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Tag Archives: climate change
On the impact of more frequent lightning strikes on airports
We were waiting for our plane to arrive at the airport yesterday and can’t help but observe the heavy rains falling while a strong wind blows and causes the rains to fall at an angle. This renders umbrellas to be ineffective in keeping you dry if you’re outdoors. Such weather requires a long coat or even overalls to keep one dry on a very wet day. The rains and wind were brought about by a storm affecting the area. Though distant, the storm was able to influence the weather. Fortunately, there wasn’t any lightning and we wondered if lightning strikes have affected ground crew working in an open area that makes them vulnerable to lightning strikes. Here is an interesting article that describes the threat of lightning strikes particularly to people on the ground at airports.
King, R.E. (September 11, 2024) “Increasing Lightning Strikes from Stronger Storms Could Cripple Airports and Airbases,” Jalopnik, https://jalopnik.com/increasing-lightning-strikes-from-stronger-storms-could-1851645799 [Last accessed: 9/16/2024]
Quoting from the article:
“While flying planes are hardened to withstand lightning strikes, airports are typically a cluster of free-standing structures on a flat, open plot of land. The ongoing increase in lightning strikes caused by climate change is a direct danger to facilities and people on the ground.”
I wonder about similar data or statistics in the Philippines considering the long wet season we have that includes not just threats from typhoons but from seemingly small weather systems that may involve lightning strikes. I recall operations at NAIA were halted a few times when there were lightning storms. Is this phenomena. I wonder how many incidents at our airports have been reported and recorded pertaining to lightning.
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Article share: Drought and the Panama Canal
Here’s a quick share of an article on how a drought is affecting operations of the Panama Canal:
Eavis, P. (November 1, 2023) “Drought Saps the Panama Canal, Disrupting Global Trade,” Wired, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/business/economy/panama-canal-drought-shipping.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7kw.9CNJ.NKhQS8RCMh9h&smid=url-share [Last accessed: 11/3/2023]
From the article:
“But a drought has left the canal without enough water, which is used to raise and lower ships, forcing officials to slash the number of vessels they allow through. That has created expensive headaches for shipping companies and raised difficult questions about water use in Panama. The passage of one ship is estimated to consume as much water as half a million Panamanians use in one day…
Without a new water source, the canal could lose significant amounts of business. Other ocean routes are, of course, longer and more expensive, but they are less likely to have unpredictable delays. One alternative is to transport goods between Asia and United States through the Suez Canal to the East Coast and Gulf Coast. Another is to ship goods from Asia to the West Coast ports — and then transport them overland by train or truck…”
I suddenly remembered the current work along the Marikina River. The government is supposed to be working towards making the river navigable for the Pasig River Ferry to extend operations there. However, the depth of the river prevents regular, reliable operations. I wonder if the current project that includes flood control, riverside roads and erosion control components also will lead to a navigable depth for the river for most if not the whole year.
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On weird weather’s impact on air travel
With the wet season comes a lot of thunderstorms and there have been increasing occurrences of lighting alerts around Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) that led to the grounding of many planes. That resulted in long delays and surely an inconvenience to a lot of passengers. It looks like ‘weird’ weather or extreme weather events are here to stay and may even become worse as we continue to grapple with climate change and warmer weather. I am sharing a recent article about this here:
Hoover, A. (July 13, 2023) “Weird weather is making air travel even worse,” Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/weird-weather-is-making-air-travel-even-worse/?bxid=5bd6761b3f92a41245dde413&cndid=37243643&esrc=AUTO_OTHER&source=Email_0_EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_DAILY_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_content=WIR_Daily_071323&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_071323&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_term=P4 [Last accessed: 7/14/2023]
Quoting from the article:
“But there are more complicated, invisible effects of a warming world too. Hotter air is trapped near the ground, and cooler air above. Shifts in temperature gradients affect the wind shear, or the changes in speed and direction between air near the ground and at higher elevations. These eddies create clear air turbulence, which occurs in the absence of clouds. Light turbulence can cause sudden changes in altitude that feel like bumps, but severe turbulence can cause structural stress to the aircraft.
Turbulence isn’t just unpleasant. It’s the cause of more than one third of injuries aboard air carriers, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board, and in rare instances can even lead to death.
Changing wind patterns may also alter flight lengths. If, for example, there are stronger eastward winds, flights from the US to Europe will speed up, but flights in the other direction may take longer. Transatlantic flights may even need to reroute and refuel.
Research from Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in the UK, found that jet stream changes could increase the amount of time flights are in the sky each day, leading to more fuel burning, higher costs, and more CO2 emissions. Jet streams are high-altitude air currents that drive weather systems. As the Arctic warms, the North Atlantic Jet Stream is changing, leading to more odd weather.
But heat alone can also lead to delays and cancellations, like when a 119-degree day in Phoenix grounded planes in 2017. That’s because high temperatures decrease air density. When the air is less dense, planes need more time and distance to fight gravity as they take off—so they may need a longer runway to become airborne. Not all airports can accommodate these sudden changes.”
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Article share: on pedestrian facilities and climate change
Here is an article that articulates the importance of walking and pedestrian facilities in sustainability and ultimately fighting climate change. It argues that if we had the infrastructure and facilities to make it easier for people to walk, they will and are likely to walk rather than use their cars. This is not limited to short trips as walking can be in combination with public transportation, making it an integral part of trips where public transportation covers the main commute and walking is the proverbial last mile travel.
To quote from the article:
“Walking, biking, and transit need to be prioritized, and treated as legitimate forms of transportation. This means stepping up efforts to collect data on sidewalks the way we do for roads, investing in complete walking networks before engaging in expensive new road projects and making sidewalk construction and maintenance a municipal responsibility rather than an individual one.”
We need to do more to reduce transport emissions
I did some work on long term action plans on low carbon transport for the ASEAN region before. We were able identify many of interventions that were being implemented as well as those that can be done to reduce transport emissions. Such reductions for the region would ultimately contribute to alleviating global warming. Unfortunately, while ASEAN is a significant contributor to emissions, it pales in comparison to emissions by individual countries like China and the US. If these two and others in the industrialized world do not commit to reducing their emissions, all work will come to naught. Here is an article that serves as a pre-event write-up for COP26, a major climate summit that will be held in Glasgow in the coming days.
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Caught (up) in traffic 