(The last post) Conclusion

In the article, the author Johann Hari talk about the global warming issue and he says that what people is doing right now is not really effective, and the governments should act on their own. He thinks that these small steps and the small things that people do, won't really have an impact that will be good or can help reduce the global warming effects. He said that what people are doing isn't effective if they work as individuals, but if they want to do something they have to be as groups or to put it in another way, put hands on hands and participate in environmentally organizations to help or else what they do is nothing because the organizations can put pressure on governments and force them to act. Because what the governments can do is much bigger than what we can do. .

In my opinion, I disagree with the writer in many things. Like he said that we can't do anything individually, and what we are doing won't have a big effect and we can't act alone. I think if every single one of us does these small steps of changing and worked hard for them that will change a lot, because if we looked at a 3 planets carbon footprint person and he reduce it to 1 or 1 and a half we will see that if a million person did that as well, the effect will be really huge and they will reduce the CO2 rates amazingly. On the other hand, he said that governments must do the big steps to deal with the issue, and that's right, we know that we can do the small things but most of the job should be done by the government.

(SDSJ) Cool Cities

The revolution of industry and what effects and fatal damages it caused to earth because of it is really dangerous and we have to make an immediate change and start to change before it's too late. Many issues occurred during the last century and the effect is more than what our earth can handle. Problems like increasing of the population and the industry isn't something small and it consuming the earth's natural materials really fast. If we keep going like that we will have to replace our planet or we need to get another one, but that's something that can't be done, so all we can do is to try and keep or let me say save our precious planet. Many people started in the last decades to team-up together and they created many organizations like SDSJ, which meant to work and create societies that are called "cool cities". The idea started in Japan and they were trying to do as much as they can to build theses cities and at the same time to make normal cities do things and sign on agreements, to try and reduce emissions and the carbon dioxide each city produce. And that's to become more environmentally friendly and the same time helps our earth and use less products.

Cool cities depend on alternative energy sources that produce less carbon and it will decrease the emissions. In the cool cities there will be like electric cars or solar vehicles and many other transportation but mostly they will depend on cleaner energy sources. The buildings will be built by using special methods and they will try to use new technologies to heat or cool them. They are aiming to reduce over 60% of emissions each city produce and that's possible if everybody acted together and we put our hands together.

The goals of One Planet Living

1. To make One Planet connected all over the world by a world-wide network.
2. Establish One Planet Living centers in each One Planet Community to teach and educate people on there.
3. To do as much as possible to raise and promote for One planet living and give it more support to make it suit the changing for the governments, business and individuals.
   

One Planet Living

If everyone lived like an average North American we would need five planets.If everyone lived like an average European we would need three planets.If everyone lived like an average Emirati we would need seven planets.Our global warming footprint grew by 0.7 between 1961 and 2003. it is now 30% above the planet's biological capacity to support life on earth.The WWF have ten principles which is called One Planet Living.

Masdar City is going to follow this principles:

1. Zero Carbon:

Try and reduce the carbon footprint and the global warming emissions on the world.

2. Zero Waste:

Wasting used products can cause problems; we have to recycle if possible

3. Sustainable transport:

Use alternative technology for transportation that are clean and reduce global warming effects.

4. Local and sustainable materials:

Use materials that are locally made so it will be better for the environment

5. Local and Sustainable food:

Try and grow food locally, or even use the local food so there won't be any need for import and export which make a lot of problems because of the transportation.

6. Sustainable water:

Try and supply the water locally plus using environmentally friendly ways to do it.

7. Natural habitats and wildlife:

Make the green area bigger and wider so there will be more places for trees and animals to live in.

8. Culture and heritage:

Try and make building designs like it used to be in the past, but more efficient.

9. Equity and fair trade:

Fair trade and make sure poor countries will have a fair trade and what happens on the other part of the world won't affect them whether it's "locally or globally".

10. Health and happiness:

The air is cleaner so the people are healthier and they tend to be happier.

I think that Equity and fair trade plus zero carbon will be a challenge for the Masdar city because it's hard to keep carbon at this rate. They might do it, but there is always a problems when doing huge projects like that, or that's what I'm thinking at least. And the fair trade as well, as I understood from what i read about it. I think it's kind of hard to apply it perfectly in the city.

