my writing: May 2008

Cool Cities Project

In this project I'll talk about many topics and these topics are somehow connected to each other. These are the topics in this project:

1. Critical Thinking

2. Summary of the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" and my opinion about it

3. Carbon Footprint

4. One Planet Living

5. Abu Dhabi Development

6. A Cool City: Masdar

7. Who Should Take Action?

First there is a PowerPoint about critical thinking that illustrates the meaning of critical thinking, some method to think critically and few points about why critical thinking is so important.

Second a summary of "An Inconvenient Truth", I described the movie for some on who haven't seen it after that I write my feeling about the movie.

Third, a problem solution paragraph about Carbon Footprint showing it's definition, problem and solution to reduced it.

Then a discussion about the ten principles of One Planet Living and how can we make use of it in the UAE, a video about global warming created by me and some class mates and ten points of how are some cities saving money, energy or resources.

After that my opinion about the coolest development in Abu Dhabi and some info about two of them.

Follow this is a paragraph about Masdar city showing what the aims og building it.

Finally, my view about what green rules should be passed in Abu Dhabi to make it a cool city and an interview with class mate about it.

My carbon footprint

Have u ever heard about carbon footprint? Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact of your activities that produce greenhouse gases on the planet. The size of your carbon footprint depends on how much do u produce of greenhouse gases. Now I will talk about the problem and solution of the carbon footprint.

The first important problem is that I use the electricity a lot every day, I watch TV, use my laptop, playing video games and many other ways, most of our electricity are generated by burning fuels and that release carbon dioxide which make the earth hotter. The second problem is that my family got 7 cars and also I use my car a lot even if it was a short distance and Cars release large amount of CO2.the final problem is that I smoke a lot. Maybe you think it's a small amount of CO2 but its not.

The first solution is to reduce the amount of electricity every day. I can go the sea with my friend instead of watching TV or playing video games. The second solution is to use one car for the family instead of 7 and when I go out with my friend we can go with one car. The final solution is to reduce my smoking or to quit it because it's bad for health and bordure CO2.

To sum up, don't look at the other carbon footprint and say "oh mine is much smaller then it's ok" and remember the bigger your footprint is the bigger the damage you do the earth.

An Inconvenient Truth

The movie talks about climate changing and shows Al Gore's travels to find proofs for the data he is showing and illustrate some information about his personal history and life.

Former vice president Al Gore tells his opinion about global warming hoping that the people of the earth understand the problem and do some thing before it's too late. what made Al Gore change his way of looking to the world are his sister's death because of lung cancer, and his young son's car accident.

Gore explains the impact of global warming and the most important one is ice melting. If the ice in Greenland or in West Antarctica melted, that will raise world sea levels by about 20 feet, if that happened 100 million of people will be homeless. Another problem is that about 40 % of the world people get their drinking water from rivers that are fed by melt water, after half century these people will have problem because of the increasing of the melting water.

The cause of ice melting is the increase of temperature which is cause because of the increase of the CO2 level. The slideshow shows the annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 650,000 years, if the co2 level goes up the temperature goes up and the CO2 level now a days is more then average and after 50 year it will be much much more.

In the end Gore asked the people of the world to take actions and work together to solve the problem of global warming and they can in many many ways.

My feelings about "An inconvenient truth"

Before watching the movie my idea about global worming was that the earth is getting hotter and a little ice will met. I said to my self so what, I'm used to the hot weather and the increasing of water won't be so bad. Obviously I was just thinking of myself but after watching "An inconvenient truth" my ideas about global warming have changed completely. I knew how big the problem is and I understood that this is a world issue not small problem that can be solved by bunch of people. This problem need from the world to understand how series it is and I will ask to those who believe that they won't be affected by it to think of their children and grandchildren. I'm sure the many people will change their points of view about global worming after watching the movie just as I did.

I think global worming will no longer exist if the world understood its danger and try start to work together to solve the problem.

Why is it called “An Inconvenient Truth?”

“An Inconvenient Truth” was called by this name because fist of all it's a truth and because many people are uncomfortable with this fact. its seem that most of them want to do what they want without thinking of what will happen in the future.if things continue this way there wont be earth for the next generation to live in.It's inconvenient but it's the truth.

What should be done in Abu Dhabi

There are many ways can be done to make the people aware of global warming problems.

Make advertisements on TV, radio and streets about global warming and show its danger.
Teach our children in schools about how scary it may get if nobody took actions.
Support the products that emit small amounts of carbon and put task on the products with huge one.
Put laws that make the factories reduce their CO2.

Write some methods in the newspapers and magazines that people can use to reduce their carbon. After doing these points more people will be aware to this problem and more will start to do something about it.