$#! The Independent !#$

A comment on the article written by Johann Hari in The Independent “We’ll save the planet only if we’re forced to”

In this article says that everyone who is living on earth should be careful in their lifestyles and they always have to think about not causing global warming. He wants us to reduce the amount of using carbon dioxide and decrease the greenhouse gases. But in the writer’s opinion all of those changes won’t be done unless we forces to.

In my opinion, first of all who must force the people? Government!! I think they are the first who are responsible for all of that pollution in our environment. Changing people nowdays is very hard and seem to be impossible because they are used to live a very easy life styles and the first proof of what I am saying is that anyone in this world, especially in modern countries, can’t live as their parents lived.

As a solution for that, I think the technology is getting more and more useful which I believe it will invent something that will help our earth in survive, such as electrical vehicles, producing energy by the solar system, water falls and the wind.

""The MASDAR City""

Masdar city is the unique example of a cool city and the first which will be built in the world. Hearing that let us feel proud of our country as Emiratis. The city is located beside the international airport of Abu Dhabi. This city is not for everyone; it’s just for those who want to live in a completely simple life style environment. As a result they will not affect the world by global warming because Masdar is going to produce zero carbon emissions and zero waste. All waste production is recycled and the desalinated water will be reduced by 80%. The transportation in this city will be on foot or on cycles, which means no cars or buses. The master plan means that no one will be further than 200 kilometres from the essential facilities. This city will only depend on the solar energy and the power of winds.

Although this project is very amazing it might achieve success or might fail. But we hope that it will succeed to affect our environment in a good way. Abu Dhabi will benefit from this success to be one of the coolest cities in the world and Abu Dhabi’s atmosphere will be cleaner and free of smoke.

((**Cool Cities & Abu Dhabi**))

By recognizing the global warming is a serious problem which is affecting us in many different ways. A reminder to all of us, that we are the first ones who are responsible for that. A solution of this problem is the cool cities, which means a campaign that stands against the global warming. Many of the cities in the world want to be a cool city so they started to reduce the effects of the global warming, because they want to live their future in a clean atmosphere.

As we all know, Abu Dhabi is trying to be the best in everything and from any position to raise our countries name which will make us proud. One thing that Abu Dhabi is planning for is to be one of the cool cities and it has all the qualifications required. One of the best steps of Abu Dhabi in the world is that they are going to construct the “Masdar City” which you will know in the coming post.

:.: Global Warming :.:

!? Critical Thinking ?!

!?.My Carbon Footprint.?!

My Ecological Footprint Quiz Result:-

= 10.60 Earths

Reduce your footprint

(To Reduce your Carbon Footprint)

Use cleaner transport

-Walk, bike, or take public transit whenever possible.
-Avoid allowing your car to idle. If you’ll be waiting for more than 30 seconds, turn off the engine (except in traffic). And don’t take the drive-through—park the car and walk inside instead.
-Have your vehicle serviced regularly to keep the emission control systems operating at peak efficiency. Check your car's air filter monthly, and keep the tires adequately inflated to maximize gas mileage.
-Avoid short airplane trips—take a bus or train instead.

Add energy-saving features to your home

-Install compact fluorescent bulbs in all your home light fixtures—but remember, compact fluorescents contain mercury, so look for low-mercury models and be sure to dispose of old bulbs safely through your local hazardous waste program.
-Weatherproof your home. Make sure your walls and ceilings are insulated, and consider double-pane windows. Eliminate drafts with caulking, weather strips, and storm windows and doors.
-Insulate your water heater. Even better, switch to a tankless water heater, so your water will be heated only as you use it.
-Choose energy efficient appliances.

Adopt energy-saving habits

-Keep thermostat relatively low in winter and ease up on the air conditioning in summer. Clean or replace dirty air conditioner filters as recommended to keep the A/C operating at peak efficiency.
-Unplug your electronics when not in use. To make it easier, use a power strip. Even when turned off, items like your television, computer, and cellphone charger still sip power.
-Dry your clothes outside whenever possible.
-Make minimal use of power equipment when landscaping.
-Defrost your refrigerator and freezer regularly.
-Choose green electricity. Many utilities give you the option to purchase electricity generated by wind and solar power for a small rate surcharge.
-Purchase carbon offsets to make up for the energy use you can’t eliminate.

(To Reduce your Food Footprint)

-Eat more local, organic, in-season foods.
-Plant a garden—it doesn’t get more local than that.
-Shop at your local farmer’s market or natural foods store. Look for local, in-season foods that haven’t traveled long distances to reach you.
-Choose foods with less packaging to reduce waste.
-Eat lower on the food chain—going meatless for just one meal a week can make a difference. Globally, it has been estimated that 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions are associated with meat consumption.