Why I would like to live in Masdar city

People nowadays really care about things like clean fresh air, healthier environment and things like that. Because we are living in a world that's being destroyed by our hands and what human do for money. In my opinion, i would love to live in a city like Masdar City and at the same time i don't want to live there.
In a city like that, i know that I'll live in a clean environment which is as they say zero carbon and many other things like that. But, at the same time i think living in a place like Al Saadiyat island can be much cooler because it's a city that has many great things that will make people from all over the world come to the UAE just to see it. So I'm not really sure about that because i's really great to live in a "cool city" but at the same time i might find that there are many things that i won't find there.

"Is Abu Dhabi a Cool City?"

As my friends said, Abu Dhabi is not yet a cool city and there are many things that we have to do before we become one. I think as many said, people start to get aware about it. i don't agree with my friend messi when he said that we have to change our life style, because it's not something that we can do just like that. We must do it step by step. ummm... I'm not sure about the store, but i think that as Obaid said, "a store that sells alternatives that can improve the rates of global warming and life in general".

What should Abu Dhabi do to make people aware of global warming

To become a cool city we have to do many things, but before we even start that, Abu Dhabi must do many things to make people living here aware of the global warming, because we can't start solving the problem if there are many people which they don't know about global warming, or they only have a shallow image about this huge issue that's destroying our world. I'll give some ideas about what Abu Dhabi can do to make people more aware about the issue.

• Teach kids at schools and show them what is global warming because they are the next generations and if they don't know what they are facing, they won't care about it because they won't know how big is the situation
• Talk with people and ask them about global warming and what they know about it, because that will give them and the others more information about it
• Discuss the issue in local TV's or radio stations to talk about it, so people can call and give there opinions to benefit the others
• Make a special part in the newspapers that covers 1 or 2 pages that is only talk about global warming, because there is a huge number of people that reads newspapers

these are some steps that we should do to make people aware and to start and focus on the global warming issue as serious problem and put efforts to reduce it's effects on our planet.

Cool Cities in the U.S.A

Many Cities in the U.S are trying to become a "cool city" and they are on the right track.
They are doing many things and I'll mention the city name and what they do. The cities are:


1. Seattle: They reduced global warming pollution by more than 60 percent by constructing green buildings and operating alternative fuel vehicles.

2. Washington DC: DC has replaced 414 of its polluting diesel buses with buses that burn natural gases.

3. Houston: convert a substantial portion of the city of fleet of cars and trucks.

4. Marion County/Florida: they use gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

5. The city of Scottsdale: has introduced Arizona’s first green building program which helps builders and home owners learn about how to integrate energy efficiency and water saving.

6. Salt Lake City: they changed 861 traffic lights to LED light signals.

7. Colorado: is working to produce 50 percent of the city electricity with renewable energy by 2017.

8. Charlotte: they switched from a gas only Ford Taurus to a hybrid Toyota Prius or Honda Civic and that would save city taxpayers approximately $800-1200 per vehicle including over $400 in annual fuel cost.

9. Twin Falls/ Idaho: Reduce energy cost and cut pollution by increasing the energy efficiency of its 11 schools.

10. St. Paul: they use a system that uses heat drawn from a biomass-fired power plant.

P & S .My Carbon Footprint

Nowadays, with the dramatic growing of the global warming issue, we all hear a term called "Carbon Footprint". Carbon footprint is a measurement our daily activities and what their impact on the earth and especially on the air.

When I measured my own carbon footprint, I found that it's 3.31 planets and I was shocked to see that, because I thought I would not even cross 2.5 planets. In my essay, I'm going to discuss the problem and try to find some possible solutions for it.

One main problem is that I use my car us the only was of transportation and I drive a big car so it burn a lot of fuel which produce a lot of carbon.

Another problem is that I eat a lot of meat and fish. I'm used to eating meat or fish every day at least once and I have to change that.

A further problem is electricity usage, which is a minor problem but considered a problem as well.

