Wednesday, October 7, 2009

UAE Vice President launches Dubai Metro

I chose this article because it is talking a about a new and the most important event that happened in my lovely country in the United Arab Emirates.

The article is about the Metro. In 9/9/09 Metro has created new chapter in Dubai’s history. Every time we use to expecting new things appear in Dubai, and now Dubai is racing developed country by this important event. Fireworks were lighting Dubai’s sky and people were very happy and very excited. Dubai is now the first city in the Gulf that is using the metro. Sheikh Mohammad thanks everyone who assisted to complete this great job. Dubai wouldn’t achieve this job without collective effort, the life is full of challenges and UAE people love them. Sheikh Mohammad said, Metro is the one of Sheikh Mohammad’s achievements. It is the world first train that works without a driver.

My opinion about this article :
the Metro is a very great achievement in our country’s history. It is a really great moment for the person who travels by metro and a lot of people were waiting very patiently for the date of starting metro. The metro cost a lot of money so no doubt that it has to be most wonderful train in the world. I think people who do not have cars will get benefit from travelling by metro, even people who want to reach their destinations fast and avoid the traffic jam in Dubai will use the metro. Dubai is going faster than light with its outstanding achievements. Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid has always lot of dreams and wonderful ideas to make Dubai better and better.



Bibliography:
- Chief Reporter, Ashfaq Ahmed. "UAE Vice President launches Dubai Metro." Gulfnews: UAE Vice President launches Dubai Metro. Al Nisr Publishing LLC, 09 Sept. 2009.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Task 7 : A Problem - solution report

Global warming: we are living now comfortable, but how can we deal with it if the global warming increases. Everyone can imagine that what could happen for our earth. It’s not just a problem for several years; it will be the problem for the earth’s life. Healthy earth means healthy life. Global warming is here now. Therefore the temperature keeps increasing every year. It is mainly caused by the increasing population which causes pollution to increase.
The problem is that global warming is already causing damage in many parts in the USA. In 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons. In the same year, drought created dust storms and floods which caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have decreased in some areas. The impacts of global warming are not limited. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more than 20,000 deaths in Europe and more than 1,500 deaths in India. Scientists think that these events are alarming signs that the area of the Arctic's perennial polar ice cap is melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade (www.nrdc.org).

Using clean technologies will reduce carbon pollution and other harmful pollutions that poison our atmosphere. Reducing global warming pollution helps to make our energy and transportation systems more efficient, protect our environment and wildlife, and improve our air quality and protect peoples’ health. Moreover, clean car technology can produce more efficient engines and better mileage. ( www.globalwarmingsolutions.org). There are some actions which should be done as a first step of protecting our earth from global warming:
• Increasing support for clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, in order to decrease our demand on coal-fired power plants.
• Making our homes, businesses, and common products use less energy through energy efficiency improvements.
• Helping people to drive less by increasing support for our public transportation systems, or force them to use green cars.
• Making our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas by increasing federal gas mileage standards. (www.pennenvironment.org).
• People have to reduce their carbon footprint also.
• Building cool cities makes the earth’s atmosphere healthier.
Global warming wouldn’t be reduced by one person’s participation. It has to have all of the people in the world trying to reduce their carbon footprint first and then we can reduce the incidence of global warming.



Bibliography:
- http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp?gclid=CI_cx6T1zJoCFYEI3godjiVW4A#3
- http://www.globalwarmingsolutions.org/basics
- http://www.pennenvironment.org/global-warming

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Task 6 : Cool City

Since the start of the industrial revolution the economic development has involved population pressure and CO2 emissions.
If we do not solve our problems we have to have another earth and that is impossible.
50% of CO2 emissions have to be decreased if we want to live within the capacity of a single earth.
In the last 30 years of GDP has gone up 100% in Japan, energy efficiency by 37% and oil consumption decreased by 8%.
90% of carbon dioxide into the air comes from building and transportation.
A Cool City is a place free of or with a very small proportion of carbon dioxide emissions. It is being built by SDCJ group from Japan.
Mono Rails, Solar Water taxis and Hybrid cars will be used in the cool city for transportation.
Comfortable space would be offered for walking inside the cool city.
The various zones in the city are Business, Commercial and Residential.
Techniques that will be used around the city are the jatropha forest will be surrounding the cool city. Also tree-planting, waterways and rooftop membranes.
The CO2 reductions expected are 50% for eco towers and 30% for eco residences.
Overall 60% of CO2 emissions have to be reduced.

