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eTN becomes a SUNx SDG 17 Partner calling for Climate Sanity in Tourism on Earth Day

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In nature, nothing exists alone is the message for Earth Day 2019. Announcing the public launch of its “SDG17 Partners Program” on Earth Day 2019, Professor Geoffrey Lipman co-founder SUNx, calls and president of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) asks the Travel & Tourism sector to join its “Plan For Our Kids” and take the “Climate Sanity” Pledge.

Professor Lipman, former Executive Director at IATA, President of WTTC and Assistant Secretary-General UNWTO, said:

“I’m confident that Travel & Tourism will play a leadership role in the global shift to a New Climate Economy: we just need a pathway for change and that lies in our faith in the next generation”

SUNx a legacy for Planetary Champion Maurice Strong has created a “Plan For Our Kids”, aiming to recruit 100,000 STRONG Climate Champions to advance its vision of a no Carbon 2050 sector totally compliant with the evolving goals of the Paris Accords.

He added “During the past year we have seen a welcome intensification of the pressures for a new commitment to Climate Sanity, which stops discussing whether climate change is existential and just gets on with solutions. That’s the common message from Greta Thunberg’s Friday’s for Futures and AOC’s Green New Deal: it’s the message from Earth Scientists and Nobel Economists: it’s the plea from Sir David Attenborough.

”Lipman concluded “SDG 17 Partners will share our long-term vision on the fact that Climate Change is eXistential and that we have to act NOW, as if this Earth Day is the first day of the rest of our lives. We all have different starting positions, based on our separate realities: but we have a shared goal of meeting the Paris Agenda and together taking a “No Carbon 2050 moonshot”. We can deliver Climate Friendly Travel ~ measured plans: green growth: 2050 no carbon proof “

Juergen Steinmetz president of the eTN Corporation said “We are proud to become a SUNx SDG 17 Partner and provide preferential support for this great cause. As long as I have known Geoffrey Lipman, he has been drumming home the message that Climate Change is eXistential and that if we don’t fix it now, it will fix us. We are in, and will use all our links, like ICTP and the African Tourism Board to support Climate Friendly Travel. going forward”.

For more on SUNx and its SDG 17 Partnership Program please contact: go to www.thesunprogram.com

What is Earth Day?

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in more than 190 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.

On April 22, 1970, millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development.

In the U.S. and around the world, smog was becoming deadly and evidence was growing that pollution led to developmental delays in children. Biodiversity was in decline as a result of the heavy use of pesticides and other pollutants.

The global ecological awareness was growing, and the US Congress and President Nixon responded quickly. In July of the same year, they created the Environmental Protection Agency, and robust environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, among many.

One billion people

Earth Day is now a global event each year, and more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now take part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

It is a day of political action and civic participation. People march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Corporations and governments use it to make pledges and announce sustainability measures. Faith leaders, including Pope Francis, connect Earth Day with protecting God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet that we all live on.

Earth Day Network, the organization that leads Earth Day worldwide, has chosen as the theme for 2018 to End Plastic Pollution, including creating support for a global effort to eliminate primarily single-use plastics along with global regulation for the disposal of plastics.  EDN is educating millions of people about the health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics, including pollution of our oceans, water, and wildlife, and about the growing body of evidence that plastic waste is creating serious global problems.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival.

Travel News | eTurboNews

ADI statement on circus lion attack in Ukraine

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Animal Defenders International (ADI) has urged Ukraine and other countries without bans on the use of animals in circuses to stop circus suffering after a lion attacked a trainer during a circus performance in the city of Lugansk.

 

ADI President Jan Creamer said: “Exploited for entertainment, animals in circuses endure a lifetime of suffering and abuse. It’s time for countries without bans in place to step up and stop animals and people being put in harm’s way.”

 

The attack is one of a growing catalogue of incidents involving circus animals around the world, highlighting the inherent animal welfare and human safety issues.