One solution is that the government should make trains that connect the whole city so people can use trains instead of cars and that will help in many thing like; reducing the amount of carbon. And at the same time it will reduce the traffic in the city because people won't use cars a lot, but they will use train or even buses if we have a good transportation system for both buses and trains. Another solution is in the food part. I can eat less fish and meat every day, and eat more vegetables or other food products. A further solution is to try and use solar energy or any other energy source that is cleaner or natural so it will make a difference if everybody does that.

In conclusion, transportation is my main problem and I have to find better ways to reduce using my car and reduce emissions. There are many solutions that I can follow to reduce my Carbon Footprint and if everybody tries and does the same that will make a huge difference and carbon emission rates will decrease and that means global warming effects will become less dangerous.

Why is it called “An Inconvenient Truth”?

I think the movie is called “An Inconvenient Truth” to show how this truth is hard for us to know, because most people know about the global warming issue but when it’s time to act and do something for it, most people just sit there and do nothing, but they know that we have to do something about it soon or else the impact won’t just be on us but the fatal effect will be for the next generations

My Profile

Hello my classmates, friends and bloggers. How are you guys doing, hope you are enjoying blogging as much as I do. That is my profile, and I'm going to talk about my life and I will talk about it my life now, my past and what I want to be in the future, briefly.
First of all, I'm Ali Abdulraheem Ali Al Hammadi, I was born in Sharjah in Feb, 3rd, 1988. And that means that I'm 20 years old. I study at Abu Dhabi Men's College. I'm in level two and I choose business as my major.
I have 5 brothers and 5 sisters. I'm not sure why, but people think our family is big! And I agree with that. My elder brother Khaled which will "Enshallah" finish his studies in the U.S by the end of May this year, is the one I like to be with among my other brothers, and that might be because he's my elder and the rest are younger than me. I think that since I was a kid, I always wanted to be like him because he is so ambitious, creative and funny.

When I was a kid we didn't settled at one place because of my father's work. I lived about 3 years in Sharjah since I was born and after that we came to Abu Dhabi, and lived here for about 2 years which was the time I was in Kenny garden, after that we went back to Sharjah and lived there for two more years and we came back to settle at Abu Dhabi until now, and I think that I will never live in Sharjah again because it become horrible with all the traffic jam there.

When I was at primary school, I had troubles with learning and I was a lazy student. I still don't know if it was because of the teachers I had or because of me. But in mid school my grades has gone up and I improved a lot than I used to be thanks to the great teachers that I had. When I was a kid I always dreamt of having sport cars and I was, or let me say that I'm still have the same passion to drive fast cars and feel the adrenalin in my body when I drive sport cars.

In the main time, if I put my studying aside, I a totally different person outside the college. Most of the people know me as a quit person who's shy and never talk. But when I go out I go "wild". I'm lively, when I'm with my friends; I talk all the time and to move. I'm full of happiness and I hate being with people who tend to be sad and closed, because they make me feel like I did something wrong and make me feel depressed. At the same time, I like when someone come to me and asks me for help when he has a problem because I feel that he know that I can help him and that make me feel happy.

I have many interests. First of all, I like swimming, and that's something that I have to do in the summer, sometimes here at Abu Dhabi, Dubai at Jumairah beach and In Sharjah. I think that's good because it's a sport which is good for the body and I can enjoy my time being with my friends at the same time. Most of the time I like set in my room and that's when I'm not doing anything and spend hours in PC games and in my friend's website. Everyday at about 7:30 pm. I go with my friends and run for half hour, I started to do that after my I had some health problems because of the way I live.

Friendship means everything to me, but at these days finding true friends that understand you is impossible. Since I was a kid, I had a friend that I understand me and he's everything to me, he's like the brother, this friend's name is Abdullah.

We spent most of the time together and we always hang out together since 3rd grade. And my mother has become his mother's friend now.
There are many things that I don't like and others that I used to do but not anymore. One the things that I never like to do is traveling. I traveled once in my whole life and that was by car with my family, we went to the KSA and Kuwait and the trip took us two weeks. I will never forget that holiday because it was amazing but after we came back and I don't know what changed, but I don't want to travel. This year I started to hate watching TV. And I feel much better because I have time to do other things like sit with my family.

