Piccard’s solar plane
My last blog entry, on Avatar, triggered a number of responses via various channels, with Claudia Gonella responding via Facebook – and suggesting that I take a look at Bertrand Piccard‘s TED speech from last year. I did, over breakfast this morning, and was completely blown away. Fascinating that his father, Jacques, and grandfather, Auguste, were both explorers – whose adventures inspired me as a boy, though my fear of heights and enclosed spaces made it extremely unlikely that I would follow in either of their footsteps.
Bertrand Piccard, however, did – though while his grandfather went up into the heavens and his father went down into the depths of the Mariana Trench, he has chosen to go sideways, around the world in balloons. I love his use of the ballooning metaphor to spotlight and discuss the challenge our civilization faces in weaning itself off fossil fuels – and plugging into renewable energy. Will be watching closely the next steps with his innovative solar plane.
With my transfer to Volans in the past couple of years, I resonated strongly with his comments about the need to jettison certain types of ballast as you try to find the right altitude to pick up the winds that can carry you in the right direction and, hopefully, at the right speed. Happily, the past week has seen much more joint working between Volans and SustainAbility, with a strong updraft now building under both sets of wings.
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