7 Search Results for "flight"

• Climate Protesters Held after Climate Protesters Held after Airport Demo

  • From: JohnRussell
  • Description:

    Seven climate protesters have been arrested after breaking through a perimeter fence and setting up a barricade on an airport's taxi-way.

    Flights to and from Aberdeen Airport have been delayed as a result of the security breach by members of the Plane Stupid campaign group.

    After talks with police, seven of the protesters gave themselves up six hours after the demonstration began - but two others remain on the roof of the terminal building.

    A Grampian Police spokesman said: "We can confirm that following a dialogue between police officers and some of the protesters, seven people have released themselves from their position on the runway and have been taken into police custody.

    "Two protesters remain on the airport terminal building roof. Work continues to peacefully resolve the protest."

    Plane Stupid said the activists broke through the perimeter fence at about 2am on Tuesday in protest against the airport's expansion plans and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

    The group added that the activists were dressed as golfers in the style of US property tycoon Donald Trump, who is planning to build a major international golf resort in the area and supports the expansion of the airport.

    A spokesman for airport operator BAA said of the protest: "This action is dangerous and highly irresponsible, not least because Aberdeen is one of Europe's busiest commercial heliports and a major transport centre for the north of Scotland, used by tens of thousands of people every day.

    "There is no justification for this irresponsible action, which is deliberately calculated to delay and inconvenience the travelling public."

    BAA added that flights are leaving but there is likely to be some knock-on disruption and passengers are advised to check the status of their flight early.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 144

• Climate Protesters Invade Airp Climate Protesters Invade Airport

  • From: JohnRussell
  • Description:

    A group of climate protesters threatened to disrupt an airport after setting up a barricade on the runway.

    Plane Stupid said seven people had broken through the perimeter fence at Aberdeen Airport and placed themselves inside a wire "fortress" on the tarmac. Several other protesters had climbed on to the roof of the terminal building, it added.

    The group said the activists invaded the site shortly after 2am and that they were hoping to prevent the airport from reopening later on Tuesday morning.

    A spokesman for airport operator BAA said: "Seven people appear to have cut a hole in the security perimeter and are now on the runway. There are two or three on the terminal roof. The police are on their way."

    The first flight out of Aberdeen was scheduled to leave at around 6.30am, the BAA spokesman said.

    Plane Stupid said it was protesting against the airport's expansion plans and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

    The group said the activists were dressed as golfers in the style of US property tycoon Donald Trump, who is planning to build a major international golf resort in the area and supports the expansion of the airport.

    One of the protesters on the runway, Dan Glass, 25, from Glasgow, said: "There are seven of us here who are fenced in. Two security guards are watching us, and have called for some more people."

    He added: "We're here to say the expansion cannot happen, and our generation won't let it happen.

    "The scientists tell us we've got seven years to make emissions peak then drop, and if we fail, the people on this runway and their entire generation, and our children, will live with the consequences. That's why we're doing this."

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 167

• Algae can save the world? Algae can save the world?

  • From: peggleg
  • Description:

    By Stuart McDill

     

    PLYMOUTH, England (Reuters) - Can algae save the world again? The microscopic green plants cleaned up the earth's atmosphere millions of years ago and scientists hope they can do it now by helping remove greenhouse gases and create new oil reserves.

    In the distant past, algae helped turn the earth's then inhospitable atmosphere into one that could support modern life through photosynthesis, which plants use to turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugars and oxygen.

    Some of the algae sank to sea or lake beds and slowly became oil. "All we're doing is turning the clock back," says Steve Skill, a biochemist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

    "Nature has done this many millions of years ago in producing the crude oil we're burning today. So as far as nature is concerned this is nothing new," he said.

    The race is now on to find economic ways to turn algae, one of the planet's oldest life forms, into vegetable oil that can be made into biodiesel, jet fuel, other fuels and plastic products.

    "So we are harvesting sunshine directly using algae, then we are extracting that stored energy in the form of oil from the alga and then using that to make fuels and other non-petroleum based products," Skill said.

    He predicted that industry will be cultivating algae in viable quantities for commercial oil production with a decade.

    Such fuels are considered to be net carbon neutral because the algae absorb greenhouse gases when they grow.

    TEST FLIGHT

    Many companies are working on algae and biofuels including U.S. groups Sapphire Energy, OriginOil, BioCentric Energy and PetroAlgae.

    Among uses, Japan Airlines had a test flight last month with a jet fuel and biofuels blend including algae oils.

    Brazil's MPX Energia plans to trap 10-15 percent of carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant by feeding them to algae when it starts in 2011.

