Editorial: Mother Nature shows us that she's still the boss

Opinion

Not so very long ago, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland would have caused few problems.

The world would have continued fairly much as normal.

It is a measure of the rapid intertwining of the world and the immediacy of contact that the ash spewed out by Eyjafjallajokull caused such chaos, not least to airliners on European soil, which found themselves grounded.

Europe, indeed, found itself effectively quarantined in terms of contact by air, much to the cost and inconvenience of international trade and millions of travellers.

This said much, not only about our dependence on air for transport.

It also spoke of a technologically advanced world that, perversely, has become more vulnerable to natural forces.

It may even be that in those simpler times, there was a greater acknowledgment of the potential for trouble.

Was it over-confidence in man-made advances that left modern airliners so completely at the mercy of volcanic ash? Many will wonder why there is apparently no filter-type system or visual aids that can be readily attached or adapted to aircraft to cope with such a problem.

New Zealand could consider itself to have escaped relatively lightly.

Our major markets in the Asia-Pacific region and North America were relatively unaffected by Europe's travails. But the Iceland eruption provided no reason for comfort.

Krakatoa has already provided evidence of the potential for a similar incident in this part of the world.

Our technological expertise can carry the seeds of its own downfall. Doubtless, steps will be taken by airlines to mitigate the impact of future eruptions.

But there are plenty of other areas where such a technology-dependent and interlinked world could be tripped up.

Our technological mastery over the world around us has its limits. At times like these, nature reminds us of them.