My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

To Greece by train - and other journeys of the mind, body and soul

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This flying lark

July 9th, 2011 by jane · 3 Comments · climate change, flights, travel, USA

Up at 4am after very little sleep. I’m really nervous about fly­ing so far after so long — this mys­ter­i­ous and magic­al pro­cess over which we have no con­trol and which seems to work on trust alone — and not look­ing for­ward to the bur­eau­crat­ic, unwel­com­ing and offi­cious immig­ra­tion pro­cesses. Also full of the dilem­mas of hav­ing chosen to emit so much car­bon.  All a bit emo­tion­ally exhaust­ing, and yet wildly excit­ing — and we’ve not even left the ground yet!

Edinburgh air­port at 5.30am is fright­en­ingly busy — far busier than Waverley train sta­tion would be at this time.  This is the norm for so many.  It’s far too easy, and too much fun.

Up above the clouds over South-East Scotland, the Irish sea and the Irish shores the magic is palp­able.  The won­der and delight of the skies, the sparkle of the sun on the clouds.  The mag­ni­fi­cence of human cra­tion and abil­ity — we can do it! We are won­der­ful! It is our birth­right to excel and suc­ceed and to push the bound­ar­ies in all mat­ters.  Progress can only be good.  Onwards and upwards!

Whizzing through the air at 500km/hr at 40,000feet both ter­ri­fies and exhiler­ates.  We are def­in­itely the fly­ing novices here, and yes, as pre­dicted, soci­ab­il­ity rat­ing so far is minimal.

As Naomi Klein says, just because we can do it does­n’t mean we should.  But how do we change that mindset?

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3 Comments so far ↓

  • Rona

    re photo on your page-again: is that the porty ped­al t shirt chris??

  • admin

    No Rona, the photo was a bit dark — I’ve put a light­er ver­sion on now. I have my Porty T‑shirt, but have not yet tried it out on the US populace.

  • Aiaa

    Dear Pedal,In youradFAQS you men­ad­tion energy feedad­back but I won­ad­der if also it is iom­rptad­ant to say what the cost of con­ad­structading and operadatading the turad­bine will be and the time that it will take to repay this from profit.

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