Story of Stuff

In “The Story of Stuff” Annie Leonard argues strongly for the need to change the way our society consumes products. According to her, our society is wasteful: our economy is built on a model of production of things people don’t really need or use. We don’t think about the huge problem of disposing of these things.

There are five stages of how stuff moves that Annie mentioned but it is more. The five stages are: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Natural resource of exploitation is a fancy word for extraction. Three decades has taken to use up 1⁄3 of our natural resource space. Because Annie Leonard said there are no other options People, especially women of reproductive age, take jobs working in factories where they can be pretty sure there are toxic chemicals.

The surprising thing is that these things don’t even make us happy. The gifts we get are thrown away or not used. The new phone lasts only a few months before it is obsolete. And Americans in particular, the biggest consumers in the world, are less happy now than they were when they had less stuff in the 1950s.

Global Warming ppt

Presentation.174

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Global Warming (Problem & Solution)

Global warming is an increase in average temperature that gradually warms the earth’s atmosphere. It is phenomenon; which has been on the rise but in the last century, the increases in the levels have been alarming. This essay will explain the causes and effects for global warming and what solutions that had been discovered for avoiding this issue.

There are many reasons that cause global warming. The main cause is the human activity. Global warming is closely related to the worse greenhouse effect which is an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leading to an increase in the amount of infrared radiation near the surface. Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas (EcoBridge, P.1). Carbon dioxide one of the major causes that affects weather. It is emitted from power plants, cars, airplanes and building. All of these are product that humans produce. They are burning fossil fuels to generate electricity but they didn’t care about the negative effects of this procedure, which is increasing the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions. Another reason for global warming is methane is the second most important greenhouse gas. When rice fields are flooded, it releases methane to the atmosphere, mainly through the rice plants (EcoBridge, P.2).

The effects of global warming are of concern both for the environment and human life. The increasing in temperature will cause climatic changes and extreme weather conditions as rising sea level, change in the amount of precipitation, above average rainfall, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, storms and hurricanes (Lee, 2008). In addition, it will also affect yield of crops as well as plants and animals leading to extinction of different species. Global warming will increase the spread of diseases and there will be droughts and flooding, coral reef bleaching, forest fires.

We can reduce global warming emissions with several methods that are use in home and road (Global warming solution, P.1). The biggest global warming is carbon dioxide released when fossil fuel, such as oil and coal are burned for energy. So when we save energy, we fight global warming and save money too. It comes by use less gas with our current cars and buys clean, efficient cars. Also we can struggle global warming when we use less energy at home as using better energy. Then before you dispose something off, try to find new uses for it. For example, empty bottles can be cleaned and used to store stuff in kitchen.

In conclusion, I think that people are greatly contributing to global warming with all the pollution we cause from our factories and our transport and from our agriculture. So to save our world from getting destroyed we should learn how to preserve our environment by taking care of it, re-using products and recycling. All of these actions will make a better world for our children.

Bibliography:

1) "Global Warming: The Causes." EcoBridge. 28 May 2009 .
2) "Lee, Ed. K., and Brenda Wilmoth. "Global Warming." 2008. Student Resource Center Gold. Abu Dhabi Men's College, Abu Dhabi. 28 May 2009 .
3) " Global warming solutions." GreenerChoices.org. 28 May 2009 .

Cool Cities

The film of “Cool City” says since the start of the industrial revolution there have been some problems associated with economic development such as increasing in energy consumption, increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, and rise in population and finally traffic delay. If we continue emitting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere we will need a substitute for earth, which is impossible, so we have to cut down our emissions to 1.5 to reach the capacity of single earth (Cool City).

Japan was one of the active countries toward this issue, because it had a low emission rate among other countries and because it increased its energy efficiency to 37% while decreasing its oil consumption to 8%. However 90% of the carbon dioxide emitted into the air comes from buildings and transportation. In addition, the cool city means a model city which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60% as well as provide us with an enjoyable life style. SDCJ form Japan will build it. This city will operate on natural energies, such as it will present solar ships, hybrid cars, light rail transit, and monorail as transportation. Whereas the various zones in the city are Central Business Public zone, Residential zone, Cultural/Sport zone, Resort zone, Solar-Powered Plant Farms and all these are surrounded by Jatropha forest. There are some techniques that will reduce heat such as water, trees and roof membrane (Hope, May.5.2008). It is expected that resident building would reduce CO2 by 30% and other buildings by 50%. Finally, the percentage of reduction of CO2 emissions claimed in the video was 60%.

