Lead Ambassador of the Clean Energy Ambassadors Network (CLEAN), Mrs. Ajoke Murtala Muhammed, has described clean cooking solutions are those technologies, fuels, equipment and practices that address the health and environmental impacts associated with traditional cooking with firewood.
According to her, these could take the form of improved and efficient wood and charcoal burning stoves, cooking gas, and more effective use of agro waste. She notes that the shift to clean cookstoves reduces cooking costs and health impacts for families, adding that it comes in various sizes and anticipates cultural affinity for certain ways of cooking, hence its adaptability to wood, kerosene and gas.
She made the submission recently in Abuja during the inauguration of CLEAN, adding that Nigerians are aware of the dangers associated with cooking the traditional kitchens.
“Over 90 million Nigerians, and almost all public institutions, cook with wood on the traditional ‘three-stone fire’. In the rural and peri-urban communities in Nigeria, poor women cook with wood energy and other sources easily available in their environment but which are detrimental to their health. These include wood, debris and wastes from nearby forests, and household refuse. These sources are attractive because they are relatively affordable and accessible.
“However, they burn at a high carbon emission level with the attendant greenhouse gas effect and hazard to health and the environment. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), smoke from cooking with wood causes over 95,000 deaths, mostly women and children in Nigeria every year. It is the third highest killer of women and children after malaria and HIV/AIDS. The technology of the clean cook stoves can help address this problem.”
According to her, CLEAN is committed to: working nationally and locally to keep the issue of clean cooking energy visible on the policy radar in support of the Ministry of Environment’s effort in this regard; generating awareness around the need to grow women’s enterprise as a model for developing a socially responsible clean energy market; and setting targets about number of stoves to be accessed by women across Nigeria.
“To keep the fire burning, with the support of Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) as a programme and the Ministry of Environment who must work with us to lead the way; we all need to join hands to ensure that we support this initiative as we are able and to bring clean cook energy to the Nigerian woman,” she added.
CLEAN Ambassadors also include: Dame Pauline Tallen (former Deputy Governor of Plateau State and former Minister of State, Science and Technology), Saudatu Sani (former Chair, House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and House of Representative Committee on MDGs), Christina Alaaga (chair, House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development), Eziuche Ubani (journalist and pioneer chair, House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change) and Lawali Liman (accountant and executive chairman, Kaura Namoda Local Government, Zamfara State).
Others are: Abimbola Oloyede (broadcaster and national coordinator of the Women’s Optimum Development Foundation), Samson Itodo (legal practitioner, human rights activist and social entrepreneur), Hajiya Jummai Babangida (First Lady of Niger State and founder, Life Rehab Foundation), Hajiya Fatima Shehu Shema (First Lady of Katsina State and founder, Service to Humanity Foundation), and Bahijjahtu Abubakar (Head, Renewable Energy Programme, Federal Ministry of Environment and secretary of CLEAN).
If officials of the Department of Forestry in the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment in Imo State, Nigeria, were to have their way, the ancient tree that fell and killed up to 40 persons last week would be cut into pieces.
Ministry officials have indicated the intention of engaging the services of lumber jacks to destroy the 300-year-old tree that was uprooted when a strong wind – that was accompanied by thunder and lightning – blew last Thursday in Umudagwu Mberi in Mbatoili Local Government Area of the state. It fell on and crushed scores of people buying and selling under it.
But town elders are kicking against the authority’s plan, arguing that necessary cultural formalities and obligations must be strictly complied with in the interest of the community.
Grieving indigenes insist that some rituals must be performed to appease the deity, which they believe owns the tree, so as to avert further calamity. This, they said, entails some sort of cultural cleansing of the land.
In fact, because of the superstition trailing the dreaded tree, the villagers are said to be at crossroads as to what to do with it. Prior to the incident, indigenes had observed that the tree was in a state of decay but were afraid to cut it down because it was believed to be evil. In 1992, two people who were hired to cut down the tree died mysteriously. Since then, people became fearful of the tree.
An octogenarian, Onyewuchi Njoku, claims that the tree (referred to as Uku) is as old as the community. He adds that it possessed medicinal qualities with which the people took care of some of their health needs. The tree also provided a comfortable habitat for reptiles, especially pythons, some of which were crushed when it fell.