Comment:
It is the best idea to live in a cool city, where everyone will live away from carbon emissions and noises in a quiet place with fresh air and with places to walk comfortably.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Traditions weigh on China’s women (summary)

A lot of Chinese women who are in trouble they will commit suicide. “More women in China commit suicide than in other countries” (WHO).150,000 out of 1.5 million of women succeed in their attempts to commit to suicide. In the rural areas the situation of suicides is worse than in the cites, because the poisons are available in agricultural areas.
Xu Rong believes that arranged marriage leads to emotional problems for the wife. She will enter to the new family. Sometimes the husband feels that his wife is not happy to be with him.70-80% of suicides comes from conflicts between couples. Xu Rog estimation. Awoman will be comforted if she lives with someone who respects and loves her. Some studies agree that women do commit suicide to gain dignity and to show others that they are feeling angry. Xu Rong’s project is to prevent the suicides by providing villages support to women and offering everything for them.
In rural areas people prefer sons to daughters by saying that sons will look after their parents and daughters will leave their parents after getting married. So many female foetuses are aborted. Young woman in the city can be a victim of sexual harassment, but she will be more confident and independent than in the rural areas.

Main Idea:
Chinese women are at risk in the rural areas and they are escaping from the injustice of husbands and from their tradition through suicides. However, it is very hard to change the traditions. Women in the cities are also having problems but they can build their lives more easily.

Comment:
Women suicides sound very bad. I think this topic is very important. Nobody has the right to commit suicide or to make others commit suicide. I hope that this problem does not spread to the other countries.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Task 5 : My Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint is the measurement of all greenhouse gases produced by individual, company, institution and country activities which impact our environment by burning fossil fuel for electricity, heating and transportation every day. The UAE has the highest carbon footprint in the world per person. That means people in the UAE are consuming a lot of carbon by driving big cars or using high electric consuming items or maybe they prefer eating food which comes from outside the country.

Everyone on the earth has a carbon footprint and it depends on how much carbon the person consumes. My carbon footprint is 4.5, which is very close to my colleagues. The main factors that led to a higher level of my carbon foot print are Travel, Stuff, and Home. I am looking now how to improve our carbon footprint. I think we can use buses or share cars instead of travelling each one by his own car. We will save some energy and consume less carbon than using our private cars. We can use power saver lights and switch off unused devices, recycle waste papers, plastic, irrigate plants with recycled water, replace old cooling machines by new ones which are free of CFC and not buying packages over our needs. I don’t think that we can do more than these improvements to reduce our footprint.



References:
- http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
- http://www.carbonfootprint.com/minimisecfp.html
- http://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbonfootprint.html

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Task 4: An Inconvenient Truth Reviews

* A favorable review:
Helen OHara, http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=134187, says:
Al Gore presents the movie away from being boring and dry; he mixes some jokes on what would happen for the future.
We are with Al Gore in accepting this theory. No need for more explanation and the global warming is happening.
Al Gore presents his movie to save the planet from the global warming.
In the end of the movie Al Gore offers some ways to avoid the phenomenon in the future.

* An unfavourable review:
www.darylscience.com/Movies/InconvenientTruth.html :
The starting of this movie is like that we are killing ourselves and nobody knows what would happen for the future. Al Gore was predicting the future. Al Gore didn’t mention the reason for the disappearance of the glacier in the Argentine. Oregon’s Mountain Hood latest picture might be taken in the summer, after the ice is melted.

* Opinion:
I think we should be positive with this movie and I believe that global warming will come with very bad results because some signs of it have emerged. Like the temperature and pollution proportion is increased and some ice in the pole is melted. Although we don’t know what the future is carrying for us, we have to be prepared and aware about what can any phenomenon causes. Then we may have an ability to avoid the coming risks.

* Bibliography:
- http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=134187
- www.darylscience.com/Movies/InconvenientTruth.html