The Chilean Puyehue volcanic eruption that started around 4/5th of June, 2011 has finally certainly had widespread effects well beyond the concerns for local residents. I was due to fly out to Melbourne tomorrow morning - only to find that flights have been cancelled. The above graphic (posted on the Bureau of Meteorology website, but the source agencies were NOAA, JMA and EUMETSAT (Meteosat-9, MTSAT-1R and GOES-11).
Flights had been cancelled from the 11th of June (to and from Australia and New Zealand), however, Australian domestic flights had started to be cancelled from yesterday. Melbourne and Adelaide (and Canberra) are particularly affected being in the southern part of Australia... (Australia's the big bit on the bottom of the animated gif above). Whilst the disruption to holiday-makers and business people alike is not something to be dismissed, we shouldn't forget that for the people of South America, and Chile in particular, this is far more serious.
Also, it really does bring the saying, "it's a small world" into clear focus. We get used to things being easier, and better leading to the feeling of a global neighbourhood. Often however, local environmental problems have a global significance... and they are rarely good things.
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