Skills Behind 174

I found out that the English course 174 was very interesting and taught me lots of things. The first thing I gained from this course is writing and reading skills. Before this course, I couldn’t read long articles. After going through this great course, I love to read articles even if they were long. I have the skill of summarizing them too. I even get the opportunity to learn new vocabulary which enhances my English language. The practical skill I learned is presentation skill. I can present my topics to the audience confidently.

Besides being linguistic course, it was knowledgeable. For example, the reading and writing topics were all about what is happening in our world such as global warming. I felt great when I was walking with my friends in a mall and found an exhibition which was about global warming. They all looked blank when they read “Global Warming” and I started to explain it to them.
At the beginning I thought that the teacher was tough with me. But then I found out that this toughness taught me independency. I realized that she is encouraging me to keep on researching. Yet, she was supportive and frankly speaking I enjoyed the course!

Wanted: Natural Residents

This article “Wanted: Natural Residents” written by Carolyn Fry talks about Western Harbour development project in Sweden. This project is applied in the seaside town of Malmo; on reclaimed industrial land. It focuses on promoting sustainable urban living and biodiversity.

Successfully, one of the buildings “Bo01” got occupied by people, animals and plants for all their needs and demands got supplied by the developers. For example, installing bat boxes and shelves allowed some of the bats and birds species to inhabit “Bo01”. To be precise, the developers afforded the right atmosphere to preserve the species from extinct and show people how nice and important they are in stabilizing our ecosystem. There is also play school on one of the roads which leads to the sea in the Western Harbour. It has activities for children aged one to five year old that enhance the idea of sustainable living and biodiversity. They are only served with organic food and taught how to cultivate it. Moreover, they are taught about recycling. Their idea is to bring up green generation.

For the new generation Developers are asked to add new features and follow strict rules to enhance biodiversity in “Bo02” and “Bo03” more than Bo01. They are also asked to add rooftop wind turbines. For example, install three types of boxes for different types of house animals and include biotope in both Bo02 and Bo03 yards.

In conclusion, Western Harbour development is a good step towards biodiversity. Plants and animals will live happily if the development succeed and encouraged by its habitats.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/02/malmo-biodiversity

My Presentaion

www.scribd.com/doc/15996247/Task-7

Energy waste in buildings

Nowadays the number of the buildings is increasing across the countries. Therefore, the power consumption also will increase, and that means big amount of energy wasted in the buildings. In this essay I’m going to write the problem and the solution of the energy wasted in the buildings.

Energy waste in the buildings is really a problem that countries face. Some people don’t care if the power of TV’s, stereos or even lights is on for 24 hours. Moreover, most of the companies which are located in buildings across the world leave the lights on during all nights (Business). In addition, when nobody is occupying the building, besides keeping the lights on, they will leave the computer power on (Business), ignoring its electricity consumption, especially in our days.

Although there is wasted energy in buildings, there are some solutions which can solve the problem. First of all let people change their behavior and learn how and when you can use your electricity. The second solution that mostly can help the companies is the solar energy, which is one of the effective solutions. There are two kinds of solar energy. The first kind is called thermal energy (SEI). From this kind of energy we can heat the water in our house and food in a solar cooker by using the sun’s energy (SEI). The other solar energy is called photovoltaic (SEI). It converts the light energy to electric energy by using the photoelectric effect (Wikipedia). For example, it can turn the lights on/off by using the sun energy.

What is passive solar energy? It is designed to cool the house in summer, and heat it in winter. The passive solar energy relies on the building design, where it should invite the sun heat into building and save it for night time. It should also keep the house warm during the winter. In other words, there is a specific geometrical axis where experts and designers build to apply passive solar energy idea. (Chris)

In conclusion, we have to reduce the power consumption and try to use it only when we need to use. Solar power energy is really a good solution to save energy and our money. Always remember that we all live in one earth and we all need to preserve it. So let us do it together.

Bibliography

"Business Energy Waste." Pays to Live Green. 14 May 2009. 23 May 2009 http://www.paystolivegreen.com/2009/05/business-energy-waste/.

"KID'S INFO." Solar Energy International. Ed. SEI. 23 May 2009 http://www.solarenergy.org/resources/youngkids.html.

Larson, Chris. "The passive solar home: fed up with high energy bills? Make your house into a solar collector! Architect Chris Larson tells how." New Life Journal April & may 2002: 8(2). Srudent Resource Center - Gold. Gale. ADMC, Abu Dhabi. 17 May 2009 http://0-find.galegroup.com.library.hct.ac.ae/srcx/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%252528en%25252C%25252C%252529%25253AFQE%25253D%252528su%25252CNone%25252C20%252529passive%252Bsolar%252Benergy%252524%257E%2529_2&contentSet=IAC-Documents&sort=DateDescend&tabID=T003&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=VIEW_TOPIC_TREE&prodId=SRC-1&searchId=R2&currentPosition=10&userGroupName=971hctnet&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C30%29%22Passive+Solar+Energy+Systems%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=A87703742&docType=IAC.

