The National Transportation Safety Committee announced Tuesday that an analysis of Flight 8501’s data recorder showed that the Airbus A320 had problems with its rudder control system while flying between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore on Dec. 28.
Worried about ISIS? Well, don’t — President Obama knows how to beat it: by fighting . . .climate change.
“What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it?” Obama said Monday at the 12-day climate-change summit that began this week in Paris.
President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Centre, in Paris, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. Obama discussed the COP21 climate change summit, and the threat of terrorism from the Islamic State Group. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that parts of the global warming deal being negotiated in Paris should be legally binding on the countries that sign on, setting up a potential fight with Republicans at home.
Obama's stand won praise at the U.N. climate conference from those who want a strong agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas. But it could rile conservatives in Washington, especially if he tries to put the deal into effect without seeking congressional approval.
The Obama administration has pledged during the international talks to reduce U.S. emissions by up to 28 percent by 2025. But inscribing the emissions target in the Paris deal would probably require the president to submit the pact to the GOP-controlled Congress, where it would be unlikely to win ratification. Many Republicans doubt global warming is real or fear that stringent pollution controls could kill jobs.
Chief of Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee Soerjanto Tjahjono holds a model plane during a news conference announcing the result of their investigation on the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 into the Java Sea last year, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. Indonesian investigators say a faulty rudder control system and the pilots' response led to the crash of an AirAsia plane last year that killed all 162 people on board. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
The initial conclusion that large thunderclouds had brought down Air Asia Flight QZ8501 has been contradicted by the results of an investigation by the National Safety Transportation Board (KNKT), which revealed on Tuesday that the trigger of the plane crash was the flight control system.
KNKT Head Soerjanto Tjahjono explained that a series of interferences to the Rudder Travel Limiter Unit (RTLU) was the cause of the QZ8501 flight from Surabaya's Juanda International Airport to Singapore on Dec. 28, 2014 that killed all 162 people on board.
“Weather conditions and engine problems were not a factor in the downing of the Airbus 320,” Soerjanto said.
Scorched earth: Young oil palms have been planted on recently burned land in Nyaru Menteng, Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. Country delegations attending the COP21 UN climate conference in Paris, France, are paying close attention to land and forest fires, triggered by land clearing using the slash-and-burn method, recently affecting several areas across Indonesia. (Courtesy of theNational Disaster Mitigation Agency)
Local wisdoms of indigenous people could help Indonesia tackle the damaging impacts of climate change, including those of land and forest fires, an activist has said.
The executive director of the Jambi office of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Musri Nauli, said all countries should be aware that local wisdom -- the power of the people -- could resolve the problems caused by climate change and global warming.
Nauli said the world should be aware that all this time customary people had been able to adapt to climate change by applying local wisdom.