In the future, first thing I want to do is to complete my studies and to have bachelor degree because I think that at this time HD level is considered as Diploma, so I have to get a higher education levels and to achieve something in my life. As all of us want, I dream of having a fancy car, a nice job and a lovely wife. But nothing come just like that, I have to work to do that.
And that's as my friend Obaid call it "my life in lines". hope you enjoyed reading my profile and thanks for your time.

Emirates Palace Trip

I went to the Emirates Palace at May, 13th, with my classmates and our English teacher Frankie. We went there to see the new project "Masdar City", and the other exhibitions there like Alsaadiyat Island and the arts of Islam.
When we reached the Palace, we were supposed to meet there at the main hall; we started with Masdar City model. When I saw the model and Mrs. Frankie showed how it's going to be, I thought that it was amazing, it was really fibulas how all this designs were built and all the new technology on it and that was great and that's one step for Abu Dhabi to try and show the world that "We are doing something".
After we spent sometime near Masdar City model, we went to see AlSaadiyat project. Before I go there and see what's they are planning to do, all I had in my mind that they are going to make an island that have many towers and it's just like anything else we used to see, but when I saw it, I thought that it's amazing, specially with all the museums.
Finally, we went to see the art of Islam gallery which contains many things that Muslims used to have and use in the past like war armors, swords and so many other equipments that was used in wars during several periods in the past. What I really liked there was the room that had the inventions that Muslims invented in the past.
In the end, I think that the trip was really great and we learn many things when we go and see all of these things rather than just hear about them all the time. I hope we have trips like that again in the future.

"An Inconvenient Truth" reaction

First of all, I thought the movie was kind of boring because I didn’t know what it was about, but when I started to get the movie’s idea and I knew what Al Gore is talking about, I started to know what all these charts and pictures in the movie are about and what they mean.
I was shocked when I saw how the issue is big and that really made me feel that we have to do something, because everybody can make a difference.
I know now that what is happening in the earth is horrible and the biggest problem is all because of us..!
In the movie, they showed us how terrible the global warming issue affects the earth, how fast and huge the effect and its impact.
I think the movie was good and it gave us all the information we need to start and take a step ahead for a green earth with less emissions because we have to make a better earth for the next generation.

AIT summary

The movie starts with a nice quite scene that shows us how the nature is beautiful and how amazing can it be. Al Gore, the ex-vice president of the U.S, is the main character in the movie; he is talking about the global warming issue and its huge impact on earth.
Al Gore starts talking about the earth and shows how it looks from the space and show and explains some things like vegetation, how the earth’s sources are, and how the earth heat procedure happens.
Al Gore talks about what, when and why he started to think seriously about the global warming as an extremely dangerous issue.
When Al Gore was at the Congress he tried to do something but they ignored him after that.
Along with the rising in the carbon emissions, some affects has started to happen like ice glaciers melting in cold areas all over the world and that when scientists compared the ice layers and saw how it used to be and how it is now; they found that the results are shocking and if what they predict is really going to happens, the consequences are going to be fatal for the earth.
Al Gore talks about how CO2 affects the temperature and that causes much damage to the surface and the oceans.
Al Gore talks about a personal tragedy which was the death of his sister and the impact of it on him and what decisions he made after that.
There was a political issue, like the Kyoto protocol which the U.S didn’t agree to sign.
With the increasing of population on earth, more supplies are needed and that mean more logging and the need for more power and many many other things which consume the earth’s supplies.
In the end, he showed us that this is our only home and we have to work to do.

Intro to cool cities

In my project I’m going to research and discuss the global warming issue in the world and in Abu Dhabi particularly. We should start to think more about our carbon emission and carbon footprints because the life style that we are living is affecting the earth and the huge impact of it will leave nothing for the next generations.
There have been many changes in many countries all over the world to try and do something, and as we can see these days, cool cities are one of the best solutions to reduce emissions. In the UAE, particularly in Abu Dhabi there are new projects to try and reduce emission because our country has a one of the biggest carbon footprint per person and the government is thinking critically and working on new projects like “Masdar City” which will turn the city to a cool city as the government hope. Governments should act quickly because more time means more damage to the earth.

my Favorite video

"blood diamond" reaction

First of all, liked the movie, because it gave me new information and showed me the true conflict diamond issue
The movie shows us how people suffer from the conflict diamond issue. From the movie I knew many things that I haven’t ever thought about. Like how they transport the diamond and how they even get it. Before I watch the movie, what was in my mind is that the conflict diamond is something like stolen diamond, or even smuggled. But when I watched the movie I was shocked from what I’ve seen. It was terrible how rebellious treat their own people. They kill their children and rape their women with no mercy in their heart. What really shocked how they took kids and they make them their own soldiers and even make them killers without emissions.

