Thursday, June 4, 2009

Paper Waste Management (Addition Post)




There is no doubt that we all use and need paper. In fact, people use billions of pieces of paper in just one day. In spite of all this, does anyone really care where this paper comes from? All the paper we use results in the death of millions of trees. These trees are actually needed very much for something else: supplying oxygen. Since we need paper and we need trees, why waste either? The solution is recycling because it allows us to reuse paper, saving our trees. There are three ways to reduce paper waste.

The first way is waste preventing by using less paper. If you are going to print think before you print and ask your self do really I need to print that document? And how many copies do I want to print? Also you can print your documents on both sides (Watson). Train the stuff in how to use and recycle the paper (Bashford).

The second way is how to re-use the paper to use it as products. Using of waste paper can be produced again and use it in different process. For example, we can use waste paper to produce it again and again by producing paper bags and use them for shopping rather then using plastic bags. Also we can produce more envelopes from the paper wasted.

The third way is recycling which helps us to reduce of taking down trees. This process is carried out by dividing materials in different divisions. For example magazine, newspaper and story books (Kyd). So that we don’t burn paper which are not useful.

In conclusion, many solutions came from recycling allow us to save more trees, energy and reducing the waste. Paper is all around us and the demand for paper is increasing. With hundreds of final uses, paper satisfies many important human needs - paper is a part of everyday life. Remember if you forget trees, trees will forget you.




Bibliography

Guy, Bashford "http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Press-Office/Press-Releases/North-East/North-East"-Press-Release-Archive/Paper-Waste-is-Plane-Stupidity.html

Kyd, Charles W. "Waste not, want not; exhorting employees to reuse paper clips is not an effective way to reduce your costs; getting rid of waste is." Inc.. v9. n13 (Dec 1987): p177(2). Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Higher Colleges of Technology. 1 Dec. 2008

Watson, Tom. "Waste management." Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. 4th ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 2008. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. Higher Colleges of Technology. 1 Dec. 2008 .

U.K. to Begin Micro chipping Prisoners (Addition Post)





The British government is developing a plan to track current and former prisoners by means of microchips implanted under the skin, as a way to reduce prison crowding.
Now the Ministry of Justice is exploring the possibility of injecting prisoners in the back of the arm with radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that contains information about their name, address and criminal record. Such chips, which contain a built-in antenna, could be scanned by special readers
By including a satellite uplink system in the chip, police would be able to use global positioning system (GPS) technology to track subjects' exact locations at all times.

In my opinion this decision will be helpful in some situations, but at the same time it not necessary in other situations. I think that this system will be useful for the police on tracking those who are on probation or other conditional release that need a constant monitoring because it covers large areas, so it will help for example, to keep sex offenders away from "forbidden" zones like schools.
In the other hand some situation it will be unnecessary like the cases that they can use the ankle bracelet like when they prison prisoners in home because it will be in small zones and temporary.


Bibliography:

Gutierrez, David. "U.K. to Begin Microchipping Prisoners." Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more. 04 June 2009 http://www.naturalnews.com/023481.html

Problems and Solutions Presentation

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Problems and Solutions



Global warming has become a big political issue and the most threat of our time. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil has caused the global warming. However, there are some solutions for this problem and one of them is solar energy. I will explain how coal-burning power stations cause global warming, discuss solar energy, and give my opinion about this alternative to fossil fuels.






For many centuries, coal was the main source of energy for all people. It burned to produce heat in homes and factories. Today, the largest consumer of coal as a fuel is the electrical power industry. The combustion of coal in power generating plants is used to make steam which, in turn, operates turbines and generators. Furthermore, coal use in steel and cement manufacturing. However, coal is one of the main reasons of global warming. Burning a tone of coal typically releases more than 3 tones of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The problem with coal is two fold, it produces a lot of carbon dioxide, among other materials into the air, and the world has a lot of it (Kanellos). In addition, it causes health problems and releases toxic mercury in atmosphere.





All government around the world concern about this issue and try to use clean source power such as solar power. Solar Energy is one of the renewable sources in life and that energy comes from the sun heat. There are some advantages of this energy. The price of this energy can’t be change in the future, unlike other prices for oil or gas. Solar power also leads to pollution prevention if it's a point source (Garris). Furthermore, it provides safer and cheaper energy for all our needs in life. However, this power is very useful, it has some disadvantages. It requires quite a large area for installation to achieve a good level of efficiency. The efficiency of the system also relies on the location of the sun, although this problem can be overcome with the installation of certain components (Wyk).


In conclusion, CO2 level is increasing and that affects the ozone layer too. Therefore, governments must consider the renewable sources as the source for the next generation. Another solution could be cool cities and limits the vehicles by using public transportation in big cities. Furthermore, every one should reconsider about his lifestyle and try to change it to help reducing the global warming.



Bibliography:


Kanellos, Michael. "Stop coal, stop global warming, says architect News Blog - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 28 May 2009 http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9782715-7.html



Leah, Garris. "What solar power has to offer: when it comes to renewable energy, solar power is definitely picking up speed. With more and more buildings taking on this new technology, solar power is becoming realizable for mafacilities professionals.(ENGINEERED SYSTny." Buildings Aug. 2008.