Bodies recovered from the rubble of the fallen tree include elderly women, men and children, some of whom were at the evening market to either transact business or assist their relations to pack their goods, mainly food stuff, as it was about to rain. The tragedy occurred about 7.50pm on Thursday.
Rescue effort was hampered following the incident because the local folks lacked heavy equipment with which to lift the tree and rescue those trapped and who were at that time still alive.
The Bullitt Center is a commercial office building at the northern edge of the Central District neighborhood, near Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2013. It was designed to be – and indeed it is – the greenest commercial building in the world.
The building has similarly been classified a “Living Building” by the International Living Future Institute, world’s most strenuous benchmark for sustainability.
It was built by the Bullitt Foundation, a non-profit group based in Seattle that focuses on environmental issues. The foundation occupies half of one floor in the six-storey building, with commercial tenants occupying the rest of the structure, which cost $30 million and provided about 4,800m2 of lettable space.
Crowds flocked to the grand opening of the unique building, which aims to improve long-term environmental performance and efficiency through cutting-edge sustainable technology.
Construction work began in July 2011 at the Bullitt Center, which is designed to have a 250-year lifespan. The building is built to be energy and carbon neutral, with a water and sewage processing system that allows it to be independent of municipal water and sewage systems.
Energy neutrality is achieved with a large solar panel array on the roof of the building along with energy conservation measures that cuts the building’s energy consumption to approximately 1/3 of a typical office building of similar size. Although the building is connected to the electricity grid and will at times draw more power than it produces (especially during the winter), at other times it will produce enough surplus to “repay” such withdrawals, yielding annual energy neutrality.
Considered to be at the current cutting edge of green construction, the structure required a number of technical, legal, and social innovations to achieve a high level of ecological performance. The long term, 250-year design of the building created financing problems, as banks were unfamiliar with this and thus hesitant to back such a project, because commercial buildings are typically financed based on an assumed 40-year lifespan.
Similarly, the planned 210,000 litre rainwater collection and UV light purification system ran into problems with local regulation, which requires that water for consumption be chlorinated. The builders negotiated with the regulatory agency for independent testing of the building’s water system as a substitute, but it is connected to the municipal water supply as a back-up. The builders have negotiated with building material suppliers to ensure their products did not contain any of over 360 toxic chemicals; the supplier of the building sealant, for instance, agreed to remove phalates from their product so that the building could use it.
The structure also includes social design elements to reduce consumer energy use: the building may provide immediate feedback on energy use and publicise the energy consumption of each user.
Additional features include 26 geothermal wells that extend 120m into the ground, where the temperature is a constant 13 °C. These wells will help heat the building in the winter. All of the building’s lumber is certified to standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council. and it is the first commercial building in the U.S. to earn FSC Project Certification. Also, the building has no parking spaces — only bike racks.
Several versions of supposed green buildings are being touted in Nigeria, but it appears they are yet to be realised.
For instance, a project being pioneered by United States-based Messrs Comprehensive Design Services (CDS – USA) entails structures with bioclimatic design featuring natural ventilation, wide eaves, shading from landscaping, energy from solar, wind and biogas, rainwater harvesting and the use of locally available renewable material for construction, among other elements. A key factor in the design is its affordability for low-income families.
The pilot phase has been kick-started in Igbo-Etche, Port Harcourt, River State and will end in December 2013.
Indeed, sustainable development has given rise to green buildings. Most green building practices fall into seven basic categories: energy saving, land saving, storm water runoff-reducing, material conservation and pollution reduction.
Immaculata Nwokoro (a town planner) and Henry Onukwube (builder) state that a green building uses an average of 30 percent less energy than conventional building. Material waste generated during construction is reduced or recycled. Energy efficiency is improved, perhaps by relying on the use of natural light and ventilation or solar power. Less water is used, or rainwater harvesting system is installed to ensure wiser use. Measures taken to make buildings and construction more sustainable rely increasingly on life cycle approaches.
They lament a lack of institutional structures promoting green buildings; awareness on the part of clients, tenants, professionals in the built environment sector and other stakeholders; professional capacity to incorporate green building issues and opportunities and; financial resources to undertake green building construction and upgrades.