"Solar power." Wikipedia. 20 May 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power.

Cool Cities

Nowadays buildings and transportations are contributed the increasing of CO2. Cool cities designed to reduce the CO2 and especially in buildings and transportations. In this essay I am going to explain why cities like Masdar are not practical for all.

The population is the first reason of why cool cities are not practical. If we estimate the number of the population nowadays reached 6.7 billion (wikipedia) which is really a huge number, but the question is how much will it reach in 2050? Unfortunately, it will reach to about 9.5 billion (census.gov). How will the government provide these types of cities for all people, if city like Masdar can carry about 50,000 people (Masdar’s). It is really ridicules, that’s why it is difficult to say most of the people will live in the cool city.

Another aspect of my point of view is that poor countries, such as Africa and some countries in Asia cannot afford money to achieve such project for it need lots of money. If so, they will afford it to help their refugees and heal their sickness first. Yet, they need hundred years more to go green.

How about people’s lifestyle? Although the facilities are provided, yet there are some difficulties to deal with. Not everyone can live in this type of city unless he is environmentally friendly (Masdar’s). It is also difficult for people who live in hot countries use the bike and walk instead of using their own car, because of the heat which you can feel it even if you are under the shade.

In Conclusion, I believe that not everyone will live in cities like Masdar even if we reach the year 2050. In my opinion, although this project will reduce the CO2 and save the earth, yet I’m not convinced that all people will accept to live in.

Bibliography

"Masdar?s green dream is not for all- The National Newspaper." The National. 24 Apr. 2008. 5 May 2009 http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080424/BUSINESS/919451504.

U.S.Census Bureau. International Data Base (IDB). 5 May 2009 http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpop.html.

"World population." Wikipedia. 5 May 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.

Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint has become the main factor in changing the climate nowadays. Carbon footprint is the measurement of gases produced by the human being’s activities, which is measured in unit of CO2. In this essay I will report on the measurement of the carbon footprints in my class.

I went through two sites which were www.footprint.wwf.org.uk/ and www.myfootprint.org/. After that I filled their questionnaire. The questions were about how much food, travel, home and stuff I spent last 12 months. Unfortunately, the results were incredible. In the first site the result was 4.63 earths (WWF) and the second was 7.22 earths (myfootprint.org). That means I live as if we have more than 5 earths.

By comparing my earth equivalent average results with other students. I can see that my result is the second between the four students. In addition, there are big differences between Faisal's result which is about 4.57 earths and Ahmed Al Zaabi. Therefore Ahmed needs about three earths more than Faisal’s average to live happily. Moreover the average score for Saleh is 7.23 earths which is about one earth more than my consumption.

UAE is one of the countries that consumes more energy and mostly for cooling. When I searched through the internet, I recognized that the average of the UAE footprint is about 162.7 which equalize 10.33 earths (myfootprint.org).

In conclusion, we should care about our life and not neglect it. Furthermore, there are simple ways to reduce the carbon footprint on the planet. Firstly, I will start at home, use the energy saver. Secondly, try to use cleaner means of transportation such as bike or by walk. Finally, don’t forget to reduce the amount of water consumption.

Bibliography

FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR. Ed. Torchbox. 13 Apr. 2009 http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/home/calculator_complete.
REDEFINING PROGRESS. Ed. Kinga Dow Productions. 13 Apr. 2009 http://www.myfootprint.org/en/visitor_information/.

Reviews

Each movie has been reviewed by its audience. After the show, some will be happy while others will mock it. So this is what happened in Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” which talks about the Global Warming. This essay will look at some of the arguments for and against the movie.

Some of the reviewers didn’t enjoy the movie for some reasons which made the movie bad to their point of view. Firstly, the movie was a commercial advertisement for Al Gore, because he was narrating his personal stories (Nash). Secondly, the way that Al Gore jokes against Republicans was not fair, where he considered the movie is political more than sending a real message (Nash). Finally the issue of Global Warming is political more than being scientific (Nash).

On the other hand, there were many people totally agreed with him. One of the people from Sierra Club staff enjoyed the movie. He believes that although Al Gore is not a scientist, still he convinced him that the case is serious and people should help (Barry). He really liked the editing of the movie where he finds that it attracts the audience with the images of the glaciers, especially the scene which showed the spread and effect of the CO2 in damaging the world (Barry). In Conclusion, I really enjoyed watching this movie for I believe what positive reviewer believes in. After the show, I started to concentrate on the world and try to study the facts. For example, I can see that the winter is getting too short in the world. All the images and disasters I saw in this film really touched me. Fortunately, I received his message.

Bibliography

Barry, John. "An Inconvenient Truth reviews." Sierra Club. 1 Apr. 2009 http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/ait/reviews/.
Nash, Scott. "An Inconvenient Truth movie review." Rotten Tomatoes. 25 Nov. 2006. 2 Apr. 2006 http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review.php?movieID=inconvenienttruth.