A somewhat off-the-wall observation re: New Orleans…
There has been much talk of trucks, boats, and helicopters, and the various difficulties of using each for the recovery efforts.
It seems to me that a sizable airship fleet would be of tremendous help right now. It’s a damn shame we’ve all but abandoned airships in the past half-century.
It’s true they are starting to make a comeback for cargo-lifting purposes. I wonder if, as fuel prices remain high and eventually go even higher, we will see a resurgence of interest in passenger-airships? Since they only need engines to provide forward propulsion, they are far more fuel-efficient than any plane.
One can hope.
I remember…
learning about these things back in the late 80’s/early 90’s… and I believe Neal Stephenson mentions them at the beginning of Snow Crash…
I do believe that they are the future.. We are going to have to get a lot more efficient with non-renewable fuels in the future..
of course..they will be slower.. but it might not such a horrible thing to have a society that is highly interconnected.. but which doesn’t assume that it needs to go super fast anywhere at anytime.. maybe that will help to reinforce some of those elements of community whose loss I know you and I have both lamented…