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has commended the Federal Government of Nigeria for releasing N10 billion for the commencement of the implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) project.
Minister of Environment, Hajiya Hadiza Mailafia, disclosed recently at the National Conference on Environment in Makurdi, Benue State, that the Federal Government had made a commitment of N10 billion towards the implementation of the United Nations-backed programme.
The Great Green Wall brings together 11 countries to plant trees across Africa to literally hold back the advancing Sahara Desert with a swathe of greenery, lessen the effects of desertification and improve the lives and livelihoods of communities.
In Nigeria, the project aims to address desertification, enhance natural resource management and promote ecosystem integrity in the dryland in the Northern parts of the Country. The Nigerian project stretches from Zamfara and Kebbi states in the North West corner along the northern border of Nigeria to the extreme eastern border in Borno State. Eight states are involved in the project.
While commending the government for the effort made and its commitment towards the initiative, the NCF calls for the following strategic steps to be employed before and during the implementation to achieve maximum results:
A National Institutional Framework for Project Implementation should be very definitive and focused. The NCF suggests that the framework takes into consideration the expected benefits and elements that the project should capture.
This multi-purpose project needs strategic approach to implementation. The NCF demands effective follow-up and action based on the principles and actions highlighted in the Strategic Plan.
The project should be seen as an opportunity to boost natural resource productivity and reduce stress and tension in natural resource use among major stakeholders. However, a conflict mitigation and management strategy should be put in place by participating states so as to guide against actions that can punctuate or slow down the process of implementation in the participating states. The project should be seen as a solution rather than a problem for communities, states and people of the benefiting areas.
Science and adaptive field research should be inculcated into the implementation plan of the project. This should be fashioned out in collaboration with key universities and research institutions in the project implementation areas.
The project demands a multi-faceted approach to capture essential benefits and involve all major and other necessary stakeholders. Community involvement in project planning and participation is crucial. Major resource user groups should be seen as actors and not only receivers of process in the project planning and implementation.
The GGW, an initiative spearheaded by African heads of states, will stretch about 7,000km from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east and will be about 15km wide as it traverses the continent, passing through Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The programme aims to support the efforts of local communities in the sustainable management and use of forests – a key theme of the 10th session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF10), currently taking place in Istanbul – as well as other natural resources in drylands.
Among other things, the planting of trees is expected to provide a barrier against desert winds and will help to hold moisture in the air and soil, allowing agriculture to flourish. It is also expected that the GGW will reduce erosion, enhance biodiversity and improve countries’ resilience to climate change.
“NCF, being the foremost and oldest environmental protection NGO in the country, has witnessed similar government/donor projects in the past which, unfortunately, through neglect and improper implementation, often excluding community participation/ownership, became dismal failures, allowing the sands of the desert to ravage thousands of square kilometers of former pasture lands, turning them into uninhabitable desert and hundreds of thousands of pastoralists into environmental refugees, thus greatly exacerbating the grave insecurity scenarios in this region that we are faced with today. We would like to believe that such neglect and indolence in implementation would not be allowed to befall this extremely laudable GGW project and that together with our other neighboring states; we would be able to find a permanent solution to the ravaging environmental disaster of desertification,” stated Alade Adeleke, Acting Executive Director of the NCF.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has renewed its support for climate change resilience in Madagascar, Benin and Angola, which are accessing $17.8 million of adaptation finance in the form of grants from the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) during the second quarter of 2013.
It follows the approval last March to fund three water and sanitation projects.
Under the scheme, Madagascar will receive $6.2 million to promote climate change adaptation by ensuring (a) that agricultural water infrastructure planned with African Development Fund support is modified so as to be resilient in the face of climate change, (b) that the vulnerability of the agriculture catchment to cyclones and flooding is reduced, and (c) that local agricultural livelihoods are adapted to climate change through water management and health interventions.
Benin will receive $7.2 million to allow flood control and climate resilience of agriculture infrastructures in Oueme Valley. Under this project, flooding risk mapping and climate resilient agriculture infrastructures like dykes will be promoted along with flood resistant grain storage systems.
Angola will receive $4.4 million to increase the scope of the four pilot demonstration centres to climate change technology for sustainable development.
