ferries, trains and coaches to other countries. Usage of road transport will increase at a level never expected before which may lead to insane traffic jams which will inevitably lead to accidents. Courier and mail companies will lose money and business unless they find an alternative solution to the problem of getting parcels and letters into mainland Europe and Britain. Phone companies may rejoice, with more phone calls between people in the EU. Car Rental companies will also be laughing to the bank, since people will be forced to drive or use other already busy means of public transport.
Gordon Brown has apparently called for a meeting with his “top advisors” (also known as the Cobra emergency committee) but unless they decided to nuke Iceland and wipe it off the map, I really cant see them doing much. I mean, a bunch of men in suits dont really have much power over Mother Earth in all her fury. This just goes to show us that even the most powerful of men falter in the face of the planet that sustains us and has sustained billions of people over the course of thousands of years. I can see my children reading about this and just thinking of it as another news story, just like how we read about the invention of the bulb or domestication of animals. I know this is probably something quite harsh to say, but in the bigger perspective of things, this is really not much. Life goes on, sometimes it comes to a halt, but evolution never stops. The world will continue, regardless of whether you missed your meeting or whether the girl next door could not meet her boyfriend…
Update – Researchers says the eruption could continue for a month.
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