To: Electronic Telegraph
<et.letters@telegraph.co.uk> |
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 . . . . |