The Council of the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) hosted under the Global Environment Facility (GEF), approved the financing for the three agriculture and natural resource management projects, which are aimed at increasing the adaptation capacities of the three nations.
This approval represents a major step forward in the engagement of the AfDB to support African countries’ resilience to climate change.
The LDCF was established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to finance the preparation and implementation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs).
A child is born every day in Nigeria. After the birth, the mother is expected to immunise the child against some preventable childhood diseases such as polio.
Polio victims
Polio is an infectious disease that is caused by a virus which lives in the throat and intestinal tract of an infected person. According to Dr. Ahmed Abduluahab, the Deputy Programme Manager for the PRRIN-MNCH Programme, polio is most often transmitted from the stool of an infected person to the mouth. It can also be spread through oral or nasal secretions. PRRIN stands for Partnership for Reviving Routine Immunisation in Northern Nigeria.
Polio infection can lead to irreversible paralysis or death.
In 1988, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stepped up efforts to completely eradicate polio in the world. Since then polio cases have decreased by over 99 percent worldwide. Currently, there are only three countries in the world where polio still exists. Nigeria is one of them. The other two are Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However Dr. Ahmed Abduluahab says polio should not exist in Nigeria as it is preventable with the para-polio vaccine. According to the organisation Path, in Northern Nigeria barely one in 10 children receives all of their routine vaccines. One of such is the polio vaccine. Four doses of the live oral polio vaccine are all that is needed to protect a child from the effects of polio. Unfortunately, too few children in Northern Nigeria receive even a single dose of vaccine. The WHO says polio is not treatable, that the polio vaccine is the only way to prevent a child from being affected by polio which mainly affects children under five years of age.
Many have wondered why the polio virus still exists in Nigeria despite extensive efforts to eradicate the virus in the country. Some have blamed poor skills of some vaccinators and poor storage of vaccines has also been mentioned as reasons.
Mohammed Adamu, a victim of the polio virus from Yobe State in Nigeria, says the mistake of a polio vaccinator cost him the use of his legs. According to him, he was told that when he was a baby his mother tried to get him vaccinated against the polio virus. But the vaccinator made a costly mistake which lead to him being paralysed by the polio virus and handicapped.
But Dr. Ahmed Abduluahab says polio vaccination cannot cause paralysis. According to him, polio infection can only occur after vaccination if the vaccine loses its potency due to poor storage. Nevertheless, he says there is a new attachment to the vials of the polio vaccine called Vial Monitor or VVM which helps to indicate when a vaccine has lost its potency due to over exposure to high temperature. He says once this is detected, the vaccine will not be administered.
Mohammed, who became paralysed from a polio infection, says although he grew up paralysed, he still wishes he had the full use of his legs as he faces challenges on a daily basis that having legs would have made easier to cope with. He is in his 30s but cannot walk. Today, he is only able to move from one place to the other using his locally made wheelchair or skateboard. He provides for his financial needs by charging people’s phones, selling recharge cards and downloaded music.
Although he struggles hard to survive, Mohammed still counts himself fortunate in comparison to other polio victims who have resorted to begging on the streets in order to be able to feed. He wants polio eradicated so that beggars will get off the streets and more people will not get infected. If polio eradication fails, much of the money spent will have been wasted and if it succeeds, the world will be polio free.
Dr. Ahmed Abduluahab also blames it on what is called miss children. He says: “Because of the challenges of miss children, there are always populations or groups of children that are not immunised against the polio virus.”
He says a situation of miss children exists due to non-compliance. Some parents, he says, “for various reasons hide their children or refuse to bring their children out to get immunised and as long as people who don’t believe in polio vaccination exist, polio will continue in the country.”
Other reasons have been given why polio still persist in the country. Dr. Ben Anyene, Chairman, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, says the primary health system in the country is not effective.
He says: “If an effective health care system exists in the country where the vaccines are available when they are needed, polio outbreaks would not occur in the country. This would lead to a situation where people can go to health centres and access all the necessary vaccines for immunisation.”
Rumors about the safety of the polio vaccine have also hampered the eradication of polio in the country. In July 2003 for instance, the polio immunisation campaign was discontinued in some states in Northern Nigeria because some religious and political leaders alleged the vaccines were deliberately contaminated with anti-fertility agents and the HIV virus. In 2004, vaccinations resumed after tests showed the vaccine was not contaminated with estrogen, anti-fertility agents or HIV. Insecurity in some states in Northern Nigeria has also been blamed. In 2013, nine polio vaccinators in Kano were killed by gunmen and their clinics set on fire as they vaccinated children against the polio virus.
