Many of us are having to adapt to a new normal, myself included. So for the duration I’m going to post what I can, when I can.
It’s been 18 years since my press card expired, so sitting idly while the biggest World news story of all time breaks is an uncomfortable experience. Which is why I’m doing what I can.
Yesterday’s walk, for example, allowed me to at least click the shutter. I’d been thinking about how I might safely record at least one aspect of this crisis, and then I looked up.
What I saw was clear, blue skies. Not the normal blue, but a blue free of pollution, and that includes the ubiquitous contrails left by aircraft.
Now I appreciate the lack of contrails means many in the aviation sector will be suffering, but this raises new questions for us.
Right now all our thoughts are focused on a single issue, but climate change will return. While we’re asking for mortgage holidays, the climate is getting a pollution holiday. On the down-side, how long before surgical gloves, masks and test kit tubes turn up in dolphins?
And once the brakes come off the economy, how long before we go back to our old ways?
Will contrails once again scar the blue skies?
Quiet Skies is the mini series resulting from yesterday’s walk. I may build on it, we’ll have to see, but I wanted to create something thought-provoking and hopefully beautiful.
So while you can, get out there and remember to look up once in a while. This is how the sky used to look.