European Initiative

Summary:

Will Hutton, in the article How Europe can save the world says that European Union countries work hard and decrease the carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels. This will be accomplished by using some renewable energy like hydropower, wind energy and biofuel. This kind of energy is expensive but we should do it against the GHG emissions. For example France depends on the nuclear power which is categorized as a renewable energy. In Europe within two years the power stations will have 'carbon capture and storage technology'. Moreover they force a law that each country should have a fixed amount of fossil fuel. David Miliband mentions that there is a risk by going forward for the first country which will apply the strategy, but the advantages will be more than the disadvantages because all of us will learn from the mistakes and problems we will face.

Main Idea:

This article mainly talks about how the European countries are taking the lead for keeping our earth safe and trying to use every method and technology that will help them to achieve their goals and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. European countries are using renewable energy that produces low amount of GHG emissions. The EU is trying to send a massage all around the world to work hard and follow them to help the earth.

Comment:

In my opinion, the idea of reducing the carbon emissions of the globe is important. All the countries should move and apply what the European countries are doing nowadays. I enjoyed reading this article because in this course I read some article related to the global warming; moreover I watched a movie before I read this article I thought it’s hard to do it and reduce the amount of emissions around the world but now I’m confident.

My carbon footprint

In the website Footprint calculator http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ , you can measure your footprint GHG (Green House Gases) emissions and mine was 2.55 planets which is 10.59 tonnes per annum.

The footprint task was divided for the all CRE section students , and the average figure approximately was 3.87. The main factors which contribute to my figure were grouped as:

• Stuff 30%
• Home 22%
• Travel & food 24%

The carbon footprint is the total green house effect gas emissions emitted by person. As we can see the highest percentage was Stuff and the lowest were for both travel and food. Comparing my carbon footprint with the rest of students in my class its pretty fine because I am less than the class average.

UAE people’s carbon footprint is the highest in the world per person. I am sure that if any person in the UAE knows about how he is affecting the earth he will change the habits of living. In each house there is a huge amount of electricity stuff and some of it is not necessary. We can avoid using them. Second is the food; people should know how in other countries the vegetable is considered as a full healthy meal instead of eating proteins. In the last, transportation by car is one of the most important causes of green house gas emissions. I think now companies are manufacturing the car which is friendly to the environment, the hybrid cars. In 2010 they will come to our local market. I hope we work hard to reduce our huge amount of carbon footprint.

Shipping

Summary

In spite of the quality service that you receive on the ship while you are traveling but, still you fear that you’re in danger in the middle of the sea, whatever the high specification of the ship but it is at risk and at any moment could sink. Engineers and ship designers are working hard together to reduce the risk of ship accidents. Nowadays engineers use computers to do some special tasks in the materials used in ships ; an another example of safety features are watertight compartments, or hull divisions this process works as follows if a puncture occurs ; the idea is to contain and isolate the water that comes inside the ship and keep the ship in balance or afloat. Human error is always behind the worst sea accidents, To reduce these types of accidents, the U.S. Coast Guard and other international agencies start advice and focus more on the human element in ship safety. People are learning from the past mistakes that have caused a human disaster and try to avoid them ; nowadays ships carry enough lifeboats and if disaster happens the time to arrive at the place is minimized and the navigation helps the Coast Guard to do that. Radar is one of the advanced technologies because it can show the ship’s crew if there is an object which can impede the ship way; also the satellite communication system can advise the crew about the weather. Finally we will never hear that one day people invent an unsinkable ship , but the technology will help as to avoid sea accidents.

Main idea

The main idea in this article ; in truth there is no unsinkable ship. Although people try to work hard to have a high specification ship to avoid any risk . All statistics show that the human error is often behind the sea accidents but there is an awareness campaign that advises them . The new technology of communication between Coast Guard and ship’s crew reduces the risk also.

Comment

This article was interesting because I never read about these subjects before. Moreover the article is well structured because it is divided into main paragraphs and each paragraph has a suitable title and the points are well explained. I agree with the last paragraph because it shows us how people improve things and reach an easy life.

Natural Residents

Summary

In the article Natural Residents the writer mentioned the new development tower which is located in the reclaimed land in Malmo Sweden called Turning Torso. It’s designed to promote the urban living by mixing the animals and humans at home. Turning Torso is made of modern materials; also people around this tower can see everything through curtainless windows. In the new 1300 apartment phase Bo01 developer’s work shows the new green methods of renewable energy, sustainable transport and waste management. Developers should choose 10 green feature from a list of 35 to incorporate into their design. Annika Kruuse one of the employees who was working on Bo01 monitors that there is a lot of kinds of animal like groups of birds and in the saltwater canal also several species of fish. Martin Rugfelt business developer, suggests that they use the empty area to have bigger green spaces. By following the strategy of Bo01 developers are now working in Bo02 and Bo03 to attract people to live in a green lifestyle; more over while people are living there they maintain Earth’s biodiversity and children are taught to grow their own food. Finally, Malmo nowadays tries to increase the number of habitats across a wider area by making it easier for plants and animals to live together and by increasing biodiversity.

Main idea

The main idea of this article is to have a green method in Malmo city in Sweden in a specific complex by doing some towers that have a new technology that work to have a sustainable environment and maintain Earth’s biodiversity.

Comment

This article was interesting because I never read about these subjects before. Moreover the article is well structured because it is divided into paragraphs and each paragraph has a main idea and the points are well explained. I agree with the author because this article shows us how people improve things and reach an easy life and keep our earth safe.

Reviews of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’:

Eric, http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/05/al-gores-movie/ ,in a favorable reviews, says the Al Gore movie tries to educate the people about the global warming and how important it is. Most of the slides and statistics sound boring but we should see them and know how the earth is getting compared negatively with several past years. Al Gore travelled to different regions in the world to prove his study. Al Gore’s movie contain few scientific errors but these small mistakes does not take away from his main point. Finally in Eric’s opinion he said that United States has the ability to impact the future of climate change.

Paul, http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2006/09/11/an_inconvenient_truth_2006_review.shtml ,in a more negative review, points out that Al Gore is unfortunately not a movie star; he is a fat guy and sometimes seems like a frog. Anyone who see his movie will not be able to specify if it’s drama or documentary. Inconvenient Truth was a power point show and it was not interesting. Al Gore shows his movie all around the world and while he is presenting the slides to the audience and showing us how people are destroying the earth I feel bored about it. More over the presentation is full of charts, graphs and some horrifying statistics; all of that gives the same idea so it is wasting time.

In my opinion I agree with the first review because Eric talks in general about what Al Gore was doing to prove his theory and how he is trying to make the people understand what is happening to our earth. Moreover what makes me agree more with the first article is that Eric talks in general and he also mentioned Al Gore’s mistakes. In the other hand I don’t care about the physical appearance because Paul mentioned that in his review in the beginning.