Friday, May 23, 2008

TDIC Projects

My partner Majed and I researched Al Bateen wharf project. You can see our PowerPoint about its best features embedded below. In my opinion, it is the best project. I will now write about the project that I liked the most and the least interesting project from the other TDIC projects in Abu Dhabi.



The most interesting project I think was the Lagoon Club Hotel and Residence. This project is located in Abu Dhabi Corniche. This is an advantage because most of the tourists like to go there to relax and enjoy. The second reason which makes me choose this project is the leisure facilities such as beach club, swimming pool which connected with the sea and Golf cart. The hotel has 380 rooms which is good because of the lack of hotel accommodations in Abu Dhabi.



The least interesting project I think was Qasr Alsarb. This project is located in the middle of the desert in Liwa. This is a disadvantage because its far and most people will not go there because of its location. Also the weather in the UAE is known of its hotness, so by being in the desert will be extremely uncomfortable. Another disadvantage is that this project lack children playground. This will be a hard decision for parents to go to and leave their children behind.

In conclusion, I think these projects well make Abu Dhabi more famed and will contribute in tourism income to ward Abu Dhabi. Another point is these projects will help solving the accommodations shortage and offer more job opportunities.

Read this doc on Scribd: Al Bateen Wharf

Yas Island - Abu Dhabi

Al Raha Beach - Abu Dhabi

Friday, May 16, 2008

My Carbon Footprint


A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activities. It measures your consumption of food, energy, goods, services and housing and shows how big the effect is on the environment. After taking the quiz at www.footprint.wwf.org.uk/ my score was 5.00 planets which mean that if every one lived my lifestyle, we would need 5 earths.

I found that I have quite a lot of problems. One problem was travel. That means I am using my car a lot and traveling by plane for long distances. Another issue was my consumption of electricity and water at home. A third matter is that I never recycle which contribute to my footprint.

On the other hand, there are some solutions to reduce my footprint. First I need to walk instead of using my car when possible. Second I have to turn off the air conditions in the rooms that I am not using. A final solution is that I must put the recyclable trash in the proper place like the one in spines supermarkets.

In conclusion, every one should try to reduce his or her carbon footprint. That will help to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the world and make it safer for our next generation.

An Inconvenient Truth : Evaluation

In my opinion, the movie was nearly perfect and interesting. Mr. Al Gore used advanced technologies to present his presentation such as videos, graphs and pictures. My overall reaction to the movie was excellent. I have enjoyed it and I have learned many things about the global warming.

The most compelling point Mr. Al Gore made is regarding the sea level. He mentioned that the sea level will rise and the land will sink. He supported his idea with explanation pictures. Mr. Al Gore's movie was really effective. It contained music and sounds that makes you attracted to the presentation. It also contained images which was very attractive. On the other hand a lot of people said that he is trying to draw attention because he is a politician. Although the movie was successful, Al Gore comments made it more interesting. He commented on all slides and images in the movie. The images and Al Gore's comments drew the full image of the global warming disasters in my brain.

Finally, on a scale 1 to 10 I rate this documentary nine out of ten, and I advice every one to watch it.

"An Inconvenient Truth"



In the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" produced in 2006 by Davis Guggenheim, a documentary filmmaker, former US vice president Al Gore shares his life story and his concerns on the critical issue of global warming.
Gore mentioned events that changed his worldview, like his college instructor Roger Revelle at Harvard University, his son's car accident and his sister's death from lung cancer. Gore also mentioned his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

In the presentation Gore reviews the scientific view on climate change and talks about the effect of politics and economics on global warming, and explains the consequences climate change will makes in the future if greenhouse gases that were generated by human extensively reduced. He also talks about the CO2 levels for the last 650,000 years by examine the Antarctic ice core samples, also about the annual temperature.



Gore mention effect of global worming. For example, with rising temperature velocity of wind will increase; there will be strong storms and droughts may kill millions of people. There are some of the changes in ecological niches that Gore mentions such as, shifts in seasons and disease. Furthermore melt down of a big ice sheet in West Antarctic or in Greenland is possible. Either one could raise worldwide sea levels by about 6 meters. That will cause more than 100 million refugees. One more was low salinity meltwater from Greenland. That will stop the progress of the heat controlling system that keep north Europe warm and cause dramatic cooling there.

In sum, Gore states that global warming effects can be reversed by planting more vegetation to consume CO2 and reducing CO2 emissions. Furthermore he encourages the viewers to learn how to help to save the world.