To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk>
Re:
: Time is running out for Spaceship Earth
Date: Sun 1 December 2002

 

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I was very pleased to read in Saturday’s Telegraph that at least some of those the government listens to are speaking sense when it comes to the future of air transport (Future of cheap flights in doubt, 30.11.2002).

Successive governments made a tragic mistake when they cut back the railways in favour of road transport. Now we are in grave danger of making a similar mistake in respect to air transport.

It was easy to predict that virtually everyone would want their own car (or more than one) once they could afford it. And the same applies to air travel. Once they can afford it, most people will want to fly several, if not many times a year.

But the fact is that mass motorisation and air travel even now, with only a fraction of the world’s population able to afford them, are placing a non-sustainable strain on our planet’s resources and the carrying capacity of its natural systems.

It is not just the proposals for new runways that require a "fundamental rethink", but our entire growth dependent economy and the materialistic lifestyles it engenders, along with the all too human values, attitudes and aspirations on which they are based.

The comparison of our planet with a spaceship needs to be taken very seriously. I remember Apollo 13, when its life-support systems were damaged by an explosion on its way to the Moon in 1970. Its crew were very fortunate to survive. If Spaceship Earth’s life-support systems are damaged – and we are well on the way to doing just that – we, or our children, will be in an even more serious situation. Since unlike the Apollo astronauts, we have nowhere to get back to. Either we solve the problem (achieving sustainability for 7 – 9 billion people) on board ship – or we perish.

Individual motorisation and air travel at the levels already existing in North America and Western Europe are two prime examples of non-sustainable development. The fact that we have made ourselves dependent on them – individually, socially and economically – does not change the fact.

Because of the differences in scale, what took just seconds to become apparent on board Apollo 13 is taking years on board Spaceship Earth. But for those prepared to acknowledge them, the signs are clear enough (e.g. global warming). Unfortunately, most people are still denying that we have a serious problem, or are playing it down (the Kyoto protocol barely scratches the surface).

Our immediate interests are in things continuing more-or-less as they are, so we refuse to face up to terrible danger that is looming. And even those who do catch a glimpse of it, usually get such a freight that they react by sticking their heads back in the sand.

We may look away, but the problem will not go away. There is still time for us to face up to it, but it rapidly is running out . . . .