ygogolak said:
"@Traciatim:
1. It's an apartment. A resident can't just go in and do their own upgrades to the mechanical systems.
2. A person is not ..." [read]
Mike said:
"You can get something similar at Target for about 8 bucks. It's not quite as fancy but they are LED powered, only come on at night, and only come o..." [read]
april said:
"RT muchosam, Tim, Anonymous:
Thanks for catching that. ..." [read]
said:
"What's with the picture of the Focus?..." [read]
UDSL2000 said:
"I really wish that more attention was being paid to white neon. This technology is mature, and is much more efficient than LED on a watt/lumen bas..." [read]
Tim said:
"The photo is of a Ford Focus Wagon, NOT a VOLVO......" [read]
New York Times, from an earlier proposal for standup flying
Three years ago we wrote about the Airbus proposal (quickly denied) for standing-room seating (Now We Know Why They are Called Airbuses) noting that there might be TreeHugger benefits:
We suppose there could be a TreeHugger case that more people crammed in means less fuel burned per person, and we also suspect that it will end deep vein thrombosis, but generally we think it gives new meaning to Flying is Dying.
Thanks to the gang over at Daily Candy for this little tip. For just USD$149 each way (starting price), you can ship Fido, Fluffy and all of your four-legged family members around the US on the newly minted Pet Airways.
Electric Aircraft Makes Successful Test Flight
There are plenty of fancy electric super cars out there proving that battery-powered does not have to mean boring. But is the world ready for electric aviation? THere's actually more prototypes out there than you might think - from the SkySpark electric plane to the jaw-dropping, alp-crossing Sunseeker solar plane (video). Heck, there's so much hope for battery-powered flight that there is even an Electric Plane Symposium, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at supersonic electric flight. In the meantime, another electric plane has taken flight - and this one might be on the market sooner than you'd think. Click below the fold for video footage of the maiden flight.
The gist of it is something that has been repeatedly highlighted in the intervening months, that biofuels perform as well or slightly better than fossil fuels in jet engines, with Continental saying that their biofuel blend increased fuel efficiency by 1.1%. But that doesn't mean that we're really much closer to wide-scale use.
Writing in Yale Environment 360, David Biello really sums up well the nut that's got to be cracked:
New Speed Record for an Electric Airplane, That Is...
Flying is currently the fastest-growing source of CO2, and is expected to keep growing rapidly in the next 20 years. We're still at the early stage of finding greener alternatives to our current planes (other than not flying and ground transportation), but each new milestone is important. One of those was the new electric flight speed record set by the SkySpark 100% electric plane. More details and videos of the flight below.
Hold On, Don't Order These Airline Tickets Yet!
This is part 3 of a series. In part 1, we looked at how not all flights were created equal, and in part 2 we looked at the top 20 most popular flying routes based on data from the TRX Carbon calculator. But any discussion of flying wouldn't be complete without at least an overview of alternatives to flying, because whatever you do to optimize your flying habits, best is still to avoid flying in the first place. Read on for some tips!
Same Flight, 450% Difference in CO2 Emissions Between Airlines...
According to 700-page Stern Report on the economics of climate change, CO2 emissions from aviation are about 600-700 megatonnes per year, or about 2-3% of total global CO2 emissions. The single digit percentage might not seem like much, but there are aggravating factors: Aviation is currently the fastest-growing source of CO2, and is expected to keep growing rapidly in the next 20 years. Also, those emissions are not spread evenly across world population. For some people, flying might represent a huge portion of their individual carbon footprint (do you recognize yourself?), and so any improvement can have a big impact. Get ready to green your flying: Let's look at what makes a difference!
Image credit: JstockardAircraft 'Waggle Effect' Can Reduce Fuel Consumption 20%
Everybody knows that flying is an energy intensive activity. Unfortunately, many long awaited innovations in fuel-efficient aviation are of the more far-fetched variety - I'm thinking airships, blended wings etc. Yet it's long been noted that the addition of 'winglets' to aircraft wings can reduce fuel consumption - in fact, Southwest Airline's use of winglets even earned them a nomination from one of our readers for our Unexpected Green competition. But that's not the only simple improvement that could cut fuel use - now a team from the University of Warwick in the UK claims that 'waggling' air accross aircraft wings could cut skin friction drag by 40%, offering a 20% savings in fuel consumption and emissions. Read on for more details.
