A Car Exhaust and a Large Hole...

One of the benefits of retirement is that I can take a weekday leisure trip to London to do the early Christmas shopping. That's hardly ever been the case with me shopping at the start of November. Normally, I carry out this particular errand at dusk on Christmas Eve. However, due to the threatened shortages of imported goods due to the combined issues of Brexit and Covid, I thought it was better than to take any chances.

Therefore, on a typical weekday, I can be assured of a complete train journey without the need to alight at a midway station to board one of those replacement buses - a weekend arrangement that has been ongoing for several months as our line shuts for planned engineering works.

I live in the town of Bracknell, about eleven miles east of Reading. The line that serves our station is the commuter line, where stopping Southwest Train services brings the commuter into London Waterloo Station. However, our line runs parallel to the Great Western line, roughly eight miles distant from ours. Fast, non-stop trains connect London Paddington to the West Country, with the majority of trains out of London making their first stop at Reading Station, a principal centre for changing trains.

Newly-developed shopping mall, Bracknell.

Therefore, I took a train to Reading Station on this occasion, and I didn't have to wait long before a non-stop to London Paddington pulled in. Thirty minutes later, I found myself walking on the platform at the London terminus, having taken a quicker journey than had I taken a direct train from Bracknell to Waterloo - the public service I affectionately dab, The Southwest Snails. 

I'm not being cynical here. I recall the 1970s when our line, then under the national umbrella of British Railways, laid on fast, efficient services. For several years, I was able to board a train at Bracknell for a fast ride into London with just one stop. That was at Staines, a large town roughly halfway between Bracknell and London, marking approximately the outer boundary of Greater London.

So, what is this all about? Why all this background detail? Well, compared with the 1970s, when our trains were no more than eight carriages long, at present, our trains now have up to ten carriages. And what's so ironic was that on this particular occasion, the off-peak service from Bracknell to Reading was almost entirely empty of passengers. Therefore, within the midst of rows or unoccupied seats came the announcement from the overhead tannoy:

Passengers leaving the train at the next station must be in the first eight coaches of the train. This is due to the short station platform.

I couldn't help but smile. Why on earth was the need for ten carriages when the train was virtually empty? And knowing full well that there are some stations on our line with short platforms that are unable to accommodate the entire length of the train. Then, to broaden my smile even further, the same female voice announces;

The next station is... Then gives the name of the wrong station. No help at all for a tourist or backpacker who had just entered the UK and is trying to navigate our public transport system! Or the one occasion, when the train was approaching the London station of Clapham Junction whilst heading towards Waterloo, the tannoy buzzed on with the announcement:

We are now approaching Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Never mind that Ryde Station is some eighty miles and a ferry sailing away from where I was, but also on a completely different line to the one I was using. While I was sniggering at such a blatant error, the rest of the passengers around me kept their cool, and I was wondering how their upper lips could be so stiff as to prevent them from even smiling. And so, that's what it means to be British.

This is a phenomenon that I had never seen or heard about anywhere else, whether in the UK or abroad. Some of the most memorable journeys I have ever completed were by train, both at home and across Europe and even in Australia. But nowhere else have I heard passengers hear such wrong announcements or be told to move through the train to alight. 

I have wondered who would I see if I walked into the management office of Southwest Trains. Young graduate men in their suits? Ambitious young women pursuing a career path? It's into such an environment like this one I would walk into and ask the question: Why?

Why what?

Why do you run trains that are longer than the station platforms they're supposed to serve? Don't you realise that during the day you can get all the passengers in just five coaches? That's just half the length of the train. And why are the announcements over the tannoy so fickle that they often spout the wrong information? And yes, I have seen and heard passengers asking for information regarding whether they were on the right train. Indeed, I would like to hear what they in the office would answer.

As I write this, at this moment there is a major international conference taking place among national leaders over climate change. Known as Cop26 taking place in Glasgow, the leaders of 75 different nations, including Joe Biden of the USA, Emmanuel Macron of France, and our host PM, Boris Johnson, have all assembled to discuss ways of putting the brakes on our planet getting hotter due to the emissions of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric impurities. And such changes as replacing fuel-powered motor vehicles with electric, reducing airline travel, doing away with coal-fired power stations and replacing them with renewable energy such as wind and solar power, along with our dietary conversion from eating meat to vegetarianism, even veganism, and the reforestation of areas previously devastated by deforestation for commercial purposes.

At or near the Armadillo, Glasgow is the Conference.

As I sat on the train heading towards Reading, I was pondering on all this. Then I allowed my thoughts to drift. What if a volcano erupts. You know, those mountains with a very big hole at the summit. During an eruption, a volcano spews out a large percentage of water vapour which is harmless in itself. However, more harmful gasses such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen halides, all are emitted during an eruption.

