Can't you just picture mobility training.  Imagine how important mobility
training would be.  Slamming into somebody or some thing going 2000KM per
hour would hurt.

OPINION:                                                         p43 06 Apr
02
 #46  On the desire of wings

 Sally Cranfield

HUMANS have won the wooden spoon in the sack race of evolution. We
are born without wings. It's a crucial omission and we are making
the environment pay for it.

We like to think we're the bee's knees of the natural world but
we're nothing more than bumbling flatfoots. That's why
kookaburras laugh and midges torment us. We are grounded for life
and, in our frustration, we're wrecking the planet.

Wings might seem just fun and frippery, but they would also save
the environment. If we could fly, we would not be trampling
ecosystems underfoot. Natural habitats that now get bulldozed
would flourish because we wouldn't need roads. There would be no
demand for cars, so there wouldn't be emissions problems.

The common housefly travels 300 times its body length in one
second. If in a few generations we could match that, we would
reach 2000 kilometres per hour, which would make ozone-destroying
aircraft and land-grabbing airports unnecessary.

Society would benefit enormously if we could fly. Our philosophy
about the private ownership of land would have to change because
fences would become useless. Nets wouldn't stop people flying
into your garden--as anyone knows who has tried in vain to keep
birds out of fruit crops. And domestic rooftops would become
public resting places.

The justice system would not need to guard expensive prisons
because felons would simply have their wings clipped. Sports
stadia would consist of only the pitch, with spectators hovering
over the action. Stairs, escalators and lifts would be as
superfluous as bridges and tunnels. Buildings would have smaller
ground plans and, instead, rise upwards, with entrance porches on
every level.

If we had wings, not only would we not need to plunder so much of
the Earth's resources, but we'd also be better guardians of the
environment. Woodland would not be cut down because trees would
be vital resting places as we flitted through the troposphere.
We'd be more aware of the changes to Earth as we surveyed it
daily from on high. And we'd soon appreciate any changes to air
quality at all heights.

There would be some drawbacks. Clothing would have to be
unflatteringly tight and aerodynamic--but our perception of human
beauty would soon change so that we'd delight at a glimpse of
plush, plump plumage. Demand for the best addresses would push
the prices of mountain eyries sky-high. Electricity pylons and
overhead cables would have to go. There would, inevitably, be the
occasional crash landing in rush hour as soaring commuters got
spun by the wing-tip vortices of others.

But it would be worth these minor hassles. The dinosaurs clearly
recognised the merits of wings, and went so far as to evolve into
birds. That left us to inherit the Earth--an inheritance we seem
determined to fritter away.

Humans clearly have an intuitive inkling of the need to fly. It
comes up again and again, in nursery tales and sophisticated
mythology from all over the world.

If we had evolved wings the world would have been blessed. For the
sake of the planet, biologists should stop growing ears on the
backs of mice and start putting feathers between our shoulder
blades, before it's too late.

Time's running out. Must fly.


____________________________________________________________
Copyright 2002 New Scientist, Reed Business Information


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