Sports
Electric bus debuts in Abu Dhabi
Electric bus debuts in Abu Dhabi (Wam) / 24 September 2013 As part of its efforts to promote sustainable transport, the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport has commenced trial operations of its first fully electric bus, which will run on various routes in the metropolis and its suburbs over a six-month trial period. The bus is a first in the region. The Ankai-branded vehicle is a standard city bus that is fully electric, not hybrid, using a plug-in charging technology, which is the most cost-effective. The battery can reach 80 per cent of capacity within three hours and 99 per cent in four hours. Each full charge has an estimated range of 200km. Saeed Mohammed Fadel Al Hameli, Acting Director, Organisational Development Division at the department (DoT), said, “The trial operation of the electric bus is in line with the DoT’s sustainable transport strategy and aims to ascertain the total cost of ownership, gain a firsthand insight of benefits offered to service users, whilst studying and assessing the best and most efficient buses and technologies that fit with Abu Dhabi’s operating conditions and atmosphere. The bus will be subject to internal performance assessment via different routes and trip scenarios, such as city-based urban frequent start-stop profiles, and suburb profiles, before selecting the most feasible specifications. “This electric bus functions and operates like any normal bus except that it is noiseless and accelerates faster. To prepare well, four selected drivers will be trained by the manufacturer and the distributor, thereby giving us hands-on experience of its features and how the air-conditioning and other supporting systems will drain its battery.” The DoT recently concluded a feasibility five-phase study on alternative fuels. It aims to develop strategies and methods promoting a clean transportation culture, look into allocations of resources for sustainable development of transportation needs and identify strategies related to alternative fuel use. Continue reading
Education: Adopting a holistic approach
Education: Adopting a holistic approach Ajita Nayar (Guest Column) / 24 September 2013 Since the United Nations declared 2005 – 2014 as the decade for Education for Sustainable Development, the subject has been a hot topic in schools. Converse to the traditional way of teaching, Education for Sustainable Development means adopting a more holistic approach to education with the aim of ‘creating a better world for this generation and future generations of all living things on planet Earth.’ This allows every child to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. Humans tend to look at development as a needed and normal process, but when this process becomes increasingly dependent on over-exploitation of our natural resources, the replenishment of these reserves and supplies is affected; and managing this imbalance demands assuming a slightly different school of thought. One way to cultivate this mindset in our youngsters is by encouraging sustainable lifestyles through Education for Sustainable Development. Living sustainably is about changing our attitudes in a way that helps transform our lives into something that doesn’t impact too heavily on our current routines, while using the planet’s resources in moderation. Education for Sustainable Development incorporates key environmental challenges like climate change into core subjects like math, science and art, and involves modifying the teaching-learning process to a more all-encompassing approach. Students are thus able to relate what they learn in the classroom to their real life actions, and will increasingly be in a better position to take the lead in changing behaviours and adopting sustainable lifestyles, the more this type of education is adopted. As schools no longer function in isolation, their integration with the world outside has exposed students to different people and cultures, giving them the opportunity to appreciate what the planet offers, while respecting the need to use resources efficiently and responsibly. The decade of Education for Sustainable Development is already proving popular with thousands of students across the UAE taking part in environmental education programmes; among them are Be’ati Watani and Eco-Schools UAE, both implemented by EWS-WWF. These two programmes are serving as vital tools for schools to produce environmentally-responsible citizens. One evident example of how environmental education is helping shape a sustainable future is from an Eco-School in the UAE recently awarded the Green Flag, a symbol of excellence in environmental performance. These students identified the need for more wall space to spread environmental awareness messages in their school, so they created a huge mobile wall of used cartons piled one above the other! Besides reducing the amount of waste produced in their school and saving school funds, these students put forward the important message within their school community and beyond, of innovative thinking to make maximum use of available and reusable resources. Education for Sustainable Development is not only about being environmentally-friendly; it also involves developing life-skills including leadership, communication and management, all of which are extremely important for personal development. By equipping young people with these relevant capabilities in addition to their environmental knowledge, they can excel at living lives which not only further humanity, but that care for and respect our planet’s resources too. There are numerous examples that only serve to reiterate the benefits of implementing Education for Sustainable Development in schools in the UAE. Students from an Eco-School in Ras Al Khaimah encouraged their head teacher to install water dispensers in the corridors and fellow students to bring a reusable bottle to school; saving both money and plastic. The