It's funny when one takes a step back to comprehend what we humans have done to the planet. Ok, perhaps not funny but sad. But also funny because we try our darndest to control nature and make use of nature for our own end. Ok, that sounds sad but it's also easy to laugh at how hard we try to control things and then complain about it. Ok, dark dry humour there.
Let me explain. Everyone say this out loud: AY-YAH-FYAH-LAH-YOH-KUUL. That's how you pronounce the name of the Icelandic atmospheric terror that spewed this guts out into the breezy Altantic. Eyjafjallajokull is the way the volcano's name is spelt. It also suddenly put Iceland back on the web searches and newspapers. Iceland is borne from volcanic activity. It essentially is the big pimple that burst out from the crack in the skin at the bottom of the Atlantic. Instead of pus, hot magma flowed outwards and upwards and formed islands upon cooling at the surface. Over time, Iceland became the delightful rocky outcrop it is today. Story of the Earth, nature at its best and worst. (Iceland is also famous for some fishing hullaballo in the 70s, Bjork in the 90s, the financial collapse of the government last year and today, the chimney we can't pronounce.)
So back to the nature plot. So the volcano blew and sent smoke up and suddenly we were all in emotional turnout. Planes couldn't fly about and people were stranded. Yes, that's sad but seriously, we can't blame anyone or anything. It's nature acting up on its domain we are privileged to exist on. So when we can't really assign blame on something that can't argue back, we blame each other. Governments for shutting down airspace, the airlines for the lack of plannning, the hotels for not having enough rooms. With fingers pointed and crossed, we waited for the ash cloud to pass.
Imagine if it didn't. What would the hundreds of thousands of stranded do? Scream and shout for sure. Imagine travellers stuck in Changi airport for a month. What could our tourist-centric gahmen do to appease the spending now upset traveller?
Big picture folks. We're nothing compared to nature and sooner or later, we're gonna be taken over as victims of our own success. Global warming, we're still denying or confirming it. The extent of melting ice seems to be up for discussion too. We all know there's too much forest being cut but no one is seriously doing anything about it. (I once proposed that the UN be put in charge of overseeing nothing is done to the forests of the Amazon and Borneo. Overseeing with force. Overseeing for the sake of the planet.) We throw our trash into the sea and wish it away with every passing wave. Bye plastic bottle, don't end up on my shore. We extract oil like nothing and we're all sure of the scramble that's gonna happen when it really starts to run out in my lifetime. Yet we don't seem very concerned, are we? Strange. That BP oil leak in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico isn't alarming as many people as I thought it would. The matter seems were placated by the oil giant that announced quickly it would foot the bill. Try footing nature's bill.
Let's face it, we treat our planet like crap. All for economic gain and the survival of the fittest, we plunder its resources. Who are we to take everything without a care? Why aren't we concerned that our kids are going to behave in the samw way? We're selfish that's why. We are inherently selfish. Ok, that's sad but still funny in a cynical kind of way.
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