Dr. Ben Anyene of Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria says polio can only be eradicated in Nigeria if the primary health care systems in the Local Government Areas are functional and polio eradication stems from the Local Government Areas and not Federal.
He says: “The Federal Level does not have Human Resources and the capacity to tackle polio at the community or gatekeeper’s level. If routine immunisation is properly strengthened and given where it is supposed to be given – which is at the primary health centre and people access it, vaccinators will not need to go visiting people and wasting energy and resources.”
Routine immunisation is a scheme where every child is given certain vaccines to prevent them against vaccine preventable diseases.
The polio eradication initiative has four components – the routine immunisation, the campaign, the surveillance and mop up campaigns.
According to Dr. Ahmed Abduluahab of PRRIN-MNCH the routine immunisation is the most important arm of all four components of the polio eradication initiative. He says with this realisation, the Nigerian Government is working to strengthen the routine immunisation.
Parents and health workers are advised to also intensify efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria and make Nigeria one more country that is polio free. Children requiring vaccination should be vaccinated. According to the WHO, for “as long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.
Nigeria remains the only country in Africa with Polio cases despite several interventions to eradicate the disease. At the recent Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi billions of dollars was pledged to rid the world of all kinds of Polio by 2018
Ogun State Government has taken up a campaign to address the numerous adverse environmental effects bedevilling its vast land mass. An international forum held recently to kick-start the programme featured an awareness walk, tree planting exercise and two days of brain storming session.
Mrs. Olufunso Amosun
The “Going Green” advocacy campaign is being addressed under the aegis of “UPLIFTing the Environment,” one of several initiatives of the UPLIFT Development Foundation, a baby of Olufunso Amosun, wife of Ibikunle Amosun, the state governor.
Mrs. Amosun said that the project aims at creating awareness for a green agenda, which will ultimately impact on the people’s consciousness and curb the ongoing environmental degradation.
Under the premise that youths are vibrant, adaptable, mobile and upward looking, she has made them the cornerstone of her project via the newly-created Green Empowerment for the Youth (GEFTY).
“Youths are the destined leaders of tomorrow, and a fundamental and quintessential force to tap into and reckon with,” she stated, adding that GEFTY aims at achieving comprehensive green education in primary and secondary schools; raise awareness in government, industry and academia on the need for a green revolution; and raise funding to be used to design and deploy bigger youth-inclined projects.
She listed other programmes in the pipeline to include holding of Green Youth conferences, establishment of Green Clubs in schools and the organisation of Green Essay competitions.
Governor Amosun, on his part, submitted that his administration takes issues of environmental protection seriously.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun
He said: “As we proceed in the fulfilment of our “Five-Cardinal Programme” in our “Mission to Rebuild” Ogun State, we take cognisance of the impact that our various development projects have on the environment. As we renovate and upgrade existing infrastructure and build new ones, we ensure that we make solid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before embarking on any construction. We also work to sustain and nurture the many green areas which the good Lord has endowed our state with.
“Even in our investment promotion and industrialisation drive, we always make sure that the investor and the proposed factory will not impact negatively on our environment. In doing this, we ensure that we do not only build an economically viable state, but also a socially stable and friendly environment.
“In another but related dimension, we have reinstated monthly environmental sanitation. Even in the state secretariat, workers embark on cleaning of the environment every fortnight. Also is the procurement and distribution of waste collection vans for the gathering of waste across the state. Basic policies and regulations have been implemented to prevent deforestation, among others. I want to believe that the commitment that both Knowledge Economic Network (KEN) and International Center for Promotion of Enterprises have shown in the collaboration with the Office of the Wife of the Governor that culminated in the hosting of this event is not unconnected with our administration’s commitment in this regard.
“However, there is still much to be done. Towards this end, I must say that there is need for Public-Private Partnership in providing an important policy instrument which will facilitate effective concern for environmental challenges. This will help in offering great potentials for pursuits of great sustainable development of our environment.”