...
He Opens the Cockpit and Everything
We've written a few times about the Sunseeker II solar airplane, and how it was the first solar plane to cross the Alps. We had some breathtaking photos, but now we have video! Check it out below, once they take off at about 45 seconds in, it's really amazing (well, I should manage expectations... Check it out, it's okay.)...
photo: Ann the Doc via flickr.
You want to be a better eco-citizen, minimize your air travel, and want to buy a carbon offset for those times when you do have to fly. But before you hit that calculate my emissions button you notice a small check box."Include Radiative Forcing" it says. What the heck is radiative forcing and why does it matter to the carbon emissions of my travel? And if it does, how much does (or should) it add? Here's the quick(ish) answer:...
Airspace
I am a big fan of propeller planes; the Bombardier Q400 sips fuel and flies low enough that its exhaust is not as harmful as the jets flying twice as high. In an earlier post (Perhaps Flying Turboprop isn't Dying) I noted that it is far more fuel efficient per person than a car and only slightly worse than a train. As I prepare to bike down to the airport and fly to New York on one, I have been considering the news coverage about the investigation into the crash of a Q400 near Buffalo in February. I like to call it a greener way to fly, but apparently the working conditions and pay make it anything but....
The Guardian
We have accused Virgin Galactic's new spaceport of the Sin of LEED Green Buildings That Are Laughably Inappropriate, asking "what is the point of being ""both sustainable and sensitive to its surroundings" when your purpose for being is neither?"
Now Leo Hickman in the Guardian calls them out for the ride itself. He questions their claims that "every astronaut is an environmentalist," that "viewing earth from space would transform people's attitudes to the environment."
Hickman suggests that they watch a David Attenborough documentary, or perhaps the Discovery Network, instead.
...
Not Just Any Old Electric Plane... A Supersonic Electric Plane
Techcrunch has an intriguing interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He briefly talks about an interest in nuclear fusion, but also speculates about a supersonic electric plane. The video of the interview above has pretty bad sound, but there's a transcript below....
photo: Virgin America
California-based Virgin America (which is an entirely separate company than Virgin Atlantic, by the way...) has announced that it has become the first US airline to join The Climate Registry, committing to report all of its greenhouse gas emissions:...
A Big First for a Solar Aircraft!
We recently wrote about the Sunseeker II solar plane (see that post for more details). Well, they did it! "99 years after the first crossing of the Alps in an airplane by Geo Chávez flying a Blériot XI, Eric Raymond completed the first crossing of the Alps made by a solar airplane! 'The most scenic flight of my life,' as he put it, also had its intense moments. After the flight, he recounted the adventure."...
photo: Timothy Dauber via flickr
We're always talking up the benefits of energy efficiency and here's a concrete example of it: Air India has been operating under a new program of fuel efficiency measures for the past six months, with the goal of reducing fuel usage by 12 billion gallons over the year. It's all resulted in $9.26 million in savings. Here's how they did it:...
Photo via American Airlines
Poor countries are asking for a tax on all airline tickets as a means to funding their adaptation to climate change. The airlines have their own proposal, and both will be presented today as the international community comes together in Bonn, Germany at the latest round of climate negotiations....
photo: Sven via flickr
The recession may be slowing down some renewable energy projects, but Boeing and Airbus have indicated that they will be continuing to push forward on developing planes that can run on biofuels, and working with biofuel producers develop these fuels, Business Week reports:...
Terrafugia
The recession is hurting us all, but if you have an extra $194,000 laying around, maybe stuffed under the mattress, you can afford a new flying car that's scheduled to drive, take off and land in 2010....
“Radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity,” that’s the X Prize Foundation’s stock in trade. In the second part of our conversation with Peter Diamandis, the Foundation’s founder and CEO, we hear about other avenues for creating big changes in the realms of clean energy, space travel, and the importance of crazy ideas. Read or listen to the first part of our conversation here.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download.
Music comes from Chris Volpe
See our X-Prize cars slideshow!
Full text after the jump....
