ReJoyce in Qantas?

'Listen to this,’ said Janno, reading a news story from her iPad. ‘Humankind struggled to survive during the early Pleistocene, according to researchers who used a computer model to discover a severe population bottleneck in our species’ ancient past. The bottleneck occurred between 813,000 years and 930,000 years ago, and reduced our ancestral human species to less than 1,300 breeding individuals.’

'If humans don’t seriously address climate change and nuclear disarmament, you could be back down to those sorts of numbers again, in the not too distant future,’ said Alphy curtly.

'So is it to be from Homo sapiens to Homo zappediens?’ replied Johno. ‘I agree with you Alphy, the signs are ominous. Especially with the current terror trifector: Will RasPutin in a final desperate move to destabilise Ukraine and save his Presidency, take the lead in Fission Impossible? Or Krazy Kim, in what would be a very Korea limiting move, given the devastating retaliation that would inevitably result, one day heedlessly pushes the launch button? Finally, if Xi Jinping invades Taiwan. A Chinese take-away that could be both sweet and sour for them, depending on whether the US response results in an escalation to a full scale nuclear war!’

'In the meantime, with respect to climate change, the world continues to produce copious amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from travel and transport,’ said Janno. ‘Apparently at any given time, there are between eight and thirteen thousand planes in the air and 1.45 billion cars on the roads, worldwide.’

Alphy had often observed how primitive the Saps still were, with respect to transport. He wondered how long, if ever, it would take them to evolve to MTS's – Mass Transference Systems, colloquially known on Alpha Centauri as Triple P’s, point to point portals. The Centaurians were always amazed at the magnitude of the pollution and deaths the Saps transport infrastructure inflicted. Over 1.3 million road traffic deaths world-wide each year, and they would often mockingly refer to them as Mass Transshit Systems.

'And speaking of airplanes,’ said Johno, ‘wasn’t it uplifting to hear how much Alan Joyce is to be paid on his departure as CEO of Qantas. Can you bloody believe it, a bonus of $24 million! This is after successfully trashing what was once the most coveted and trusted brand in Australia; what was ranked the fifth-best airline in the world last year has now plummeted to be ranked 17th this year; and only turning a profit due to a $2.7 billion bail out by the Australian Government, that is, us taxpayers. God knows what his bonus would have been, had he been successful!’