Climate Change review

Problem & solution

Climate change is becoming an even more pressing issue than before in everybody’s life. Global warming has reached dangerous levels and continuing at these rates will only devastate future generations with pollution. Some of the climate related problems are global warming, ozone depletion and El Nino.
Ozone depletion contributes to the greenhouse effect which helps more of the sun radiation to filter through the atmosphere.

Another climate change factor that killed millions in the 1970s and 1980s with drought in Ethiopia was global dimming. Where air pollutants from fossil fuels caused clouds to form which reflected sunrays back into space, where less heat and energy reaches the earth. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. For many years, large, influential businesses and governments have been against the idea of global warming. Many have poured a lot of resources into discrediting what has generally been accepted for a long time as real."In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver",Elisabeth Rosenthal.

To start solving this issue, it is important for governments to realise the urgency of this situation."Global warming is a serious condition that affects our planet. It is important to be aware of the human causes of global warming in order to prevent additional global warming from occurring",Ajith Guptha. Governments should have a responsibility to educate both the public and industry about these hazards; laws banning the production of CFC gases would help to slow down the rate of ozone depletion and global warming. You can help by reducing your energy consumption (turn off lights, walk instead of drive) therefore reducing the amount of fossil fuels (which release CO2) that are burnt for you. Eliminating the burning of coal, oil and eventually natural gas. Infrastructure Upgrade: buildings worldwide contribute around one third of all greenhouse gas emissions, even though investing in thicker insulation and other cost-effective, temperature-regulating steps can save money in the long run. The easiest way to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions is simply to buy less stuff.

But none of these solutions will work efficiently if there is no worldwide agreement and commitment to solve this problem.

Bibliography:
Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times,Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’
Ajith Guptha,HealthArticles-lk.com.
http://www.reef.edu.au/contents/ps/fr_climate.html
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/178/climate-change-and-global-warming
http://www.scientificamerican.com/

Cool cities

Since the start of the industrial revolution problems associated with it started to develop like population pressure, traffic congestion, increases in energy consumption and increases in CO2 emissions into the air. At the rate we are going we might need another earth to solve this problem but we all know that is impossible, so we need to at least decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the air by 50% to continue living on our earth. During the last thirty years Japan’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has increased by 100% while energy efficiency has increased by 37% and oil consumption has decreased by 8%. Ninety percent of carbon dioxide emitted into the air comes from buildings and transportation. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions the idea is to use energy saving construction and counter measures against traffic congestion.
The SPCJ is developing a cool city in the Gulf region. A cool city is an environmentally friendly city that has minimum CO2 emissions. The cool city uses three types of transportation which consist of light rail transit, hybrid cars and water transport. The city consists of three zones: business, commercial and residences. The techniques that the city uses to reduce heat are green belt, water canals and wind power. The two types of buildings used are the eco towers and eco residential and the expected reduction of CO2 emissions are 50% and 30% respectively. Concluding the expected overall percentage reduction of CO2 emissions is to be 60%.

My opinion is that cool cities are a great idea that has to be implemented immediately. The UAE is already starting with an eco friendly city called Masdar and this is a great step in the right direction.

My Carbon Footprint

I measured my carbon footprint at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ & it was 2.90 planets which is 12.37 tonnes per annum.
Most of my CRE Classmates also had similar figures and our class average was approximately 3.87. The main factors that contributed to my carbon footprint are:
· Stuff 32%
· Home 29%
· Food 22%

A carbon footprint as defined is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product. My guess is that most people’s highest carbon emissions are from stuff like me.
The reason stuff is usually the highest is because it is the little things that people take for granted and don’t think that they contribute much, but they all add up which makes the highest percentage. Reducing these emissions can be reduced simply by remembering to switch off the lights when vacating a room.
Our country is the first ranked in the world as most pollutant country in the world, and we needed to do something about this statistic to at least show the rest of the world that we are aware of the current global warming crisis and trying to contribute in solving it. And I am sure every citizen of the UAE the help solve this problem if enough awareness is raised.