A Brilliant Idea "Cool City"

The industrial revolution began in the seventeenth century but there have been some problems associated with economic development. Some of these problems are the rise in population, increase in energy consumption which usually leads to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions to the air and traffic delay. Unfortunately if we didn’t act to solve these problems we would eventually need another Earth to live in, which is impossible. To maintain a sustainable Earth to live in, we need to decrease the carbon dioxide by one-half.

Almost all of the carbon dioxide emissions are coming from “buildings” and “transportation” which form around 90%. It is expected that the buildings will reduce 50% of the carbon dioxide in the air and the residential buildings will reduce 30%. One brilliant solution is to build a model city known as “Cool City” in which various technologies are used to cool the air and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 60%. In this model city, hybrid cars are used, water taxi would be available and light mono rails as well. Moreover, the radius of the Cool City would be 1 KM; this will allow us to reach the buildings by walking. The city uses solar farms and it will be surrounded by many trees to hold the sand and prevent sand storms.

There will be various zones in the Cool City like Business, Culture, Sports, Hotel and most importantly Residential. This model city is planned and will be built by an engineers’ organization known as “SDCJ” and it is from Japan.

References:

Here are two links to videos opened and buffered through Windows Media Player :-

Cool Cities and SDCJ

Carbon Footprint

A carbon footprint is a way to measure the amount of carbon dioxide that we emit from what we use. It tells us about the amount of emission of greenhouse effect gases from what we do.

Some of the environmental organizations have made a way to calculate the carbon footprint in a simplified way, through a series of multiple choice questions. It is significant to put in mind that there is no stable values for carbon footprint, the values depend on the results of each organization. I was instructed to calculate my carbon footprint through two websites which are "http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/" and "http://www.myfootprint.org/". The questions in the survey included electricity usage, the type of transportation and its duration as well as food.

Each of the given websites gave a number which represents how many earth we need to live in a balanced environment. We were asked to take the average of both websites. My carbon footprint was 7.225 and I have taken 5 colleagues. I was ranked the second lowest carbon footprint and the range of all of the six of us was between 6.515 and 8.708.

It is terrible to hear that we need more planets to live in to balance the greenhouse gases. I would recommend to start using high technology industry rather than dirty industries. Moreover, it is better using renewable resources than using non renewable ones. Finally, Increasing the number of trees through a vast area to decrease CO2 level and cools the air.

My Opinion on "An Inconvenient Truth"

The movie shows the impact of the greenhouse gases on the earth. It doesn’t only affect the climate, but also causes starvation for some animals. It may only bring homes for new diseases, but also causes people and animals to lose their homes and even lives. The movie viewers aware of the results of human acts. The industries, the fossil fuels and makes the old technology that release dirty gases can be changed to newer technologies to avoid destroying the atmosphere and polluting the air.

I find the melting of glaciers is the most compelling thing because I learned that ice reflects lots of the sun’s rays. It also was the most compelling to me due to the rapid melting of the ice when large pieces of glaciers slip in to the oceans. Furthermore, the melting was caused by the constant increase of heat which was caused by the greenhouse gases.

I find Al Gore's comments on the matching graphs and the maps are funny yet bring attention to "why would it not be true?”. The movie started with calm music which emphasize that he is delivering a peace message and wants a better world to live in. Furthermore, the images supported what he was saying because there was a big difference in each of the comparisons he brought. I am not a critic and I give it 10 out of 10. I find the movie educational and helpful. Al Gore uses dramatic events from his personal life to draw a personal connection to the possible consequences. His speech was helpful enough to show us what people have done to the earth and that we should start plan and act to protect our only earth. We should learn from our mistakes and aware other from ours.

Here is a link for my voice thread about this opinion http://voicethread.com/share/128630/

Introduction to Global Warming

The trapped gasses that keeps the heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere is known as Greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect raises the temperature slightly over decades. This is due to more heat goes inside the Earth’s atmosphere than goes out of it. This minor and stable "temperature increase" is known as Global Warming. Such trapped gasses are mostly Carbon Dioxide which comes mostly from combustion processes. Organic fuels such as coals and oil are abundant with carbons because it is a result of organic discomposure.

Global warming can result in major changes that can shake the balance of nature and maybe life. The more gasses trapped, the more it traps the heat for longer time. This affects the temperature globally. It can increase the temperature of the north and south poles. Such increase in the temperature can melt the ice which will result in less land for the species that depends on it in both poles.