 

Studies of the use of wild animals in traveling circuses show that circuses cannot meet their physical or behavioral needs. Animals are confined in small spaces, deprived of physical and social needs, spending excessive amounts of time shut in transporters. These animals are often seen behaving abnormally; rocking, swaying, and pacing, all indicating that they are in distress and not coping with their environment. ADI’s video evidence has shown how these animals are forced to perform tricks through physical violence, fear, and intimidation.

 

The animal protection organization is currently in Guatemala helping enforce a ban on the use of animals in circuses, as it has done in both Bolivia and Peru, and now has 21 lions and tigers at its temporary rescue center. Eighteen of the big cats will be going to the new ADI Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa. To support the rescue mission, donate here: https://donate.adiusa.org/guatemala/

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Xtra Aerospace in Florida also responsible for Boeing 737 Max crash?

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Our purpose is to ensure each flight is safe and cost-effective every day. This is the message on the Xtra Aerospace website. The Xtra Aerospace states their maintenance division can provide optimal maintenance to all of the unique aviation needs.

Xtra Aerospace may have been very much off on this goal when in Indonesia a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crashed after it was repaired in a U.S. aircraft maintenance facility and the so-called angle-of-attack sensor was replaced. This sensor sent erroneous signals causing repeated nose-down movements on the Oct. 29 flight that pilots struggled with until the Boeing Max plunged into the Java Sea. Everyone on board, 189 people were killed.

XTRA Aerospace is an FAA/EASA/ANAC certified repair station located in Miramar, Florida, USA.

Documents obtained by Bloomberg News show the repair station, XTRA Aerospace Inc. in Miramar, Fla., had worked on the sensor. It was later installed on the Lion Air plane on Oct. 28 in Bali, after pilots had reported problems with instruments displaying speed and altitude. There’s no indication the Florida shop did maintenance on the Ethiopian jet’s device, according to Bloomberg.

Xtra Aerospace states: ” We specialize in the repair of instruments, radio & mechanical/electrical accessories. XTRA offers extensive capabilities servicing the A300, A320 family/A330/A340 and Boeing 737 thru 777. We are proud to serve the world’s top airlines and suppliers with one goal… complete customer satisfaction.

XTRA Aerospace welcomes the U.S. Government. XTRA is DD2345 certified to obtain military critical technical data. XTRA’s cage code is 5FWE2 and we look forward to helping you with all your sourcing and repair needs.”

U.S. teams assisting the Indonesian investigation reviewed the work by the company to ensure that there weren’t additional angle-of-attack sensors in the supply chain with defects, said a person familiar with the work. They didn’t find any evidence of systemic issues on other sensors the company may have worked on.

Bloomberg states in their article:

“Much of the concern by regulators and lawmakers after the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes has focused on Boeing’s design of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which was programmed to push down a plane’s nose to help prevent aerodynamic stalls in some situations. But the preliminary report by Indonesia on the Lion Air crash shows that maintenance and pilot actions are also being reviewed.

It’s common for licensed repair stations to overhaul older parts so they can be resold, said John Goglia, a former member of the NTSB who earlier worked as an airline mechanic. Airlines can save money buying used parts and U.S. regulations require that the parts meet legal standards, Goglia said.

If the sensor was repaired at XTRA Aerospace, “it would have to go through what the manual says to overhaul it,” he said. “That means all the steps.”

The Indonesian preliminary report doesn’t say what went wrong with the device but indicates that the plane’s maintenance is a subject of the investigation.”

The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max that crashed on March 10 also apparently had issues with the same type of sensor, which triggered a safety system on the plane that was driving down the plane’s nose, according to people familiar with the accident. In that case, investigators are still attempting to locate one of the sensors to help determine why it malfunctioned.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Thailand: The 1,000 Spire Pagoda

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Tourists in Thailand visiting Ko Khao Yai at Ban Bo Chet Luk, which is part of the Ko Phetra National Park of Satun province, will be greeted by a mass of nearly a thousand bizarre-looking spire-like rocks. This spectacular site is like a bridge connecting us to the pre-human evolutionary age. During the summer low tides, the seawater recedes below the sandy ground revealing gigantic tunnel-like cavities. To the locals, this mass of rocks is known as ‘The 1,000-Spire Pagoda’.