Here, I would like to do some maths for a bit of fun comparison. Let's say that an average diameter of a car exhaust pipe is 2 inches, approx 5 cm. The diameter of the crater at Mt Vesuvio in Italy is about 2,000 feet, 610 metres across. That would mean up to 113,256,000 tubes with the same diameter as a vehicle exhaust pipe would fit comfortably inside the crater of Mt Vesuvio. That is more than the 38,600,000 vehicles in the whole of the UK in March 2021.* That is, at any given moment, the volcano would spew almost three times the gases produced by every vehicle out on the road throughout the whole of the UK!

Fortunately, at present, this particular volcano is dormant. But it could blow at any time. However, when I stood at the rim of the crater of Mount Etna in 1982, the Central Crater was spewing steam, itself harmless, but with it, a powerful odour of sulfur dioxide was so strong that unless we covered our faces several times with a woollen scarf, the two of us most likely would have choked with asphyxiation. The air above the crater was otherwise unbreathable. The name of a nearby crater, Bocca Nuova, is quite appropriate, as it too is like a newly-opened mouth breathing out foul-smelling breath.

And so, we have a neighbouring volcano, Mt Stromboli, which is constantly active. Whether it's Stromboli or Etna known as the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, really, it doesn't matter. Both are constantly active and their lava fountains are seen from a distance during the night. Then, not to mention Hawaii, La Palma, Lewotolok in Indonesia, Sangay in Ecuador, Aira in Japan - along with other active volcanoes around the world to make a present total of around fifty peaks presently spewing lava and toxic gasses. Call me wise or foolish, depending on your point of view, but I have serious doubts whether the Cop26 Conference will make any difference to the future of our planet. 

Volcanism has been ongoing since the time of the Flood. Looking at the total number of volcanoes, particular in the Andes of South America's west coast, along with those lining the Ring of Fire surrounding the Pacific Ocean, starting at New Zealand, up through the Philippines and along the Southeastern coast of Asia, then down the west coast of the Americas to end at Southern Chile, it seems that volcanism was far more intense during historic times than they are today. Yet, as far as I know, within the last four thousand years, give or take, is there any real evidence of dramatic climate change after the demise of the Ice Age?

One can look at the point of view of Nature. A volcano spews toxic gasses into the atmosphere. But with those gasses, the crater also spews out pyroclastic flows, consisting of clouds of ash and pumice. This is more so among the more explosive Andesite volcanos, from which lava tend to be more viscous, due to a higher silicone content. Such ash, when entering the atmosphere and dispersed by the wind, tends to cool the climate. As one example, the 1883 explosive eruption of Mt Krakatoa, located at the Sunda Strait of Indonesia. The overall temperature of the Northern Hemisphere fell by 0.4 degrees Celcius, and rainfall intensified as far away as California.

Therefore, it looks to me that volcanic eruptions balance a kind of equilibrium in global atmospheric temperature. As various gasses such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide etc, tend to warm the air, then this is offset by the presence of micro-particles floating in the upper atmosphere, cooling the planet and therefore sustaining the essence for life.

When considering what looks to be a puny effort to "save our planet" - really, what is needed is to acknowledge the Creator, the one God who can resolve all issues in regards to our planet. Not that our leaders are completely wasting their time sitting at the conference. Rather, it's good for us all to take responsibility. For example, I'm all eyes and ears for tree planting and reforestation, especially on a global scale. I think that great efforts should go into this, the reforesting of vast areas spoilt by commercialisation, particularly with the destruction of the tropical rainforest of the Amazon region of Brazil, to give way to palm oil crops.

Reforestation will take a lot of effort, but with dedication, I think this can be done. One attribute to this possibility is that the general population is in favour. But when it comes to transport, I doubt that the majority of the population will be as keen to give up their mode of travel so easily. The car is seen as a status symbol, and there is that sense of power associated with having control of a fossil-fuel-powered motor vehicle. I doubt very much whether electric-powered cars will have the same effect. And holiday flights? Again, that's one thing people will not be keen to give up. Foreign holidays are part and parcel of making our lives far richer and meaningful. Just ask me!

And I can't see many benefits in wind turbines and solar energy, either. Imagine a "city of windmills" out to sea and across open fields on a calm day - or even a calm, windless week. As the blades remain still like a solid rock, the need for a nuclear power station will kick in if no coal-fired stations are in use. 

On a calm day, these generators will be virtually useless!

And here is where I find the connection between the Cop26 Conference and the running of Southwest Trains, at least on our line. Both have good ideas but tend to fall short in practice. There was a time when shorter trains ran fast services into Waterloo and stopped at scheduled stations without the need to "move to the front eight coaches" to alight. And back then, passengers knew exactly where they were without any announcements giving out misleading information. Even without any announcements, we all knew where to get off.

Both Southwest Trains and the Cop26 Conference have one thing in common - both have great ideas but both fall short in practicality. 

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*From various Internet websites.