Left to right: Mrs. Abimbola Fashola (wife of the Governor of Lagos State), Mrs. Sherifat Aregbesola (wife of the Governor of Osun State), Mrs. Olufunso Amosun and Senator (Mrs.) Remi Tinubu (wife of the former Governor of Lagos State), at the event, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria
Uche Ekwunife, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Environment, in a presentation, described the climate change phenomenon as a fundamental global challenge that calls for an immediate course of action.
Her words: “Sustainability of all sectors of the economy such as transportation, manufacturing, oil & gas, food production and agriculture are the global watchword. It has become something of significant impact especially with the quest of the world to minimise pollution and limit the effect of greenhouse gases (GHG) which are causing major damages on our planet. The concept of going green is to ensure these objectives are achieved and our planet a safe place to live.
“We must create a green environment, access to clean energy and water, pollution-free environment, reduction in waste, and immensely improve our eco-system. This will make companies to pursue profit in more sustainable ways and ensure economic benefit for all. The change must start from us.”
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation’s (UNIDO) Regional Director & Representative of Nigeria & ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), Patrick Kormawa expressed the readiness of his organisation to partner with Mrs. Amosun and the state government in the Going Green initiative to increase environmental protection and ensure waste-to-wealth scheme through public private partnership.
In a presentation titled: “Strategies of Regional and International Entities to Foster and Support Going Green-related PPP, Joint Ventures and FDIs”, Kormawa noted that creation of public awareness on the use of energy to improve the environment was germane to achieving the Going Green projects.
He explained that development is impossible without energy, saying that, at present, 1.3 billion people in the world have no access to electricity and an additional billion is under-served due to poor supply quality and intermittency problems.
“Almost three billion people continue to rely on traditional biomass for heating and cooking needs, despite enormous health and safety consequences,” he said.
To achieve any sustainable development, the UNIDO director noted that governments and private organisations should pay conscious attention to the environment. He said UNIDO would partner with Ogun State government through UNIDO Green Industry Initiative and Global Environment Facility to ensure universal access to modern energy services by financing projects that focus on biodiversity, climate change, waters, land degradation, the ozone layer and persistent organic pollutants.
Experts have warned that jet streams intensified by global warming will increase the frequency of turbulence on transatlantic flights by 50 percent.
Emirates Airline’s Boeing 777-300ER Jet
Flights encountering air turbulence will double and the average strength of turbulence will also increase 10 percent to 40 percent,” says Paul Williams, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Reading.
“Turbulence causes more than bumpy flights,” says Manoj Joshi, lecturer on climate dynamics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. “It can potentially cause injuries and even airplane damage in extreme cases.”
Airlines pay tens of millions of dollars in damages caused by turbulence every year, state Joshi and Williams in their report published recently and titled: “Intensification of Winter Transatlantic Aviation Turbulence in Response to Climate Change.”
Turbulence is caused by several factors, including atmospheric pressure, jet streams, mountain waves, cold and warm fronts and thunderstorms.
It can strike when the sky seems clear. In fact, the clear-air turbulence is the most dangerous because it is undetectable and usually encountered at the higher flight levels utilised by airliners.
Passengers who have experienced it often say the aircraft hit an “air pocket” or it “suddenly dropped”. As the aircraft moves up and down, passengers experience rapid changes in vertical acceleration, creating the dropping sensation. Most injuries are caused by air turbulence and happen when passengers are not wearing seat belts.
Williams says airlines can avoid turbulence by choosing a different route, but it will affect travel time. Longer travel time will also mean greater fuel consumption. Greater fuel consumption will lead to higher carbon dioxide emissions, which will contribute to global warming.
He adds that more fuel also means “higher costs for the airlines that can probably also lead to higher fares.”
The researchers used a climate model to study the jet streams at their peak strength during winter over the North Atlantic Ocean. They chose to focus on this area because of its heavy flight traffic, with over 600 transatlantic crossings daily.
“In the future, we will also study other regions,” says Williams. “Jet streams are expected to be stronger and will probably affect Pacific flights as well.”
On the other hand, airlines seem to be taking their destinies into their own hands by investing in measures to become environment-friendly, by curbing fuel use as well as carbon emission.
For instance, Emirates Airline has described its Dubai-San Francisco flight as the longest green journey.