Wyk, Anita Van. "Advantages and Disadvantages of SOLAR ENERGY - Environment articles, articles from Environment.” 28 May 2009 http://articles.smashits.com/articles/environment/63040/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-solar-energy.html

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Cool Cities




Now days, many cities in the world are modern and have basics needs to live, however, these cities consume more energy that produce more CO2 and heat. Therefore, the developers found out a basic strategy to deal with heat and CO2 by building Cool Cities. These cities have the ability to reduce heat and CO2 to the zero level. However, Cool cities are not practical for two main reasons. This essay will describe my research on cool cities and my recommendation.



The first reason is the size of the world population. For example, Masdar City is designed to be free from cars and any other polluting machines, but this city will serve only 50,000 citizens (Morrison). The world population rate is increasing year after another and by 2050 the rate will be approximately 9 billion (Aziakou). Therefore, we need many cool cities in each county which is impossible





Another reason is the cost of building this type of city. Masdar City cost around $ 22 billion. Many countries around the world are poor and to have this type of city in them would be very impossible. This huge amount of many can be used to reduce CO2 level by developing the old factories and replace them with new one. Furthermore, this amount of budget can help to find many projects which have to be available and that are including poor countries.




In conclusion, having cool cities is a brilliant idea; however, most people can’t live in it. Therefore, I recommend that we should change our lifestyle and I believe that this is the solution for global warming.

Bibliography:

Aziakou, Gerard. "France 24 World population to reach nine billion by 2050: UN projections France 24." France 24 Latest world news report, find the events that make international headlines France 24. 10 May 2009
http://www.france24.com/en/20090311-world-population-reach-nine-billion-2050-un-projections.




Morrsion, Chris. "Personal rapid transit gets another chance at life �." VentureBeat. 10 May 2009 http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/23/personal-rapid-transit-gets-another-chance-at-life/.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Carbon Footprint





In the past, people used simple equipments which have no effect to our environment to do work. However, nowadays most people use many natural resources without thinking about the consequences, or footprints, they will leave behind Carbon footprint is the amount of green house measured in CO2 units. This essay will describe my research on carbon footprints and make recommendation to reduce them.










The consumption of energy can be measured by different categories and it’s depending on person lifestyle. I went through 2 different websites that calculate carbon footprint. However these websites have their own questions to calculate carbon footprint, the main idea is the same. I calculated my carbon footprint by answering different question in food, travel, home and stuff (WWF) and my result was 2.28 plants. I used another website (Heroes of the UAE) and I got an average of 3.81 plants. My most consumption was in cooling, water heating and IT. The average was 3.045 and that’s mean if every one has the same lifestyle, we need 3 plants to survive.





I compared my result to the 3 of my classmate and I found out some similarities in energy consumption. The first classmate Nasser got 2.5 planets. His main energy consumption was in cooling and IT. The second classmate Abdul Rahman 2.17 plants and his main energy consumption were in cooling and water heating. The third classmate Mohammed Al Attas got 2.68 plants and his main consumption was in cooling and water heating. In the UAE, the weather mostly hot, therefore we see people consume more cooling energy and we have the highest carbon footprints in the world.








I recommend that we should look for another source power that has less effect on our environment. Furthermore, lifestyle is very important to reduce carbon foot print, therefore I should try to change it and be good to the environment by using less energy at home and outside.

Bibliography:



Heroes of the UAE. 16 Apr. 2009 http://www.heroesoftheuae.ae/en.




WWF Footprint Calculator. 16 Apr. 2009 http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/.






Wednesday, April 8, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth Argument

Mr. Al Gore who used to be the next president of the USA introduced the movie An Inconvenient Truth. This movie shows us how the Global Warming effected our environment in the past years and in the next 50 year where the effects will be. Although in my opinion, this issue is not one of the popularity but based on simple fact. Now I’ll outline the argument between negative and positive reviews.



At first I will deal with the negative review. Some scientists disagree with Mr. Al Gore in the rise of temperature because of CO. Scientist Patterson said that in 450 million years ago, the C level was 10 times higher than now however the Earth was in coldest period. Mr. Al Gore linked between the hurricanes and the global warming and Dr. William Gray said that is not true. At the end of the movie, more scare pictures and scenarios had come over therefore the movie lost the trustiness. (Behreandt)



On the other hand is the positive review. Global warming is true and this movie convinced million of people who don’t believe this issue to believe it. Melting of the glaciers and the movement of polar bars are the sign that the climate is getting warm year after another and many of scientists and environmentalists proof the reality of global warming. This documentary movie warns us and if we didn’t take a real action, many things in the world will change forever. (Sherman)



In conclusion I think that this movie is excellent because it shows us lot of things that we don’t know and how the global warming will affect our life if we didn’t take serious action. We must look for another source powers which will reduce the atmospheric temperature.



Bibliography:

Behreandt, Dennis. "Hot air." Hot air. 18 Oct. 2007. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-21140267_ITM>.



Sherman, Ted. "Movie reviews: An Inconvenient Truth." http://www.helium.com/items/249578-movie-reviews-an-inconvenient-truth.