    Plymouth Marine Laboratory says it is taking what we know about algae in the world's oceans and applying it to biotechnology, an approach which differs from much of the commercial research underway, where some claims about the possibilities of algal biofuels are overstated, according to Carole Llewellyn, a marine chemist.

    "They (algae) do have a lot of positive attributes but there are a lot of hurdles that have to be overcome before this becomes a commercial reality," Llewellyn said.

    Cultivating crops on prime farmland to produce bio-diesel has been widely criticized for helping sustain higher food prices. But many strains of algae grow in sites otherwise uninhabited, from salt-water marshland to deserts.

    They can grow 20 to 30 times faster than food crops.

    Research in Plymouth includes identifying which strains of algae will produce the most oil or absorb the most CO2 in differing growing mediums.

    Algae's requirement of a source of carbon dioxide has also stimulated interest from industrial plants which see the possibility of feeding algal beds with carbon-rich exhaust fumes from their power plants.

    Research into replacing petroleum based fuels and products with biodiesel from algae is not new.

    The U.S. government began funding research in the 1970s and only discontinued the program in 1996 when it was reported that producing bio-diesel simply cost too much and would not become economic until oil prices rose to $40 a barrel. Prices for Brent crude on Tuesday were $46 a barrel.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 225

• Meals on Wings Meals on Wings

  • From: RobLyons
  • Description:

    Well, the reality is a lot of us still take flights for business or holiday reasons. Its easy to say we shouldn't, but its a reality and this post isn't about the moralities of flying.

    However, there are times when you just have to observe, accept, and even laugh.
    
    A letter was recently received by the Virgin Atlantic customer complaints team and is currently being hailed on news blogs as possibly the funniest customer complaint letter ever.

    The Virgin Atlantic press office have confirmed they received the letter and that Richard Branson himself called the author to thank him for the feedback. 

    Rumour has it the complainant has been asked by Richard Branson to be on a food tasting panel for the food they serve on Virgin Atlantic Flights.
    
    Here's the letter:

    ---

    Dear Mr Branson

    REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

    I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

    Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation.

    Look at this Richard. Just look at it:

    I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

    You don't get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it's next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That's got to be the clue hasn't it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in:

    

    I know it looks like a baaji but it's in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you'll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It's only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

    Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what's on offer.

    I'll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it's Christmas morning and you're sat their with your final present to open. It's a big one, and you know what it is. It's that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

    Only you open the present and it's not in there. It's your hamster Richard. It's your hamster in the box and it's not breathing. That's how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:

    

    Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking it's more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It's mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

    Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

    By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it's baffling presentation: 

    

    It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn't want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

    I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

    Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on: 

    

    I apologise for the quality of the photo, it's just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson's face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel: 

    

    Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I'd had enough. I was the hungriest I'd been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

    My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations: 

    

    Yes! It's another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

    Richard.... What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I'd done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.

    So that was that Richard. I didn't eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can't imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

    As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It's just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it's knees and begging for sustenance.

    Yours Sincererly...

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 392

• Jet fuelled on Algae Jet fuelled on Algae

  • From: adeymoore
  • Description:

    A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae.

    The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said.

    One of its engines was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel and normal aircraft fuel.

    Wednesday's test is the latest in a series of demonstration flights by the aviation industry, which hopes to be using biofuels within five years.

    The flight was the first by a US carrier to use an alternative fuel source, and the first in the world to use a twin-engine commercial aircraft (rather than a four-engine plane) to test a biofuel blend.

    The flight from Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport completed a circuit over the Gulf of Mexico, and pilots carried out a series of tests at 38,000ft (11.6km), including a mid-flight engine shutdown.

    "The airplane performed perfectly," test pilot Rich Jankowski told the Houston Chronicle newspaper.

    "There were no problems. It was textbook."

    Drop-in fuel

    Continental Airlines chief executive Larry Kellner described the biofuel as a "drop-in fuel", which meant that no modification to the aircraft or its engines was required.

    The fuel is also understood to meet and exceed specifications necessary for jet fuel, including a flash point and a freezing point appropriate for use in aircraft.

    "The challenge will be to produce it in an efficient way in the quantities we need," Mr Kellner said.

    The biofuel used in the demonstration flight was a blend of two different types of alternative oils - algae and jatropha.

    Jatropha is a plant that can grow successfully in poor soils and marginal land, yet it yields four times more fuel per hectare than soybean.

    But despite advances in the technology, biofuels derived from algae have yet to be proven as commercially competitive.

    Clear sky thinking

    Despite airlines continually improving the fuel efficiency of their aircraft over the past three decades, a growing number of aircraft making more flights has seen the sector's global emissions rise sharply.

    As a result, the aviation industry is keen to embrace the environmental benefits that biofuels can offer.

