Article Summary: 'When feathers meet metal'

The article ‘When feathers meet metal’ was published on Economist.com on January 23^rd 2009. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=348924&story_id=13002454

The extraordinary emergency landing on the Hudson River of US Airways flight 1549, which all 155 passengers survived, has raised concerns about the cause of the plane’s engines failure: bird-plane collisions. Though over the past 20 years, ‘only’ 219 people have died due to bird collisions in American airspace, this risk has to be lessened further. Yet is there a global method for keeping birds away from planes?

Most bird strikes on planes occur during takeoff or landing, 60% of all collisions occurring at below 100 feet. Commonly small birds such as doves or larks are involved, posing no threat to the aircraft. However, to further reduce the possibility of bird interference, the runways at airports have to remain bird free.

Legislators have proposed screens that would be installed over the engine intakes, preventing birds from being sucked in and causing them to fail by, for example, shattering the fans. However, these screens would be sucked in by the engines and therefore would be more dangerous than a collision with a bird. Furthermore, if a bird got stuck in the intake grill, the interruption of air flow would cause the engine to stall as well. Past methods of keeping birds separate from planes include gas canons, pyrotechnics, lasers, ultra-sound, etc. Pulsing lights have, according to Precise Flight (aviation safety company), halved the number of bird air strikes. More expensive and therefore not viable solutions include stripping the surrounding area of all nature and covering it with tarmac; a lack of food and shelter would mean no birds. Decoys such as scarecrows are only effective for so long, until the birds grow accustomed to them, considering them as part of their natural environment. Natural predators would only be effective if trained properly.

On the whole, keeping birds away from planes really depends on the location of the airport; its natural surroundings and resources determine which method(s) would work most effectively. You could just hire a guy with a shotgun.

Article Summary: 'Second Life'

The article ‘Second Life’ was printed in The Economist on January 15th, 2009. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12926042

It has been claimed that 100 species become extinct every day. Yet according to Joseph Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Institute and Helene Muller-Landau of the University of Minnesota, these predictions are overstated and there is the possibility for environmental improvement. Not only is the human population growth slowing in many tropical countries; the increasing urbanization of the population is leaving agriculturally marginal land vacant and open for a ‘second forest’ to re-grow. Wright and Muller-Landau predicted that this land would, within a few decades, regain half of the original biomass, allowing for its re-colonization by many species. They believe that by 2030, more than one third of the tropical forests original territory will still remain and in certain areas, its size could even increase. Due to this, the rate of extinction should also decline.
This view is, though positive, not taking into account certain factors and ‘symptoms’ that may or may not affect the rate of extinction, as well as the forest growth rate. One of these, proposed by Elizabeth Bennet of the Wildlife Conservation Society, is that though tropical forests look healthy from satellite pictures, in reality they are empty; this is known as ‘empty forest syndrome’. This is because large birds and mammals are less resistant and therefore more likely to become extinct; in addition, they are hunted and used for trade. Though the extinction rate has been overstated, the species that survive are insects. Secondly, a country’s population growth rate is not the sole indicator of the expected growth rate of the tropical forest. Industries require land for production and it is likely that the vacant land will not remain so for long; the liberalization of agriculture and the rise in demand for bio-fuels alone could lead to the increase in demand for land in the tropics. In addition, climate change is another unfavorable factor that affects the rate of extinction; certain tropical species are not equipped to deal with a rise in temperature by as little as 3°C. In conclusion, the optimistic prediction of these two individuals takes into account certain positive aspects of human development; however, the reality of many negative factors will probably guarantee that their hopes will never be fulfilled.

How to read

You annotate the book, highlighting key ideas which you know are significant. Putting key words in the margins so that you can easily refer back to them when you need them is an efficient way of organizing notes. This makes it easier to find important points when referring to the book later on. A small summary at the end of each chapter also makes reviewing easier.