Wednesday, May 20, 2009

problem-solution for global warming

Global warming simply means the heating of the earth's surface and the increase in temperature that leads to other problems in future. In the 21st century, it is considered a very dangerous threat as the glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, droughts, floods, hurricanes and strange changes in climate are observed in different areas.( Business week.). It is a result of global warming that summers are longer than winters, and that the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased. Moreover, it is also felt that the phenomenon will introduce new diseases, and hence is considered a global threat to health as well. For these reasons, global warming is one of the few issues that need the cooperation of governments around the world.

Commonly suggested solutions for the problem are alternative fuel sources, hybrid car technology and limiting emission of green house gases.(Global Warming skeptics). For reducing global warming many new technologies have been introduced that limit greenhouse gas production but at the same time do not threaten one's lifestyle and standard of living; an example is hybrid car technology and biofuels. Protecting oneself from the sun through sunscreens, hats and cotton clothes is also suggested to avoid allergies and other related problems. Many sceptics believe that the problem is not as dangerous as it is thought to be, but it is important for us to take steps in the right direction as there is evidence of the occurrence of global warming ( Eco bridge ). Running away from the problem and ignoring it will not help; many documentaries and articles provide information that proves that the globe is warming, so it is a useless debate.

According to me, an effective government is necessary to fight global warming; as common people, we cannot make policies that will be followed and a concerned government will make policies that will limit global warming and will also be able to implement those policies. Also, one should try to indulge in those activities that are enviro-friendly, should plant trees and ensure in small ways that water and energy are saved in day-to-day activities.

Bibliography

1. "Global Warming Skeptics." Global Warming. http://www.globalwarming.org.in/global-warming-skeptics.php.

2. "Causes of Global Warming." Eco bridge. http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_cse.htm.

3. "Global Warming Biggest Health Threat of 21st Century, Experts Say." Business week. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/627059.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_lifestyle.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009









Cool cities:

Since the Industrial revolution, some problems have started such as rising in population, increase in energy consumption, and increase in carbon dioxide emission into the air and traffic delay.

Solving these problems in the coming days would save us. People should decrease the amount of the carbon dioxide emitted into the air by 50% to live within the capacity of a single earth. Japan GPA (Gross Domestic Product) has gone up in the past 30 years by 100% and energy efficiency has increased by 37% and 8% was decreased in oil consumption.
A Japanese organization made from group of companies called SDCJ has planned a project named cool city. Cool city is Model city with various technologies to cool the air and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 60%. This city uses hybrid cars, water taxi would be available and light mono rails as well. In addition, the city radius is estimated to be 1KM, which means that everything inside the city is easy to reach by walking. Cool city uses solar farm which are surrounded by many trees to prevent and hold sand storms.

My opinion:
In my opinion, cool city is a wonderful city because it is an environmentally city. In addition the city cares about our planet by many things like by tree planting ,waterways ,rooftop membranes. I hope there will be many cities like cool city.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

How Europe can save the world:



Summary :
Will Hutton, in how Europe can save the world, The Observer 11.03.07, says that the EU was founded to make an effort by giving the collective European profits that no one nation could go it alone and these countries are trying to save the world from the climate change because scientific evidence points that it is created by humans . Therefore they have started to reduce using the carbon and increase using the renewable resources like water, clean coal, winds and biofuels, although they are more expensive. Also, the EU intimated that all the new power station must have carbon capture and storage to remove the carbon emissions.
Moreover, the EU has encouraged farmers to plant crops to produce biofuels to push the people away from using fossil fuels.
Now, the EU and the USA are working together to solve this problem and they will have a meeting in Indonesia to start the discussions about what treaty will succeed Kyoto.


Main idea:
Will Hutton, a committed pro-European, says that European countries are trying to reduce the use of the carbon and the harmful resources because they lead to environmental problems such as climate changing and they encourage the people to use the renewable resources to solve this problem. So, the EU has raised the price of carbon to stop the people from using fossil fuels.

My opinion:
From what I read I see that the article was useful and encourages us to help in solving this problem by using less carbon than before; plus it tells the other people about the bad effects of this problem.
However, there are many difficult words and the writing style of the writer was somehow complicated and hard to understand.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Carbon footprint


Carbon footprint is a measure that illustrates how much the human can affects the environment because of their activities. The carbon footprint also measures capacity of carbon dioxide that we produce it.

There are many websites which can calculate the carbon footprint. One of these websites is http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/. My carbon footprint is 3.35. In fact my carbon footprint levels are high because it considered as harmful for the environment. Now I am going to outline the reasons that consists my carbon footprint and I will mention the solutions to reduce my carbon footprint.

There are several factors that can raise my carbon footprint level. The major factor is my travelling by car which produces a huge size of carbon dioxide. The next main problem is that I spend more than 10 hours every day with my electronic devices and that uses a lot of electricity which depend on burning oil or gas. Another issue which is raising my carbon footprint is eating meat and fish. It’s really difficult for me to be a vegetarian because I always prefer to eat meat.

There are several solutions to reduce my carbon footprint. One of the solutions is that to change my transportations as much as possible from cars to walking or even bicycle. The second solution is to reduce my use on the electronic devices by using it for the significant requirements. The final solution is to change my food system to a healthy diet at least because it’s hard to me to be vegetarian.

To conclude, there are many solutions to reduce the carbon footprint, but the problem is to apply these solutions to the real life.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Review of An Inconvenient Truth

Eric Lurio,
http://www.nycny.com/movies/inconvenient_truth_an/index.html
(Negative point)
Says that:
• The film is not about global warming and he wants to attract people to himself.
• ALGore is a big liar and does not tell the truth to the audeince.
• The temperature is increasing more than the ice age.
• There is no proof that man is actively causing global warming.



Kevin Crust
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-truth24may24,0,577270.story
(Positive point)
Says that:
• The film is brilliantly organized and shows graphs, animation, anecdotes and statistics that convey a flurry of facts which are caused by the high rate of emission.
• ALGore was fair, intelligent and shows the reality of global warming since 1989.
• The film shows the disaster that could happen in the future like the ice melting, threat to wildlife and more deadly viruses .
• Al Gore tells us what we can do to keep our planet, and reduce the pollution.


Opinion:
I agree with Kevin Crust that The film is very well organized and shows graphs, animation, anecdotes and statistics that convey a flurry of facts which are caused by the high rate of emissions, because I think the photos, charts ,animation and statistics were perfect and I saw some information for the first time. However I disagree with Eric Lurio that Al Gore is a big liar because he shows true information about global warming .In addition nobody can ignore the scientific information and realities.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009