Let's Hope This Thing Takes Off!
The 2009 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium will take place on April 24th, 2009, at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. Topics will include "the latest in motors, PV technology, controllers, batteries, chargers, new designs, prototype performance, and the '100 MPG aircraft race.'" The registration fee is $249 before April 15, and $310 afterwards (so if you are interested, don't wait!). More details after the jump....
Image via: guardian.co.uk
"The question I've been asking is, why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?" This is Pete Postlethwaite speaking to us from the future, the year 2055 to be exact, where he is marooned alone, high in a tower above the melted arctic, quite possibly the only man left on earth. We learn he is living in the 'Global Archive' which captured all records of human life before we were wiped off the face of the earth. This stark introduction leaves us in no doubt that Franny Armstrong's new environmental movie is designed to scare us into action, but the question I'm asking is: will it in fact just scare us all rigid?...
Photo of a recent protest at Aberdeen airport by anti-aviation group Plane Stupid.
Aviation, especially in the UK, is having a tough year. A tanking economy curtails profits. Lots of protest over plans for a new third runway at Heathrow. And now, the news that the country's Environment Agency will actually have the authority in future to seize planes if airlines aren't complying with emissions reductions quotas that begin to take effect when the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme includes aviation in 2012. ...
Image credit: Plane StupidRunway Protesters Surrender to Avert EmergencyRyanair's legal action against previous runway protesters doesn't seem to have discouraged the anti-aviation pressure group Plane Stupid, which yesterday occupied the runway at Aberdeen Airport. The protesters (who have previously occupied parliament) locked themselves to fencing and set up a mini-golf course - a reference to Donald Trump's nearby golf course development, which is believed to be a major reason for Aberdeen's runway expansion. According to the Guardian, the protesters surrendered after police informed them that a flight was about to take off to get a sick baby to hospital, though there was later some confusion whether this was the case:...
Flying so Quietly, Birds Sometimes Try to Land on It
We've just got a tip form Eric Lentz Gauthier of Solar Flight telling us that the Sunseeker II, a solar airplane, will be flying over Europe this Spring: "The exact dates and destinations that the tour will cover are not set in stone right now. The first leg will be from Freidrichshafen, Germany down to Sicily and then back up to Switzerland. From there the Sunseeker will be flown over the Swiss Alps to the Austrian Dolomites and through to Slovenia. From Slovenia we will fly West through Italy again, then Southern France down to Spain. " More details below....
Image credit: DK Report via Stock High.
New Innovations May Help Reduce Aviation Emissions - Eventually
I've lost count of the number of times that TreeHugger has written about the aviation industry's vulnerability to high oil prices or the interconnections between flying and climate change. Yet it's hard to go without flying - especially when you have loved ones on the other side of the world. (UK activist and writer George Monbiot coined the term 'Love Miles' to describe the predicament many of us environmentally aware global citizens face.) But there are glimmers of hope. Fancy new concepts in aviation offer the potential of significant carbon savings - the only trouble is that most are a long way off from commercial application. But there are a few lower-tech innovations that are delivering emissions reductions here and now. Read on to find out more. ...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 07. 9.09
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.treehugger.com/nav-commenters.gif)
:
"I agree - short flights would make sense..." [read]
Data on biofuel test flights than took place nearly six months ago (
Image credit: 
He Opens the Cockpit and Everything
We've written a few times about the 
Image credit: 
photo: 
The Guardian
We have accused Virgin Galactic's new spaceport of the
photo: Virgin America
California-based 
A Big First for a Solar Aircraft!
We recently wrote about the 
photo: 
photo: 
Let's Hope This Thing Takes Off!
The 2009 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium will take place on April 24th, 2009, at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. Topics will include "the latest in motors, PV technology, controllers, batteries, chargers, new designs, prototype performance, and the '100 MPG aircraft race.'" The registration fee is $249 before April 15, and $310 afterwards (so if you are interested, don't wait!). More details after the jump....
Image via: 
Photo of a recent protest at Aberdeen airport by anti-aviation group 
Image credit: 
Flying so Quietly, Birds Sometimes Try to Land on It
We've just got a tip form Eric Lentz Gauthier of 
Image credit: 
