GLOBAL WARMING

What is cool cities

What is a Cool City? These are cities that have made a commitment to stop global warming by signing the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. Begun in 2005, the Cool Cities campaign empowers city residents and local leaders to join and encourage their cities to implement smart energy solutions to save money and build a cleaner, safer future.

Four steps to become a cool city

There are some steps you should take before becoming a cool city. The first step is to ask you mayor or governor to join the U.S Mayor Climate Protection Agreement. The second step is to conduct an inventory of your city's current global warming emission. This information will identify the city's major CO2 sources. After completing the city's global warming inventory, then the city will be ready to go further to step three which is to make plans and develop a solution to reduce emissions while lowering energy costs for the city. Even though all the city plans will be unique there are some strategies are required in all the city plans: 1- Green Vehicle Fleets, 2- Energy Efficiency and 3- Renewable Energy. The fourth step is that the city has to put the plan into action and monitor its progress periodically.

Cool cities:how this relates to Abu Dhabi's development

Abu Dhabi is promoting initiatives to minimize the negative environmental footprint of urban development and reduce consumption of energy. The Cool City concept - using available green technology in transport, urban development and architecture with a low carbon footprint - is being promoted by the Sustainable Urban Development Consortium for Japan and Gulf States Partnership, orchestrated by Nikken Sekkei, one of the world's largest architectural design firms. Cool City would consume up to 60pc less energy than a conventional urban area by using cutting-edge technologies already tried and tested in Japan. 'The UAE is one of the biggest oil producing countries in the world,' Yuriko Koike, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and former Japanese minister of environment, told the symposium.

Masdar developmet.description and analysis.

The Masdar Initiative is”a global cooperative platform for open engagement in the search for solutions to some of mankind’s most pressing issues: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development.” The city itself will be formed inside of a 6×6km2 square-shaped floor plan and will provide homes for some 50.000 people. The city will be zero-waste, zero-carbon and car-free, cooling: concentrated solar power, electricity: photovoltaic (solar) panels and water: solar-powered desalination plant.

This depends on whether Masdar is part of a genuine national devocalization strategy or a one-off green billboard at the airport. When the oil is ‘gone’, what will Masdar produce that can justify the bloated population in the desert metropolis? These questions are not really being addressed - but to me this vision would be more interesting than Masdar as the solar mall it is presented as. What effort avoidance and technology substitution strategy can be used? What are the structural shifts prepared? It is possible and even likely that the planning team has developed these concepts, but visible in the promo material is only a limited and expensive piece of hardware.

Masdar developmet.Can it work in practice?

This depends on whether Masdar is part of a genuine national devocalization strategy or a one-off green billboard at the airport. When the oil is ‘gone’, what will Masdar produce that can justify the bloated population in the desert metropolis? These questions are not really being addressed - but to me this vision would be more interesting than Masdar as the solar mall it is presented as. What effort avoidance and technology substitution strategy can be used? What are the structural shifts prepared? It is possible and even likely that the planning team has developed these concepts, but visible in the promo material is only a limited and expensive piece of hardware.

Comment on the article in The Independent

One thing consumers have to do is stop buying new cars - unless the cars are near zero emission or electric. This should have happened in 1990, and car makers would all be making zero emission cars by now.

However, consumers doing their greenest best, and becoming activists too, will not be enough - the big industrial emitters also need to change, possibly as a result of the consumer activism, but still they need to reduce their carbon emissions.

Critical thinking

To reduce your footprint

There are many simple ways to reduce the footprint you leave on the planet. Learn how to reduce your footprint in each consumption category–carbon, food, housing, and goods and services—but don’t stop there. Amplify your impact by encouraging others to follow your lead. Engage your friends and community with local and global movements for social change, or start your own movement!


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.


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.


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.


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.


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."

My footprint quiez result

What is Global Warming?

Global Warming is an important ecological issue and has many negative effects upon our environment. Global warming or what has been called the Greenhouse effect is an increase in the earth's temperature due to fossil fuels, industry, and agricultural processes caused by human, natural, and other gas emissions. For example, Sunlight radiates from the sun, through space, to Earth’s atmosphere. Then the sunlight enters the atmosphere and hits Earth. Some of it turns into heat energy. The heat gets absorbed by surrounding air and land, which in turn makes it warm. Then the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb the light and bring it back the earth's surface and heat it even more. This natural process keeps the earth warm enough but the modern industry heats it more and this could threaten our way of life.

An Inconvenient Truth!!

If anybody talks about climate change I recommend watching Al Gore's documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. ' There is too much Gore. But he presents the information and data very well and I found him convincing. It’s a really good introduction if you want to get general knowledge about climate change and it only takes one hour and a half. I watched it a few weeks ago with my friends in the classroom and our teacher and we all found it interesting and helpful. Before I watched this movie this issue hadn’t been too important to me and I didn’t know anything about global warming but after I saw the movie I started to believe and to be worried about that problem. I don’t normally recommend films, but I do recommend watching An Inconvenient Truth if you haven’t seen it.