Climate Change Power Point

Hedley Final

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Task 7: Climate Change

Global warming is an important issue nowadays and it’s bad for our world and it might be more harmful in the future. We can define it as an average increase in the Earth's temperature because of the greenhouse gas emissions. “Regional climate change, therefore, has been more dramatic—Arctic ice is melting rapidly and Arctic sea ice is 40 per cent thinner than it was in the 1970s.”(Parliament of Australia) The sea level is rising as well as a result of melted ice.
“A record heat wave scorched Europe in August 2003, claiming an estimated 35,000 lives.” (Earth policy institute) Climate change will increase the risk of floods and droughts; more than 90 percent of the victims are from the developing countries. Another problem is air pollution which is a big problem resulting from fossil fuel emissions.
We can do many things to reduce and reverse the effects of the climate change. First thing is to reduce the usage of electric in our houses. We can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in our houses by turning off the lights at night, closing the TV when no one is watching and turn off electric devices when they are not being used. “One easy way to reduce CO2 emissions is to reduce the amount of fuel burned per day, per month, and per year.”( Ezinearticles) In addition we can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by using hybrid cars which are environment friendly or use smaller cars which are less harmful to the environment.
I think it’s important to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions because if we don’t try and reduce it who will reduce it? In my opinion I think what will solve the problem by at least 20% is to use hybrid cars or use smaller engine cars. In addition measuring the carbon footprint is important as well to know what our level is and whether we are in the danger level or no. Finally, teaching kids about climate change and how to reduce it will have a positive effect in the future.

Bibliography:


"The climate is changing." Parliament of Australia: Home. 18 Nov. 2008. http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/ClimateChange/theClimate/theClimate.htm

"RECORD HEAT WAVE IN EUROPE TAKES 35,000 LIVES Far Greater Losses May Lie Ahead." Earth policy institute. 9 Oct. 2003.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update29.htm


"Hybrid Cars, Trucks, and SUVs Reduce CO2 Emissions, Help the Environment." Ezinearticles.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Hybrid-Cars,-Trucks,-and-SUVs-Reduce-CO2-Emissions,-Help-the-Environment&id=1220581

Task 6: Cool City

We watched the Cool City video.

According to the video:

There has been economic development since the industrial revolution but there are many problems as a result of it, like CO2 emissions and population pressure.

If we don't try solving these problems, we will need another earth to live on but it’s totally impossible.
We have to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions by one half or in other words by 50%.

In Japan during the last 30 years, Gross Domestic Product has gone up 100% which means it doubled, while energy efficiency has increased by 37% and oil consumption has decreased by 8%.

90% of CO2 emitted into the air comes from transportation and buildings.

Cool city is an environmentally friendly city with low CO2 emissions.

It is going to be built by SDCJ and they are a Japanese company.

There are three zones in cool city: business, commercial/cultural and finally residential.

There are three types of transport mentioned that will be used in cool city namely light transit rail, solar water taxis and hybrid cars.

The techniques that will reduce the heat are waterways, rooftop membranes and tree planting.

The expected CO2 reductions are 50% for eco towers and 30% for eco residences.

The total percentage of the CO2 emissions reduction is expected to be 60%.

How practical/ realistic is the video?

I totally agree that cool city is a good project to save the world from CO2 emissions. I think that it is hard for people to change their life style and live in a place like cool city. I think people will rather stay in the same life style because it’s cheaper than living in cool city.

Titanic’s Lost Sister

Part (1): Summary
However ships are getting more modern and safer there is no unsinkable ship. No matter how big the ships are or how modern is there safety features.
Structural safety design didn’t change a lot since the world war1 .for example; both the Titanic and the Britannic had improved the steel hulls. But research’s said that the steel might be made of poor quality and this is dangerous. Nowadays computers are used to model the stresses on ship hulls and make steel able to avoid stresses. One of the safety features that been used in the Britannic and still used in the modern ships is hull divisions. The idea of it is to contain and keep out the incoming water and keep the ship afloat until help can arrive. The most common cause of disaster at the sea is fire. Because of that ships must be built of non burnable material and be subdivided so if fire stars it won’t be able to spread in other places.
.Having the best safety features won’t be enough to reduce accidents because most accidents are caused from human mistakes. Human element is the most important element to avoid accidents that means the better way people use ships the safer they get.
Nowadays there are many new devices such as the GPS that can locate your location exactly. Advanced satellite communications systems are better than before now they can get information’s from further places.
Part (2): Main Idea
In this article the writer showed us that safety is the first important thing in every ship to avoid accidents and disasters. If any accident occurs it’s better to keep the ship floating till the help arrives. The author also talked about the need of finding new technology to keep out of danger and protect the passengers from any sudden accidents.
Part (3): Comment
I think the article is talking about an important transportation. I agree with writer that the human element is very important. I like the way that the writer organized the article. I think the article is interesting because it shows us two of the largest ships ever the Titanic and the Britannic. I think this article would be better if the writer mentions more about the safety devices in more details.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/titanic/unsinkable.html

