Toxic

Posted by Mike Walsh

6/5/09 11:54 AM

plane

Every time I grab my bag and walk across the gangway onto a plane, I wonder just how much longer we are going to be able to get away with this. Riding these massive metal leviathans spewing out environment destroying toxins like some kind of medieval dragon. And if that sounds strange, don't forget that doctors once recommended cigarettes too.

We have become addicted to an idea of globalism. But what that really means, is that at some point travel stopped becoming a luxury and started becoming public transport. We catch planes now the way that people catch the bus. Somewhere along the line, we conditioned ourselves to to the idea that a holiday is not just a break from work, it is a removal from the familiar. Except really, there is almost nowhere left like that. The more we spread ourselves across the planet, the less the planet is less different to anywhere else. And yet because I still travel in search of elsewhere, I have in mind that I should buy carbon offset credits every time I do. The idea that somewhere a tree is being is planted might lessen one's moral checked luggage - but I'm under no delusions. Carbon credits are no more than medieval 'indulgences' re-imagined for the 21st century.

Someone once told me that the heaviest thing on a plane is actually its paint. I don't know about that. I suspect that these days there are a few heavy hearts too.

Topics: Philosophy

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