Thanks to Iceland for the reality check

As Iceland’s glacier-covered Eyjafjallajökull volcano continues to erupt and send plumes of ash over Western Europe, Leila Sattary takes a positive look at the situation and imagines a world without air travel.

Prior to its recent eruptions, Eyjafjallajökull volcano had rested quietly for almost 200 years and remained anonymous and unpronounceable to most of the world. After many months of stirring it its sleep (causing thousands of mini-earthquakes) Eyjafjallajökull fully exploded in mid-April 2010. Smashing through its glacier casing causing torrents of meltwater, the volcano has now thrown volcanic ash several miles into the sky. The wind carried the plume of ash away from Reyjkavik, the capital, across rural land and as it fell it blocked out the sun. Winds pushed and stretched the plume towards Europe and as I write the volcanic activity is still intensifying, the plume covers most of Western Europe and planes have been grounded in the UK for almost a week.

The fine particles of volcanic ash are a major threat to planes. The ash can wear away a plane’s windshield, block fuel nozzles, contaminate the oil and electronics and disrupt instruments but the most immediate hazard is to the engine. Jet engines could suck in high quantities of ash that then melt or vaporise in the heat of the combustion chamber blocking the air flow and could cause engines to lose thrust or shut down completely. It is like walking through a sandstorm with your mouth open – eventually it is going to cause problems.

The last time the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 1821, it spewed ash for over a year and volcanologists predict that the current eruptions could continue for many weeks or even months. Millions of desperate Britons in exile are wandering the continent looking for passage home and my inbox is a-clutter with notes from friends and colleagues stuck and desperate in foreign climes. Cars advertised on Ebay in mainland Europe are being quickly snapped up as people make a dash for the tunnel. A week of chaos has already gone by and people are starting to panic.

Sounding apocalyptic yet?

Yet as I sit safely at home and look out at the welcome sunny weather and the quiet skies, oddly void of contrails, it doesn’t feel like the end of the world as we know it. I started to think about what life might be like without air travel.

British tourism would receive a huge boost as people choose to holiday at home – decrepit seaside towns would spring back into life. Going abroad would be a serious undertaking and with less frequent overseas travel, foreign countries would start to feel foreign again. Slower and less regular travel would have many associated pros, from lower levels of CO₂ emissions to better control over worldwide flu epidemics.

But how would we travel if there were no planes? Perhaps there would be a renaissance in British shipbuilding bringing renewed life and employment to my hometown of Glasgow, amongst many others. The government would fast track its new rail plans making internal flights a silly and distant memory. Climate campaigners would be satisfied, for a while.

In the West and more significantly in the developing world, lots of crops that are flown are cash crops with little subsistence value – bananas are not very good at feeding a whole country. Moving away from buying food from abroad would encourage more local food production.

One of the most interesting positive outcomes of the ash cloud so far as been its affect on photography. With extra particles in the air, sunlight is diffracted more causing spectacular red sunsets and sunrises. Photographers in Scotland took some magnificent once-in-a-lifetime shots last week.

Of course there would be some drawbacks - international relations, ability to respond to humanitarian crises, freedom to travel, lack of avocadoes….

It is likely that the volcanic ash situation will ‘soon blow over’ but while the ash remains, I’ll be enjoying a little peace and quiet and travelling by train.