How Europe can save the world.

Part1-Summary:
Will Hutton, in How Europe can save the world, The Observer 11.03.07, says that many European politicians made a commitment on solving the problem of climate change and energy security. The EU has committed to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from their 1990 level; they also committed to increase the use of renewable energy like air, water, tidal power and biofuels.
Some countries like France are depending on nuclear power but it’s not a problem because it’s rated as a clean energy. After 2010 there will be carbon capture and storage capacity in every new power station and they will put strict rules to limit carbon emissions.
With renewable energy there will be problems because it’s expensive and fossil fuels will be more preferred by everyone.

Part2-Main idea:
Will Hutton, a committed pro-European, says that Europe has chosen a hard job to battle and reduce global green house gas emissions. The EU discussed the problems of renewable power and planned solutions for it. The UN thinks that the Kyoto Protocol will make good results if countries such as India, China and the US follow and support it.

Part3-Comment:
I believe that this topic is very important because it talks about reducing global gas emissions. I think the writer believed that it is easy to reduce gas emissions because the world has many problems now that would affect all the plans. With the economic situation I don’t think that many countries such as the UK and the US will pay for renewable energy which is more expensive than fossil fuel.

Task5: My carbon footprint

Carbon footprint
A Carbon footprint is the total of greenhouse gas emissions caused by a person, company or product. The carbon footprint has units of tonnes or kgs of carbon dioxide equivalent.
I measured my carbon footprint at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ & it was 4.01.
Most of my class mates in CRE had nearly the same or a bit higher number. The average number in my class was nearly 3.87. The main factors of this result were from:
1) travel 35%
2) stuff 29%
3) home 19%
4) food 17%
The UAE which is my country has the highest carbon footprint per person in the world.
Although travel was the highest factor I can’t really change it so I think I need to reduce buying gadgets and tools which is related to the stuff factor because I spend lot of money buying them because it’s kind of a hobby to me.

I drive a V8 6.2 car which is a large petrol vehicle but I can’t do anything about it because I can’t use public transport like buses because they are not available where I live. My car is one year old and I live 5 minutes away from college and I don’t think it will really affect the carbon footprint that badly. If I live in a country like Japan I would use the metro which is fast and environment friendly. I have a brother that studies in ADMC like me. I wish we started and finished at the same time so we could use one car instead of two.



260/words

Task4: An Inconvenient Truth reviews

Positive review
Brandon Fibbs, http://brandonfibbs.com/2006/05/24/an-inconvenient-truth/ , says that Al Gore is right about everything he said in the movie. He showed much evidence that shows global warming is a manmade disaster. Brandon says that if the problem is half what Al Gore says then it is still An Inconvenient Truth. We are looking to the end of all humankind. He ends his review by advising everyone to see this movie and he knows everyone who sees this movie will do something to avoid making the environment worse than now.

Negative review
Scott Nash,http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review.php?movieID=inconvenienttruth , says that the movie was about Al Gore and he is trying to support his political life. He talked about his sister’s death from lung cancer and his son’s car accident .Gore is trying to get attention by talking emotionally about it. Scott says that many of the old photos might be taken in winter while the new photos might be taken in summer. He ends his review by saying that global warming is a political issue and he thinks that people who walk in to watch the movie will not change their mind after watching it.

My opinion
I agree with both the reviews. It was well presented. Many examples and much evidence were shown clearly. Both of them agreed that after watching the movie people’s minds will change. I agree with Scott that he wants to support his political life by talking about his family. In addition I agree with Scott about the photos. Finally I liked the Sunbeam cartoon.