I liked the movie because it tells us the truth that we haven’t known and we haven’t even paid attention for. The good thing about the movie is that it shows the world how people suffer there so they will care when they buy diamond.

Lebanon

Lebanon

“The land of milk and honey”, that’s what Lebanon is called in the bible. Lebanese’s suffered a lot in their history, whether it was because of wars or invades or the terrorism problems the country has.

Beirut, a city in Lebanon which has the nickname of “Paris of the East”, is a wonderful city in Lebanon, it is the capital of the country.

Lebanon has a geographic location which it lays between five countries, and that what make it in the heart of the Middle East.

Many famous celebrities in the world have roots from Lebanon but they live in other countries because of what their families suffered long time ago and they had to leave the country.

In the last few decades, Lebanon had a conflict and people struggled to survive from what they’ve been through. Since 1940’s, there was a conflict between Christians and Muslims and that caused both sides a lot of sacrifices and the country itself suffered the most. In the end, Syria had to send an army to try and stop both sides and it ended with blood shed and the division of the country.

In 1980’s , Israel invaded Beirut to try and remove the Palestinian so they won’t unite and organize in Lebanon, and many people died because of that till almost 7 years later which they had a peace deal.

The human and economics lost a lot because of the conflict, more than hundred thousands died and a more wounded and a huge number who left the country. The country’s economy was paralyzed.

After the end of the wars, the people started to rebuild the country and tried to revive what they lost. The country still has some problems after all these things ended, mostly because of how huge their loss was.

Bibliography:

"Eye in Lebanon." Gloabaleye.Org.Uk. 10 Mar. 2008 .

Democrats clash in crucial debate

The article "Democrats clash in crucial debate" in BBC news is mainly about the TV debate between the two candidates and it talks about their campaign in elections.

The candidates accused each other of having a problem in each other policies. There were problems when each of them talked to each other in the debate.
There was a strong contrast between the two candidates and each of them was confused and denied what the other person said.

The debate shows that Mr. Obama is winning in the campaign unless Mrs. Clinton does something in and wins the majority of delegates in both states and she can stay in the elections.

In conclusion, I’m not really into politic things but I can say that electors often accuse each other by saying bad thing and try to find anything; they could damage the other one reputation so people would turn to their side. As we can see in the article, as I can see, electors don’t really focus in the good things they have to win votes, but the try to find any thing that hurts the opponent to win.

Conflict Diamond

Diamonds are the most precious stones in the world. Have you ever thought of how they get from the earth to onto your finance's finger? I will describe the important locations along the trade route these most valuable of rock pass.

Since a long time, diamonds were a stone which used in trade and it is an extremely expensive compared to other jewelries. South Africa have most of the world diamond and they take it from their to the other part of world. De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. In Johannesburg, in South Africa is the biggest company and they are producing most of the world rough diamond trade. The company strategy was to restrict the amount of diamond on the market which keep the prices high.

Antwerp is a city in Belgium which has been a diamond trade center for about 600 years and as known about it that most of world’s rough diamonds pass through this city. There are only a small number of employees who work as polishers and cutters in the city which is about 1,500 in their.

In India, there are a huge number of people who are working in cutting and polishing diamonds. About 90% of the world’s diamond are cut and polished in India and what makes Indian work in this is that they get 40%

Dubai becomes well-known in diamond hub. UAE government has a deal with the traders and there is no tax for 50 years for them. And as it is known, the business in Dubai worth more than a 1billion British pound.

Pop star like diamonds as well and specially hip hop stars and they made songs about the diamond as well, and by wearing diamonds they show that they are successful to the people.