reason these youngsters did this was simple: because of their belief in the need to lower water usage and waste in their school. This type of learning goes beyond the school. What a child learns during this process shouldn’t stop there — it must be practiced by the family, too. Wise use of water and energy both at home and in the work place must be part of our natural behaviour as parents and care-givers. Greater efforts must be put in by families and communities to reduce waste, recycle regularly and opt for public transport to demonstrate the importance to our children of living more sustainably. Our homes and communities can be the ideal platform for children to exercise and experience what they learn in the classroom. – news@khaleejtimes.com Ajita Nayar is the Education Manager for Emirates Wildlife Society – in association with WWF (EWS-WWF). She is responsible for managing Be’ati Watani programme, an online environmental education programme aimed at educating children by evoking their interest in local biodiversity and environmental issues. She also leads the implementation of Eco-Schools UAE, an international initiative designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment. Continue reading
Gunfire erupts after Kenya claims total control over mall
Gunfire erupts after Kenya claims total control over mall (Reuters) / 24 September 2013 Kenya said its security forces were in control of the Nairobi shopping mall where fighters killed at least 62 people, and police were doing a final sweep of shops early on Tuesday after rescuing the last hostages. An overnight silence outside the large, upmarket Westgate mall was broken at daybreak with a loud burst of gunfire from inside, suggesting the complex had not yet been fully secured. A lone military chopper circled above. “Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind. We believe all hostages have been released,” the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter early on Tuesday, adding his forces were “in control” of the building. A trickle of survivors left on Monday, but the fate of the missing was unclear four days after a group of between 10 and 15 militants stormed the mall, which with its rich clientele epitomised the African consumer bonanza that is drawing foreign investment to one of the world’s fastest growing regions. Mohamed told the “PBS Newshour” show the Americans were “young men, about between maybe 18 and 19” years old. They were of Somali origin or Arab origin, and had lived in the US, “in Minnesota and one other place”, she said. US authorities are urgently looking into information from the Kenyan government that residents of Western countries, including the United States, may have been among the militants, US security sources said. “We do monitor very carefully and have for some time been concerned about efforts by Al Shabaab to recruit Americans or US persons to come to Somalia,” White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. He told reporters travelling with US President Barack Obama to the United Nations in New York that he had no direct information that Americans had participated in the attack. Obama offered US support, saying he believed Kenya – the scene of one of al Qaeda’s first major attacks, in 1998, and a neighbour of chaotic Somalia – would continue to be a regional pillar of stability. Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, said the United States stood with Kenyans against “this terrible outrage.” Patience Kenyan officials have tried to reassure the country that it would seize control of the situation. “We appeal for patience, keep calm, avoid Westgate at all costs and wait for the official communication,” the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government in The Office of the President said on Twitter. A press briefing was expected later on Tuesday. Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people when it bombed the US Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. When fighters from its Somali ideological counterpart stormed the mall on Saturday, they hit a high-profile symbol of Kenya’s economic power. Kenya has sent troops to Somalia as part of an African Union force trying to stabilise the country, which was long without a functioning government, and push back Al Shabaab. It has also suffered internal instability. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who lost a nephew in the weekend bloodbath, faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in coordinating violence after disputed elections in 2007. He denies the charges. Kenyatta has dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of Somalia, saying he would not relent in a “war on terror.” British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he believed six Britons had died in the attack. Other known foreign victims are from China, Ghana, France, the Netherlands and Canada. Kenyan officials said the total death toll was at least 62. Speculation rose about the identity of the attackers. Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku had earlier said they were all men but that some had dressed as women. Despite his comments, one intelligence officer and two soldiers told Reuters that one of the dead militants was a white woman, likely to fuel speculation that she is the wanted widow of one of the suicide bombers who together killed more than 50 people on London’s transport system in 2005. Called the “white widow” by the British press, Samantha Lewthwaite is wanted in connection with an alleged plot to attack hotels and restaurants in Kenya. Asked if the dead woman was Lewthwaite, the intelligence officer said: “We don’t know.” From Mali to Algeria, Nigeria to Kenya, violent millitants groups – tapping into local poverty, conflict, inequality or exclusion but espousing a similar anti-Western, anti-Christian creed – are striking at state authority and international interests, both economic and political. Continue reading