    In February 2008, a Virgin 747 flew from London to Amsterdam partly using a fuel derived from a blend of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.

    And at the end of December, one engine of a Air New Zealand 747 was powered by a 50/50 blend of jatropha plant oil and standard A1 jet fuel.

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 271

• Virgin Atlantic turns old seat Virgin Atlantic turns old seats into Handbags.

  • From: adeymoore
  • Description:

    Is airline fabric the next denim? Well, jet-setter, you decide. In one of the oddest recycling gestures in recent memory, Virgin Atlantic Airways is converting old seats into handbags. That’s right, you could carry about 14E forever.

    
    The airline is teaming up with Worn Again, a British design company that specializes in recycled materials. It all plays into the airline’s goal of becoming “the world’s most sustainable airline,” including plans to reduce materials sent to landfills by 50% by the year 2012.
    “By rescuing these onboard products and reusing them for other purposes, we’re aligning ourselves with ideals that are synonymous with the Virgin brand,” the airline’s promotional material says.

    Wonder what they do with all that nice Sprite-stained carpet. Oh, well, if this sort of memorabilia appeals to you, move fast. Worn Again will produce 2,000 limited-edition pieces made from about 1,000 seats.

    Cost: Toiletry bags sell for $40. Handbags for around $100.

  • Blog post
  • 2 years ago
  • Views: 335

• About 'Additionality' About 'Additionality'

  • From: RobLyons
  • Description:

    As I was browsing the web, I came across a word that I thought was just made up. Well.... It was, but for good reason. The english language is a wonderful thing and I doubt it existed 20 years ago. In fact I don't know if it is in the OED. I'm no expert but being English, I sometimes giggle when a word is "developed" (usually by the U.S.) by giving an '..al', or '..ing,' or better still an '..ization' at the end of an existing word.

    Regardless of this I bothered to find out what it was all about. It turns out to be a little bit of common sense, but one of those that makes a (energy efficient) light switch on at the back of your brain when it is written down infront of you.

    Although the definition relates more to governmental levels of Carbon Emissions, the principle is just as good for us on an individual level.  So... next time you choose to offset your carbon footprint directly or indirectly, pay close attention to the projects it relates to.

    What is additionality?

    When you offset a flight (or anything else, for that matter), you are giving money to a company, which invests it in projects designed to reduce future emissions or remove CO2 from the air.
    
    But what if those reductions would have been made anyway, regardless of your contribution? For offsetting to be truly effective, these cuts need to be “additional” to anything that would have happened in the normal course of events.

    In other words, “is an offset additional?” means “would the project that created this offset have happened without revenues from offset purchases?”

    “Business as usual” improvements, are non-additional and their corresponding pollution reduction cannot be sold as a bona fide offset.

    How does additionality work?

    Take an offsetting project that involves distributing low-energy light bulbs in a developing country, thereby reducing future energy consumption. The carbon savings would only be “additional” if most of the recipients wouldn’t have acquired low-energy bulbs by some other means, such as a local government drive to reduce pressure on the electricity grid.
    
    If that happened, the bulbs distributed by the offset company would stop being additional, since the energy savings would have happened even if the offset project didn’t.

    Another example, if offsets are claimed from the collection and destruction of methane at a landfill, what otherwise would have happened to that methane? If the methane would have been collected and destroyed anyway (whether because it is required by law or is standard business practice), then buying those methane reductions will not result in “additional” environmental benefit.
    
    The problem with additionality is that it can be almost impossible to prove with absolute certainly. After all, no one can be completely sure what will happen in the future or what would have happened if a project had never existed.

    Guarantees

    Partly because of the difficulty of ensuring additionality, many offset providers guarantee their emissions savings. This way, if something happens to make one offset project “non-additional” (such as the government giving out low-energy light bulbs), then the provider promises to make up the loss via another project.
    
    As the offset market grows, some companies have enough capital to invest in projects speculatively: they fund an offset project and then sell the carbon savings once the cuts have actually been made. This avoids the difficultly of predicting the future.

    The Clean Development Mechanism

    The concept of additionality has its roots in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the carbon-trading system built into the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM allows developed countries to pay for carbon cuts in developing countries instead of making more expensive emissions reductions at home.
    
    For example, a rich country struggling with its Kyoto targets might fund a hydroelectric station overseas. For this or any other project to be approved under the rules of the CDM, the carbon savings must be shown to be additional. In other words, it can’t be a scheme that might have been run anyway.

    What about Click4Carbon

    Click4Carbon is dedicated to developing projects which directly impact on the environment. We're not trying to sell any Carbon Credits, and therefore in principle we're investing in Additionality.

  • Blog post
  • 2 years ago
  • Views: 315