The airline said it worked closely with government agencies in Dubai, Russia, Iceland, Canada, the United States and other countries to plot what it calls “the most environmentally-sophisticated route and trip possible to help save an estimated 2,000 gallons of fuel and 30,000 pounds of carbon emissions on the 16-hour non-stop service.”
The Dubai to San Francisco cross-polar flight
The firm prefers the Boeing 777-300ER jet to the massive, two-level Airbus A380 jetliner to service the route, believed to be part of the airline’s multi-billion-dollar investment in economic and environmental efficiencies.
Rather than fly horizontally around the globe, the over 8,000-mile, cross-polar journey instead adopts an innovative flight path that takes the aircraft vertically and northward towards and over the North Pole onto the other side of the world, downwards to the western end of the US where San Francisco (and other cities like LA) is located.
Flight path across the North Pole
Departure route out of Dubai provides an unimpeded climb through to cruise altitude, allowing the plane to reach optimum cruise altitude as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Negotiations with the Russian government allows for a preferred route over Russian and Canadian airspace for the most efficient path, taking into account prevailing winds and the aircraft’s weight.
Picture of polar ice sheets taken from the aircraft’s downward camera as it flies over the polar region
Real time updates of current weather and wind conditions will allow the flight crew to modify their flight path enroute, say officials of Emirates.
Also, Boeing says that its 787 Dreamliner aircraft uses 20 percent less fuel than similarly sized planes.
The outfit describes the Dreamliner “as a super-efficient airplane with unmatched fuel efficiency reported. Advances in engine technology as well as the aircraft’s design and build process were the biggest contributor to the 787’s fuel efficiency improvements, Boeing says.
For example, manufacturing a one-piece fuselage section eliminated 1,500 aluminum sheets and 40,000 – 50,000 fasteners. Also, composite materials make up 50 percent of the primary structure of the aircraft including the fuselage and wing.
Airbus says it continues to work on quieter and more fuel efficient jetliners, describing its A380 as a benchmark for fuel efficiency and low noise levels, and such new-generation jetliners as the A350 XWB will push this envelope even further. With 25 per cent less fuel consumption than current-generation aircraft, the A350 XWB, the company adds, is designed to be eco-efficient from gate-to-gate, providing the long-range market’s leading environmental performance.
Similarly, a solar-powered airplane that developers hope eventually to pilot around the world has landed safely in Phoenix, Arizona, USA on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States using only the sun’s energy, project organisers said.
The plane, dubbed the “Solar Impulse,” took 18 hours and 18 minutes to reach Phoenix on the slow-speed flight, completing the first of five legs with planned stops in Dallas, St. Louis and Washington on the way to a final stop in New York.
The Solar Impulse in flight
The spindly-looking plane barely hummed as it took off Friday morning from Moffett Field, a joint civil-military airport near San Francisco.
It landed in predawn darkness at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, according to a statement on the Solar Impulse’s website.
The flight crew plans pauses at each stop to wait for favourable weather. It hopes to reach John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in about two months.
Swiss pilots and co-founders of the project, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, will take turns flying the plane, built with a single-seat cockpit. Piccard was at the controls for the first flight to Arizona.
The lightweight carbon fibre Solar Impulse has a wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car and from a distance resembles a giant floating insect.
The plane was designed for flights of up to 24 hours at a time and is a test model for a more advanced aircraft the team plans to build to circumnavigate the globe in 2015. It made its first intercontinental flight, from Spain to Morocco, last June.
The aircraft is propelled by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells built into the wings that simultaneously recharge four large batteries with a storage capacity equivalent to a Tesla electric car that allow it to fly after dark.
The lightweight design and wingspan allow the plane to conserve energy, but make it vulnerable. It cannot fly in strong wind, fog, rain or clouds.
The plane can climb to 28,000 feet and flies at an average of 43 miles per hour (69 km per hour).
The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million Euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.
According to her, these could take the form of improved and efficient wood and charcoal burning stoves, cooking gas, and more effective use of agro waste. She notes that the shift to clean cookstoves reduces cooking costs and health impacts for families, adding that it comes in various sizes and anticipates cultural affinity for certain ways of cooking, hence its adaptability to wood, kerosene and gas.
