full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ryah Whalen: 3 ways to make flying more climate-friendly

Unscramble the Blue Letters


There's three broad buckets that we need to address. The first is how we design and fly planes. The second are the fuels that we use, namely boifeuls, to power those planes. And the third is new and emerging technology that can entirely change the game.

Let's start with how we design planes. Well, the basic dgsien of a plane doesn't change much from one generation to the next. impeovmretns in aerodynamics, reductions in cabin weight and even improved enngie efficiency maens that each generation of arcafirt is about 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the last. Now, that's great. But tunrvoer is slow, and so there's more we can do. We can also fly planes differently. Flying planes differently means changes to airport management, to air traffic control, even iddunviial pilot beahovir. If a plane sits on the rawuny for less time before takeoff, we can rdecue emissions. If a plane takes a more direct rutoe instead of flying around national borders, we reduce emissions. And if individual pilots don't gun it at takeoff, we can also reduce emissions. Now, these changes, they may sound easy, but they're not. We all know that individual behavior change, it doesn't always stick. And changes to airrptos and air traffic management, that's a really long march. My team estimates that if we were to really prioritize disenigng and flying planes differently, we could reduce 2050 carbon dioxide emissions by 30 to 40 percent. We need to do this.

Open Cloze


There's three broad buckets that we need to address. The first is how we design and fly planes. The second are the fuels that we use, namely ________, to power those planes. And the third is new and emerging technology that can entirely change the game.

Let's start with how we design planes. Well, the basic ______ of a plane doesn't change much from one generation to the next. ____________ in aerodynamics, reductions in cabin weight and even improved ______ efficiency _____ that each generation of ________ is about 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the last. Now, that's great. But ________ is slow, and so there's more we can do. We can also fly planes differently. Flying planes differently means changes to airport management, to air traffic control, even __________ pilot ________. If a plane sits on the ______ for less time before takeoff, we can ______ emissions. If a plane takes a more direct _____ instead of flying around national borders, we reduce emissions. And if individual pilots don't gun it at takeoff, we can also reduce emissions. Now, these changes, they may sound easy, but they're not. We all know that individual behavior change, it doesn't always stick. And changes to ________ and air traffic management, that's a really long march. My team estimates that if we were to really prioritize _________ and flying planes differently, we could reduce 2050 carbon dioxide emissions by 30 to 40 percent. We need to do this.

Solution


  1. behavior
  2. biofuels
  3. improvements
  4. runway
  5. designing
  6. design
  7. turnover
  8. means
  9. reduce
  10. airports
  11. individual
  12. aircraft
  13. route
  14. engine

Original Text


There's three broad buckets that we need to address. The first is how we design and fly planes. The second are the fuels that we use, namely biofuels, to power those planes. And the third is new and emerging technology that can entirely change the game.

Let's start with how we design planes. Well, the basic design of a plane doesn't change much from one generation to the next. Improvements in aerodynamics, reductions in cabin weight and even improved engine efficiency means that each generation of aircraft is about 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the last. Now, that's great. But turnover is slow, and so there's more we can do. We can also fly planes differently. Flying planes differently means changes to airport management, to air traffic control, even individual pilot behavior. If a plane sits on the runway for less time before takeoff, we can reduce emissions. If a plane takes a more direct route instead of flying around national borders, we reduce emissions. And if individual pilots don't gun it at takeoff, we can also reduce emissions. Now, these changes, they may sound easy, but they're not. We all know that individual behavior change, it doesn't always stick. And changes to airports and air traffic management, that's a really long march. My team estimates that if we were to really prioritize designing and flying planes differently, we could reduce 2050 carbon dioxide emissions by 30 to 40 percent. We need to do this.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
jet fuel 3
supply chains 3
flying planes 3
reduce emissions 3
traditional jet 2
fly planes 2
planes differently 2
air traffic 2
team estimates 2
carbon dioxide 2
production facilities 2
synthetic fuels 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
traditional jet fuel 2

Important Words


  1. address
  2. aerodynamics
  3. air
  4. aircraft
  5. airport
  6. airports
  7. basic
  8. behavior
  9. biofuels
  10. borders
  11. broad
  12. buckets
  13. cabin
  14. carbon
  15. change
  16. control
  17. design
  18. designing
  19. differently
  20. dioxide
  21. direct
  22. easy
  23. efficiency
  24. emerging
  25. emissions
  26. engine
  27. estimates
  28. fly
  29. flying
  30. fuels
  31. game
  32. generation
  33. great
  34. gun
  35. improved
  36. improvements
  37. individual
  38. long
  39. management
  40. march
  41. means
  42. national
  43. percent
  44. pilot
  45. pilots
  46. plane
  47. planes
  48. power
  49. prioritize
  50. reduce
  51. reductions
  52. route
  53. runway
  54. sits
  55. slow
  56. sound
  57. start
  58. stick
  59. takeoff
  60. takes
  61. team
  62. technology
  63. time
  64. traffic
  65. turnover
  66. weight