(To Reduce your Housing Footprint)

Choose sustainable building materials, furnishings, and cleaning products.

-Explore green design features for your building, like passive solar heating, a rainwater catchment or grey water recycling system, and recycled materials.
-Choose efficient appliances, including low flow shower heads, faucets, and toilets.
-Choose furnishings that are second-hand, recycled, or sustainably produced.
-Plant drought tolerant plants in your garden and yard.
-Use biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products.

(To adopt water-saving habits)

-Take shorter, less frequent showers—this not only saves water, but the energy necessary to heat it.
-Don’t use the garbage disposal. Compost instead.
-Run the dishwasher and the laundry machine only when full.
-Wash cars rarely, or better yet, take them to a carwash. Commercial carwashes use less water per wash than home washers, and they are also required to drain used water into the sewage system, rather than storm drains, which protects aquatic life.
-Avoid hosing down or power-washing your deck, walkways, or driveway.
-Regularly look for and fix leaks.

(To Reduce your Goods and Services Footprint)

-Buy less! Replace items only when you really need to.
-Recycle all your paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. Don’t forget electronics!
-Compost food waste for the garden. Garbage that is not contaminated with degradable (biological) waste can be more easily recycled and sorted, and doesn't produce methane gases (a significant greenhouse gas contributor) when stored in a landfill.
-Buy recycled products, particularly those labeled "post-consumer waste."

Table View

++An Inconvenient Truth++

This film is very important for every one who wants live in this world and who wants to see their children to live in the same style or even better lifestyle than they live.

It is a documentary movie which is presented by “Al Gore”. The movie is about the global warming and the statistics related to the climate change. Al Gore has done a great job by doing this presentation. He chooses a very important issue these days which is the global warming. Al Gore has spent a lot of time to fulfil this presentation. He takes the words of the specialists in the natural resources, climate, and atmosphere to know the truth of this issue. He took the statistics that show the climate change and the temperature change.

This film is done to caution or warn people, to start thinking about this serious problem and to start acting to avoid these problems, which will appear in the coming years. However, planning for this problem will give us a chance to avoid these problems and make the earth as beautiful as it was before.

!!.Global Warming.!!

Since humans started to develop their countries the temperature of the earth was rising, but we can’t feel it before because the temperature was going up little by little or in other words it was very slowly. In the year 2000, when the world changed totally, the world’s temperature was increasing rapidly and we can feel it year by year how the atmosphere is being hard to manage.

Especially in the UAE where I live I can see that no one can go out in summer. These years the numbers of cars are increasing which means the amount of the carbon dioxide is getting bigger and bigger; in other words, it will affect the ozone layer by expanding the ozone hole.

In conclusion, it will affect the world by sending many harmful rays to us. One of the main reasons for the temperature raising is the stored rays which can’t go back to the space. The main responsiblity for that is humans who could change the world to be a better and nicer place to live.

*Lebanon*

Lebanon is an Arabian country that is located in the Middle East. Beirut is the capital of Lebanon. It is surrounded by five countries which are Turkey, Syria, Cyprus, Jordan and Palestine and it has a coast on the Mediterranean Sea.

In past years, Lebanon was called “the land of milk and honey” in the bible. Beirut's nickname is “Paris of the East”. Shakira is one of the famous singer around the world who is half Lebanese. Between the years of 1943 to 1948 there were many serious tensions between Muslims and Christians. The Christian has held the balance of power and Muslims had littlle say about their country. The tensions reached their peak in 1975 when The Phalange “radical Christian group” attacked and killed a bus full of Palestinians. It ended with 2000 Palestinians being killed. In 1982 the Israeli army invaded the city with the aim of removing the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In 1989 the fighting sides reached a peace deal with the Lebanese leaders.

These days, the Lebanese economy has been paralyzed after the death of the Minister, Rafik Hariri in a car bomb. He was an extremely wealthy business tycoon who was the best and strong support to Lebanese in re-building their own country after the civil war. 20 thousand people died, 30 thousand were wounded and a quarter of Lebanese population left the country. There were many signs of social and economic recovery in Beirut such as a vibrant night life. Many restaurants and shopping malls are being built. Muslims and Christians are living in peace also Lebanon has current serious problems. For example, living there is expensive and there are so many cars that means a lot of traffic which will lead to air pollution.

