A lesson in humility

The huge cloud of volcanic ash that’s sweeping over Europe from Iceland has had a devastating effect on air travel. Personally when I saw the story on the news last night it struck me as wonderful. It’s true that I’m a little strange, but it really is an event full of wonder.

You see this cloud has appeared and spread relatively rapidly, but it’s a very localised phenomenon by natural standards. Yet it’s shown how vulnerable our developed-world lifestyle is to rapid change.

When talking about sustainability I’m often told how adaptable our species is, and how technology will provide solutions to all our problems, but here is a dust cloud from a modest eruption and there’s nothing we can do but wait.

And wait for at least one more day, or possibly weeks, nobody knows how long it could go on, it all depends on the volcano and the wind. It’s this enigmatic power of our Planet that fills me with wonder; despite our technological prowess we’re never in control.

Apologies to locals who’s lives are seriously affected, I don’t mean to belittle your life changing problems, but it’s a good thing to discover the fragility of our position when the lesson comes from something we can expect to go away… we hope.

But it’s interesting to note that this sort of thing isn’t a surprise, apparently melting ice, and climate change, could make this sort of thing increasingly common.