Sunday, May 24, 2009

Task 7

Global warming causes and solution

At the start of the 21st century, one of the biggest problems facing the world today is global warming. Many scientists believe that our production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is having a heating effect on the atmosphere, and this could be very dangerous for human life but many others don’t know what it means. “Global warming refers to an increase in the Earth’s average surface air temperature.” (About Global Warming, 2009). Now I will examine the problem of global warming and suggest some ways of solving the problem.

One of the famous movies which talked about the global warming problems is called An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim in 2006 and presented by Al Gore. Many problems could result from global warming. One of the biggest problems is rising sea level. This could result in the flooding of low lying coastal areas and cities, such as Egypt, the Netherlands, and Bangladesh. Some countries might even disappear completely! Another problem caused by global warming is changes in weather patterns. Many areas of the world are experiencing increased hurricanes, floods, and other unusual weather. A third problem associated with global warming is the effect on animals. Fish populations could be affected, while some insects which spread disease might become more common.

There are several things we can do to solve the problem of global warming. One solution is to stop producing C02. We can do this by switching from oil, coal and gas to renewable energy. Another solution is to plant more trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which is not a greenhouse gas. A third solution is to use less energy and to recycle more products. Generating electricity is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide. If we use less electricity, we will produce less C02. The last solution is " a commonly cited goal which is to stabilize GHG concentrations around 450-550 parts per million (ppm), or about twice pre-industrial levels". (“Global Warming cause,2009”).


In conclusion ,to solve this problem is not very hard and not very easy and if we make small changes now in the way we live, we can avoid huge changes in the future. Scientists, governments and individuals must work together to overcome this threat





Bibliography:

1-Global Warming Causes, Climate Change Causes - National Geographic." Environment Facts, Environment Science, Global Warming, Natural Disasters, Ecosystems, Green Living - National Geographic. 24 May 2009 http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes.html.

2- An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore. DVD. Paramount Classics, 2006

3- "About Global Warming." World View of Global Warming. 18 May 2009 http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/aboutwarm.html.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Summary ( 1 )

UK announces world`s largest algal biofule project

part 1:

The biggest company in the world for that project that is publicly funded for the transfer of oil from algae will be started today from a government agency which develops low carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust will show today a project to make algal biofuels ready in 2020. This idea may see up to $26m spent for development of the technology and infrastructure to make sure that algal biofuels replace petrol and diesel. Mark Williamson said, the transport accounts for ¼ of the output of carbon in the UK and is the fastest growing sector. To find a carbon-neutral car will decrease overall emissions by 80% in 2050. Algae produce many chemicals and the scientists hope to find the strains to produce oil that can make the petrol for a car. In the first year of the project the Carbon Trust will spend $6m in many UK companies. There are many companies all over the world while will be participating in this project.





part 2:

Main Idea:

1. The Carbon Trust will show today a project to make algal biofuels ready in 2020.
2. The transport accounts for ¼ of the output of carbon in UK and is the fastest growing sector. To find a carbon-neutral car will decrease overall emissions by 80% in 2050.
3. Algae produce many chemicals.










part 3:

Comment:

I think this topic is very interesting because it talks about an interesting project and the algae biofuels is better than other fuels and I hope they finish this project before 2020 because it is very useful for people and for governments and I want to see what develops in this project.

Summary (2)

A New kind of High-Rise Development

Part 1 :

This article is about a big project is built in Sweden`s new Western Harbour that`s called the turning Torso. Not only inhabitants live there. Bats, birds and insects also live outside. That`s located on reclaimed industrial land near the seaside town of Malmo. The Western Harbour is one of the big developments to improve the urban life. The first round of this project is 1300 flats. The developers are now 2 earning from Bo01 to know the plan of the green features for the next round. There are some low-rise buildings in one of the roads going to the sea in Western Harbour. The developers will improve the demand to live in Bo02 and Bo03 after the new options they will make in this development. The new thing in Bo02 and Bo03 will be to install rooftop wind turbines and follow even more stringent rules for encouraging biodiversity than with Bo01.


Part 2 :

Main Idea :

1- There is a big building project called the Turning Torso.
2- The developers are using this project to learn more about green features.
3- In Bo02 and Bo03 there are many different features than Bo01.




