The silence of the skies
19 April 2010
The looming cloud of volcanic ash has grounded the great leviathans of the sky, but it also has wider implications.
Over 60,000 commercial flights have been cancelled, but it’s not just put pay to holiday-makers popping abroad, and businessmen taking trips.
When Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano erupted and emitted the infamous cloud of black ash into the atmosphere, the implications it has had could not have been forecasted.
It has perhaps been a bit of a saving grace that conference calls are so prolific and VOIP has integrated itself into the business world, because now it’s not always necessary to hop on a plane and attend a meeting. And that expression ‘hop on a plane’ has become such a part of everyday parlance, that we almost treat planes as we do buses; a form of public transport. But there are also logistical issues to consider.
With European air traffic control declaring much of the continent as a ‘no fly zone’, there are going to be a great number of businesses that rely upon air travel for transporting goods around the world that are feeling the pain. Transportation on cargo planes has been put on hold, meaning that road, rail, and sea transport has come to the fore. And as transport costs rise, it’s highly likely that the costs will be passed on, forcing up prices of commodities. With a temporary over-reliance on other infrastructures, how long will it be before these are jammed, congested, and unusable, in the same way that ferry terminals across Europe have become?
All of this is going to make an impact on the electronics supply chain that invariably relies upon imports and Just In Time systems that, due to finances, have kept stock levels low. And for the manufacturing industry that exports, nothing is moving, so capital is being held in ever-growing stockpiles. At a time when countries are emerging out of the recession, this is little short of a disaster.
However, as America and the rest of the world looks on with wonder and witnesses the importing and exporting issues experienced by most of Europe, they may also have cause for concern.
Take, for example, the ticking time bomb that is America’s Yellowstone National Park, which sits on one of the biggest known volcanoes. As Yellowstone covers an area of 300 square miles, an eruption of this scale would wreak havoc upon all facets of life. By comparison, the news-grabbing Icelandic volcano covers an area of just 39 square miles. Apparently, Yellowstone Park has experienced nearly 2500 earthquakes in the first two months of this year, and that instability could result in a chain reaction that cataclysmically culminates in the most deadly earthquake in living history.
The sporadic dissipation of dormant volcanoes around the world has surely made everyone aware of their power and the impact they can have on our 21st century lifestyle. It may not be too long before this whole episode is played out all over again elsewhere in the world. It really does show that all it takes is a volatile big bang and unfavourable wind directions to highlight how vulnerable and fragile our transport networks are. Clearly, Mother Nature is still in charge.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Email me at: paul.wolfe@imlgroup.co.uk to let me know.
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