Refrences:

"Eye on Lebanon." Globaleye. Royal Geographical Society. 3 Apr. 2008

(http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_spring06/eyeon/index.html).

^o^ (My Profile) ^o^

I was born in Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates on 28th November in the year of 1988. My name is Saeed Al Mehairi. My father died when I was 6 years old. My mother is a housewife and I have four brothers and three sisters who have finished their studies and have graduated. Before I started going to school I remember I was playing a lot with my small cars. I started school when I was 6 years old. I love growing up plants since I was a child and playing with the sand to make different shapes with it.

When I was sixteen years old, I liked to play with remote control cars and racing with real cars on the road. Also I liked skating and cycling with my friends in the park near my house. At that age I participated in a chess championship at my school and I was one of the top ten participants. Moreover, I joined karate training classes and I became one of the best karate students in the school and I got the yellow belt but unfortunately they stopped the karate classes.

In addition, I have traveled to a few places. I have been to Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, RAK, Fujairah and Medina. My favorite trip was to Makka. I liked Makka because it was a family trip and at the same time it was a worship trip. In Makka we visited the religious places and we went to the mosque at the praying time. It was a special trip because we had heard about these places when we were in the primary school and on that trip we saw the places which gave us a special kind of happiness.

Moreover, in my free time I like to play on my laptop and play Playstation 3 video games. Usually when I go to a video game shop I ask about car racing games and I am interested in adventure and action games. I like to spend my day in useful things like doing research on my hobbies to collect more information about them or work on my website by editing or adding new things to it. On the other hand, I love raising aquarium fishes and taking care of them.

Additionally, if I had the chance I would love to open a car manufacturing company in the UAE and I will create a new type of car which will have the features that can be used by the sport people and people who like luxury cars. I will appreciate the participation of UAE nationals as volunteers. If I succeed in my company I will open a new section that specializes in tuning cars and customizing them.

Furthermore, my favorite film is that which is all about cars. The film is named ‘Cars’. It is an animated feature film produced by Pixar in 2006. The film is about a super race car that is an overconfident car. The super car always used to win so is nominated to participate in the world cup race but while the super car was transferring to the place where the world cup race is he got lost on his way and there the story begins. The most interesting thing that I liked in the film is the importance of team work.

Besides, I believe that the study must not stop while we are alive. As we are alive we learn from different things like school, college and we learn from our lives. After we finish our studies we have to learn or search about new things that we don’t know to let our brains think all the time; instead let it rest all the time, because if we let it do that it will be lazy and can’t think quickly.

Further, there are two things that influence me. One is cars and the second is aquarium fishes. I am interested in cars from my childhood; I like their shapes and the speed. I always like to know the newest cars on the market and their features. Whenever a new car is released I always look forward to know about its engine speed and power. My second interest is raising aquarium fish and taking care of them. Also I keep doing some research about the fishes and how to take care of them; what they eat, how they increase and how to prepare the best living environment.

In the future I want to get a job that I can depend on. I will continue studying and taking courses that I am interested in. I will try to achieve all my wishes and dreams.

Finally, If I could change anything in the UAE I would give foreigners an island that is all prepared for everything that is important to live, work and do what they want, but within limits, and let Abu Dhabi be just only for nationals.

":: A Short Article ::"

UBS boss to face angry investors.

I read an article about a huge loss in a Swiss bank which is called UBS. UBS boss have to face the angrer of the investor who is named Marcel Ospel. The bank has been badly affected by home loans crisis with up to $18 billion. This is the first annual loss since the bank was established.

Last week the boss was re-elected but it was for one year only. They say that he was too weak to manage for long years. Many European banks are facing problems in repairing their balance sheets and reputations.

In my opinion this article is new so that it doesn’t have much information. The writer focuses on the bank boss and doesn’t write a lot about the bank.

$.Diamond.$

Diamond is a carbon that exposures an extreme pressure and high temperature up to 1000 ºC. Kimberlite pipe transports the diamond to the surface. Africa is the number one continent in the world in producing diamonds. De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd is the biggest diamond mining company and most of it in South Africa.

For 600 years Antwerp had been a diamond centre and the Indian families take the biggest slice in trading. India has about 1500 cutters and polishers also about 80% of the world rough diamonds pass through this city. Dubai has the growing reputation as a diamond hub. It attracts diamonds traders by special deals of putting zero tax. The diamonds business in Dubai is worth about £1 billion. New York hip hop stars like to wear diamonds

There are many makers and traders of diamond who compete with each other. They have to make huge investments in building, maintaining and operating the mines and should continue searching and producing new types of diamonds