Part 3:

Comment :

I think this topic is very interesting because it talks about an interesting project and In my opinion building project will improve the building option in another place and I hope to make that building project in many countries in the world, not only in Sweden. And I hope the Middle East countries will learn from this project and try to do something similar here.

Cool cities








We watched the Cool City video.
According to the video :

Communities all over the world are taking action to stop global warming. Modern cities have the biggest impact on the environment because 90% of the carbon dioxide emitted into air comes from buildings and transportation, which occur mostly in the industrial countries. Some countries have started to reduce their usage of oil and emit less carbon dioxide in the air like Japan which has improved energy efficiency but still its GDP is going up. The capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi is facing a hard time because the population has increased rapidly and there is little public transportation, so people have to spend much time in buses, cars and getting to their offices and schools. Along with the large number of businesses established in the city, all of this has helped to increase the pollution.Cool Cities are cities that are made to stop global warming by using smart energy solutions like Hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings, and renewable energy. Masdar city in Abu Dhabi is the first carbon free city in the world and it will cost the government $22 billion. Masdar is an example of a cool city because it will rely completely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste. SDCJ is a Japanese company which has designed a model city that can reduce CO2 emissions by 60% and provide people with a luxurious life without affecting the environment.I think that the future will be better because of these projects that can help to save our planet from pollution and global warming. Humanity is trying to correct the mistakes of it`s ancestors and make future generations live a happy life.



http://www.oneplanetliving.org/
http://www.bioregional.com/programme_projects/opl_prog/principles.htm

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Summary 3

HOW CAN EUROPE SAVE THE WORLD???
Part 1: Summary:
The EU decided to decrease the carbon percentage when the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, emerging as a European politician in the great tradition of Adenauer, Brandt, Delors, Mitterand and Kohl, used the current German presidency of the EU to mastermind an epic commitment on tackling climate change and energy security .Twenty seven EU countries will decrease their CO2 emissions and increase their use of the renewable resources like nuclear energy, as in France. Technology has been put in Europe to reduce carbon emissions in the cars and farmers are compensated to use their farms for the biofuel plants which will appear by 2020.There are problems with renewable energy: it is expensive, windmills disturb the natural life, the mass of biofuel areas as in the Amazon destroys the rain forests. Climate change is a reality and one of the results of the establishment of the European Union is to try to deliver collective European benefits that no one country could achieve alone, but all they can do now is to decrease the use of fossil fuels.

Part 2:

Main IDEA:
1. KYOTO agreement and the EU’S efforts to decrease carbon emissions.
2. Angel Merkel + the new EU initiative
3. Achieve the goal of reducing 60% of the carbon by 2050.












Part 3:
Comment:
I am very happy to write about this problem and I learn lots of information that I didn`t know before. Didn't Europe agree to cut emissions several years ago when they signed on to Kyoto? Isn't it also true that no cuts were ever made? So what will change now except a bunch of political hot air and no changes in carbon emissions? And I don't believe manmade global warming is an accepted fact I believe there is still quite a debate going on about this and I think we will solve this problem in next 5 or 10 years.




Thursday, April 23, 2009

Task 5

CARBON FOOTPRINT


The carbon footprint is the measurement for the impact that the human activities have on the earth. It’s mostly the measurement of the carbon dioxide.
We could measure our carbon footprint from two sites, and we took the average from the both sites. The first site - http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ - I got 4.49. The questions were classified in four categories food, travel, home and stuff. In the second site - http://www.myfootprint.org/ – I got 6.71 .The questions were first about your home and your family, then about what do you do to save energy, and about your food. The average I got was 5.6, so if everyone in the world uses as much as me so they need five planets and a half.
My classmates: some of them got lower than me and some got more than me, the ones less than I got 3.53 and the one are more than me got 6.1 and 9.17. The UAE is considered one of the highest rates of energy consumption per person in the world, if not the highest.
So we have to do something to save the energy and to reduce our carbon footprint especially in the UAE. We can adjust the AC and turn it back up a few degrees and turn it off when you leave home. You will save money and you will make your footprint less. You can use energy saving light bulbs, it’s more efficient and it lasts 10 times longer. So you will reduce your footprint and save your money also so every time you are going out you turn everything off and try to make your carbon footprint smaller and smaller.


