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Precautionary principle is fatally flawed

April 18, 2010

Finally as reported by the BBC the nonsensical bans on flights in Europe are being questioned.

“Europe’s air industry has called for an urgent review of flight bans imposed because of volcanic ash from Iceland………Airlines that have carried out test flights say planes showed no obvious damage after flying through the ash.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8628323.stm

The volcanic ash plume from Iceland, top left, to northern France, pictured by Nasa's Terra Satellite , 17 April

Photo: NEODAAS/University of Dundee/AP

Wherever the Precautionary Principle is used to justify restrictions on human activity it is because a political agenda is being served but common sense dictates otherwise. It is usually resorted to by polticians and bureaucrats who defend a process in the name of avoiding the “common bad” even if the results of the process are against the common good.

Big Brother in Europe is alive and well but it is time to put this pseudo-science to bed.

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Metals price recovery confirms recession is over

April 18, 2010

China with around 12% and India at around 8% growth have shrugged off the recession and seem to be providing much of the power behind the global recovery.

The Indian Finance Minister seems to think that Indian growth rates could even overtake China’s.

http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/mar/31/india-poised-to-overtake-chinas-growth-rate-chidambaram.htm

Basic metal prices provide a solid sanity check and the recovery of metal prices is well underway. Recovery of Nickel price is a good indicator that specialised and stainless steels are back in demand again.

The steel cartel is becoming active again after having a couple of years with nothing to shout about, and seems to be mainly driven by the demand from China.

http://www.infomine.com/

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Sanity Check

April 18, 2010

A bright spring Sunday with blue skies over this part of Sweden.

But the skies over Europe are still closed due to the largely invisible ash cloud.

Lufthansa and KLM have made some test flights in the ash cloud with no sign of any damage. KLM hope to fly seven planes back from Germany during today (Sunday). Lufthansa flew 10 test flights bewteen Frankfurt and Munich on Saturday at 3000m and 8000 m altitude without incident.

Perhaps sanity will prevail and common sense will return.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63G1U920100417

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