Bibliography:

Cool City. Sustainable Development Consortium of Japan

Hope, Bradley. "Cool ideas to beat the heat." The National 5 May 2008. Abu Dhabi Media Company. 7 May 2009 .

Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the lift stage of a product. The carbon footprint is measuring the amount of CO2 we produce every day by different ways. Including almost everything we do in our lives.

I calculated my “carbon footprint” by using (Footprint) and I got 2.41 which mean that I got an average which is lower than the UK average, and the survey goes like 20% for food, 22% for travel, 27% for home and 28% for stuff. However my country has the second biggest carbon emission rate for each person is 32.28 tons per year (Breathing Earth). Carbon footprint is the result of our acts in both individuals and society, which will finally affect the world’s climate change.

I will start with the problems; I am a part of this problem because I contribute to greenhouse when I travel by car in a short vacation, also I don’t recycle any product I already used such as paper, cans and plastic. Nevertheless, I used too much electricity in my life and everybody knew that here in UAE we produce electricity by burning fuel gas, natural gas and propane as a result all of these will produce carbon dioxide.

The calculations of carbon footprint calculate the amount of energy we use in order to produce electricity and usage of transportation and even food consumption. After having an idea about carbon foot print, we should reduce it by many ways. First, we have to increase the efficiency of our machines and use less energy. After that we will see that carbon foot print will decrease and we will reduce the carbon emissions which produced by us ("Carbon Footprint - What Is A Carbon Footprint?").

In conclusion, I suggest that everybody should measure his or her carbon footprint to find out the part where he or she contributes to global warming and get involved in reducing atmospheric pollution.

Bibliography:-

CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time. 16 Apr. 2009 http://breathingearth.net/.

"Footprint calculator." WWF Footprint Calculator. World Wildlife Fund. 16 Apr. 2009 http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/.

"Carbon Footprint - What Is A Carbon Footprint?" Carbon Footprint - Home of Carbon Management. 16 Apr. 2009 .

Inconvenient Truth (Movie Reviews)

An Inconvenient Truth is a popular movie that Al Gore produced. There are some reviews that few people agree with him and others disagree. This essay will explain the reviews that Roger Ebert and A. O. Scott mentioned and then I will put my opinion about their reviews.

Roger Ebert believes that the global warming is real (Ebert, 2008). He said that the government should begin an immediate action to stop and reverse it. Because as soon as government move to be careful from the effects of global warming. There will be a choice to avoid disasters. If they delay their action, in about a decade the planet may reach the maximum point, which will lead to the destruction of civilizations and all is alive on this planet. From this point the author confirmed that the cause of global warming is human activity.

A.O. Scott mentions that the movie shouldn’t have been produced and even it were produced it should have had another person than Al Gore. This is because Mr. Al Gore doesn’t have a proper method to show his information, because he speaks cynically rather than talk seriously. Davis Guggenheim said that the movie is a multimedia presentation on climate change (Scott, 2006). The author cited the Davis Guggenheim’s documentary program, which speaks about the dangers of climate change.

In conclusion, my opinion about the Global warming is a real issue in the world that the all human face. The movie presented some of the interesting information like what it will affect our planet in the future.

Bibliography:
Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth :: Reviews." Rogerebert.com :: Movie reviews, essays and the Movie Answer Man from film critic Roger Ebert. 2 June 2006. 09 Apr. 2009 .

SCOTT, A. O. "Warning of Calamities and Hoping for a Change in 'An Inconvenient Truth'" Movies. 24 May 2006. NY Times. 6 Apr. 2009 .

An Inconvenient Truth

This movie is presented by the Former vice president Al Gore shares his concerns on the issue of global warming. In this article I will summarize Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Global warming is the disaster which threats life on earth. Al Gore explained how the atmosphere works; the sun rays come to earth and reflect but some of it stays at the earth with the help of the Ozone layer to keep it warm. The horrible increase in the carbon dioxide ratio has thickened the layer which allows more rays to stay more than the human need. As a result, a lot of temperature changing can be seen around the world such as heat wave. For example, greenhouses; it rejects the sun rays to come in so the rays stay in the atmosphere which increased the temperature. Al Gore mentioned factors of carbon dioxide emissions; increase population, new technology and economic dependence on fossil fuels. Another problem the global warming is caused the ice melting which is extremely dangerous. The sea level will raise and constructions and the climate all can be affected if the ice starts melting because of the increase of temperature. As a solution Al Gore said that we should use a renewable source. He mentioned that we should use carbon capture and other machines which save for environment to reduce the effect of global warming.

At the end of his movie, Al Gore confirmed that most of the scientists in the world agree that we are the focal point for the global warming.