BIBLIOGRAPHY





· Foot Print Calculator. 8 Apr. 2009 .


· Heroes of The UAE. 8 Apr. 2009 .


· Ecological Footprint Quiz. 8 Apr. 2009 .

Thursday, April 9, 2009

An Inconvenient truth
An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s movie about global warming. Some people say that Al Gore reminds the whole world about a serious problem and others say he was getting revenge on Bush and Republicans for his loss in the presidential race. In this essay I will research whether Al Gore is warning humanity or getting revenge.
As Roger Ebert says in rogerebert.com “Global warming is real, it is caused by human activity.” Roger agrees with Al Gore that in 10 years our planet will reach its “Tipping point” and will go down toward destruction. He explained how Al Gore worked hard for six years to show humanity his documentary and provided us with statistics to prove that a disaster is coming and we should focus on it. Then he starts talking about his friend and how he did not care about Al Gore’s movie and said it is boring. At the end of the review he advocates all people to contribute with Al Gore in his project.
Scott said in his review in the NY Times that Al Gore was showing off and his lecture was against the Bush administration and Republicans and Al Gore is acting like a saint and how he was trying to affect the audience emotionally by his sister’s death because of the tobacco his father was growing on their farm. Then he said that Al Gore was advertising himself and mixed politics with science.
I am with Al Gore because it is a serious problem and soon it will appear to the world and then we won’t have time to solve it and he gave us evidence that proves he is right and people who are against him must think again and again. The United Nation and governments around the world must participate in this campaign and help stop destroying our planet.

Biography

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/movies/24trut.html

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sunday, March 22, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth Global Warming

Task 3





Paramount Classics and Participant Productions present a film directed by Davis Guggenheim, the film is produced by Laurie David, Lawrence Bender and Scott Z. Burns. Jeff Skoll and Davis Guggenheim are the executive producers and the co-producer is Leslie Chilcott. This video is talking about a very important thing that`s called Inconvenient Truth. This film tells us we have only 10 years to avert a major catastrophe. The director Davis Guggenheim is in the Sundance Film Festival and he will try to tell people to stop the increase of temperature. This person is the former Vice President Al Gore, and this man does many things to save the world from this problem. Al Gore is one of most famous people in the UAS. 2005 was the worst year in the USA it was a stormy year .The global warming is not a political issue but it is the biggest moral challenge facing the global civilization.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Task 2







Global warming


One of the biggest problems facing our earth is global warming. Many scientists believe the average temperatures are rising and these have bad effects. This essay will outline the problems and solution of global warming.

One of the biggest problems caused by global warming is melting ice of the polar icecaps. This will increase the sea levels. I could also affect the people who live near the coasts. Another result of global warming is the quality of life will decrease. This could affect the global economy and it might affect our health negatively.

Although there are some effects there are some solutions. One solution is to decrease the use of cars in our daily routine. This will lower the greenhouse gas emissions so we will have better weather. Another way in which we can reduce global warming is to reduce the use of oil and try to find another resource of energy, like the sun. Using this solution could reduce global greenhouse gas. A third means of lowering car emissions is to walk or bike. This could save the non-renewable resources.

In conclusion, global warming is a very big problem but if we try to solve it we can solve it easily and I hope to solve it quickly.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Task 1

My name is Amro Atif Abdelhadi. I am a student in ADMC in business major Higher Diploma afternoon class. I am single. I was born on 27th-Sep-1989 in Abu Dhabi. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. I lived with my family in Abu Dhabi between 1989 and 2004. After that we lived in Al Bahia city, that is 50 km from Abu Dhabi. I finished the high school in 2006 with 80.1%. My favorite hobbies are football, handball, swimming and video games. I played football in Al Wahda club for one year and in Al Jazira club for 6 months. I studied ICDL in 2004. Every summer I travel outside the UAE. Last summer I traveled to England and stayed there for one month and visited many places and cities in England.
In 2006 I joined champions of swimming and I got a bronze medal.



The global warming is a very dangerous problem coming soon and to know every thing about this problem there are many sites in the internet which have information about this problem.