Carbon Footprint

The major challenge that concern many people around the world is the climate changes. Carbon footprint is the total of green house gases caused by individuals, organization, event or product directly or indirectly.These emissions that caused by humans has a big negative impact on the Earth. Generally, all human activities generate CO2 or GHG that increase climate change. For example, the use of electricity, fossil fuels, heating or petrol or diesel car, transport, food and goods The first step to reduce the emissions caused by humans is to calculate the carbon footprint of individual.

To calculate the carbon footprint I used the online website of footprint calculating http://footprint.wwf.org.uk. I answered different questions in four main categories, which are food, travel, home and stuff. My total footprint is 3.05 planets and the rest of my results are as following

The next pie charts show the results of footprints of four classmates (Mohammed, Nasser, Abdulla, and Sultan):

Through our daily practices as individual, businesses and more, all contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Mohammed for example consumes 35% on food; in contrast, I consume 22% on the same category. In comparison, I have the highest consuming percentage 25% on the stuff category, while Abdulla has the lowest amount 15%. On the other hand, Nasser's is the highest in the group, he consume 40% in the travel category. I recommend that Nasser should change his habits in travelling for example, he can walk more; travel once a year, use bus or bicycle or use small car engine.


UAE has the largest per capita footprint on Earth because of energy use (Heroes of the UAE, 2009). UAE in the future will face a crisis in energy demand and climate change problems like hotter summers, lack of water and sea level rising (Heroes of the UAE, 2009). This is because UAE is a developing country that requires more construction, commerce, infrastructure, visitors, industry and transport. Moreover, the income of UAE citizens is very high which make them able to travel and buy more which increase their footprint and use of energy. In contrast, poor countries in Africa and Asia are the lowest countries in consuming energy because of the individual low income (Global Footprint Network, 2009). Individuals use less energy because they walk more, use buses, buy less, travel less, and use less electricity.

There are many simple things that we can do to reduce our carbon emissions. For example, on the home level, we can replace any light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs to save 150 pound of carbon dioxide. Moreover, we have to turn off any electronic device, clean or replace air filter, set the refrigerator temperature and use microwaves and dishwashers more. On the travelling level, we can use cars less and walk more. On the food level, we can decrease the amount of meat use, eat more vegetarian food and buy local food. On the stuff level, we can use recycled stuff, buy reusable stuff, and use rechargeable batteries. Finally, people, countries and all businesses should work together hand in hand to reduce the amount of carbon used around the world to save the Earth and its resources to the next generations.

Resources:

CO2 emissions, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time. 16 Apr. 2009, < http://breathingearth.net>.
Heroes of the UAE. 16 Apr. 2009,<http://www.heroesoftheuae.ae/en>.
WWF Footprint Calculator. 16 Apr. 2009,<http://footprint.wwf.org.uk>.
Global Footprint Network, 16 Apr. 2009,<http://www.footprintnetwork.org>.

Inconvenient Truth "Argument and Opinion"

Inconvenient Truth is a documentary done by the Vice President Al Gore. It is about the issue of global warming which is one of the most concerned issues around the world. Global warming involves solar radiation that passes through the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and other gases are warming the surface of the planet by keeping solar heat in the atmosphere. However, burning fossil fuels like coals, gas and oil is increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth atmosphere and increasing the Earth temperature. Therefore, in this paper I will discuss the arguments that are with and against the “Inconvenient Truth” movie.

Many writers believe that Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” movie is a great documentary for many reasons. Brandon Valentine in his article “An Inconvenient Truth” pointed that the documentary movie is very interested and important. The movie has a main objective to convince people that there is a global environmental crisis. The writer believes that Al Gore reached his aim to convince people by all the facts, charts and graphics presented in the movie. In addition, the movie has some sense of humor because of Al Gore way in presenting his ideas. Moreover, the writer found that the movie is a wakeup call that shows the real and serious side of global warming. Finally, the writer found that the movie very attractive and persuasive because of the directing style and new technologies used like animations and graphs (Valentine 2009, p.1).

On the other hand, Many Scientists argue that the “Inconvenient Truth” movie has many inaccurate facts and details. Tom Harries claimed that Professor Bob Carter of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, in Australia said that "Gore's circumstantial arguments are so weak that they are pathetic. It is simply incredible that they, and his film, are commanding public attention” (Harries 2006, p.1). He declared also that Al Gore’s mentioned in the movie that temperature is increasing because of the increase of CO2 level, but in fact before 450 million years CO2 levels were higher than now and the Earth was in its coldest period. Moreover, Gore’s mentioned that 200 cities in American West records high temperature at all time which considered as misleading topic by Dr. Roy Spencer because there is no enough actual data that prove it (Harries 2006, p.1).

In conclusion, I believe that the documentary movie was very excellent one. It has enormous amount of scientific facts that enriches and aware people about the global warming issue. I think this movie could be used in education as a resource to teachers and students. Moreover, the movie introduces some solutions that individual can do in order to reduce the amount of CO2 in the Earth atmosphere.

Resources:

Brandon Valentine, Movie Review: An Inconvenient Truth, <http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/02/13/133524.php> , 2009.
Tom Harris, Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe "The Inconvenient Truth" is indeed inconvenient to alarmists, < http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/harris061206.htm >, 2006.