The presence of reddish Cambrian sedimentary rocks and grey Ordovician limestone has convinced geologists to speculate that this area could have been the first landmass of Thailand. Thanks to this unique feature, Ko Khao Yai became Thailand’s first geological site to be declared a UNESCO World Geological Site.

Ko Khao Yai’s tourism is community-managed.  Local residents proposed ideas, implemented them and designed tourism programmes that conform to their original way of life. Today, the ‘1,000-Spire Pagoda’ is amongst Thailand’s most perfectly conserved natural attractions. An ideal site for studies in geology, natural history and cultural anthropology, Ko Khao Yai is a piece of well-recorded evidence of sub-oceanic conditions of 500 million years ago.

“The Seasons Episode 6: The Ancient Stone” is part of the 12- episode travel documentary series that reveal the untold stories of the unique way of life of the Thai people and the amazing scenery of natural attractions in different regions. There are four episodes for each of the three seasons that Thailand has in a year: rainy, cool and summer.

Travel News | eTurboNews

National Research Council in Canada wants to improve air passenger experience

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From visiting friends and family to getting goods to market, Canadians, tourists, and businesses rely on a safe, secure aviation system. While safety is everyone’s top priority in air travel, the air travel experience is arguably a passenger’s next biggest concern. Air travelers and crew want a safe and pleasant flight experience, and so do air carriers. By providing a positive passenger experience through well-designed, research-vetted cabin systems and products that complement human behavior, companies can ensure safer, smoother operations while earning and maintaining customer loyalty.

To understand how people interact with the controlled air travel environment, a National Research Council of Canada(NRC) multidisciplinary team is studying human responses to the cabin environment and the impact of new design concepts and emerging technologies on air travelers and crew.

The NRC is in the third year of a five-year research collaboration with the Research & Technology team at Airbus Americas Engineering to improve the air passenger experience by studying and demonstrating the human impact of technology innovations. The research team is using the new NRC Centre for Air Travel Research and real people in simulated tests to evaluate and analyze innovative disruptive concepts, cabin air quality and environmental control systems, passenger comfort, and issues associated with boarding and exiting aircraft.

After carefully analyzing the data gathered during these comprehensive tests, researchers will be able to identify low-cost, high-return changes that can be applied early in the aircraft design process to the benefit of Airbus and its industry customers, affording them the opportunity to make evidence-based decisions that balance the safety and comfort of air passengers and crew with manufacturing and operational costs for next generation aircraft.

This research collaboration is due in part to Airbus’ Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) obligation associated with Canada’s Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Replacement (FWSAR) program. Canada’s ITB Policy ensures that prime contractors provide business activities in Canada equal to the contract value. The FWSAR program is supporting approximately 2.5 billion CAD in ITB activities within the Canadian economy.

  • The multi-disciplinary team in the National Research Council of Canada’s Centre for Air Travel Research includes a variety of expertise— specialists in physiology, psychology, industrial design, engineering, instrumentation, fabrication, and project management— that allows the team to fully explore the impact of new aircraft design concepts and emerging technologies on air travelers and crew.
  • The Centre for Air Travel Research has five laboratories and can facilitate the study of security screening systems, airport navigation tools, virtual reality devices to address flight anxiety, and the specific needs of communities such as seniors or persons with disabilities.
  • In addition to offering a realistic re-creation of an airport terminal, the Centre for Air Travel Research also boasts the Flexible Cabin Laboratory, complete with an A320 aircraft cabin that allows for the study of passenger flight experience, human vibration, and more.

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