Masdar City:


Masdar City is little more than a dream in the desert today, but the beginnings of Abu Dhabi's transformation are visible in a field of 25 different solar panels sprouting from the sand near the construction site. The shimmering silicon modules are being run through an 18-month field test to determine which kind of photovoltaic technology will work best in this hot and dusty environment. The winner will help power Masdar City - and, eventually, perhaps much of Abu Dhabi, as scientists here learn to tap a renewable energy source that could ultimately be as powerful as the oil that has made this region so wealthy.

Cool City

Cool City will incorporate the latest green technology in transport, urban development and architecture with a low carbon footprint.


To be unveiled at two separate presentations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on 4 and 5 of November respectively, Cool City consumes up to 60% less energy than a conventional urban area by using cutting-edge technologies already tried and tested in Japan.


This is not just about concepts but specific and detailed technical proposals which Japan wishes to share with the United Arab Emirates.




'Japan is a leader in effective utilisation of energy. We aim to provide government officials, investors, developers, public and private sector companies in the United Arab Emirates with a unique opportunity to meet and share hands-on experience with leading Japanese experts in these fields,' added Nakamura




Underscoring its status, the consortium has received comprehensive support from the Japanese Embassy in the United Arab Emirates and Consulate General of Japan, along with the Japan Bank for International Co-operation, the Japan External Trade Organisation, Nikkei Inc., Heat Pump and Thermal Storage Technology Centre of Japan, Nippon Keidanren, Toyota Motor Corporation and the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company Masdar.




My Opinion :I think this cool city project will help us to reduce Global Warming problem.

gobal

Footprint

=6.60 Earths

Future Footprint improvements (:

Redefining Progress is committed to a process of continuous improvement to the Ecological
Footprint Quiz. By incorporating new data as it becomes available, adjusting our calculation
techniques to match the state of the art with respect to footprint methods, and redesigning the quiz based on visitor feedback, we hope to enhance its overall accuracy and relevancy to current sustainability issues. Improvements will fall into four major areas:

Scientific Improvements to the General Footprint MethodologyThis quiz is based on a general methodology known as Footprint 2.0, developed at Redefining Progress in 2005. Footprint 2.0 was a response to many of the concerns expressed about standard footprint methodologies by scientists between 1999 and 2004. In particular, Footprint 2.0 includes the entire surface of the Earth in biocapacity, allocates space for other species, changes the basis of equivalence factors to net primary productivity (NPP), reallocates the carbon budget and reports carbon sequestration biocapacity. Still, further refinements are needed to make the ecological footprint a more rigorous tool for sustainability analysis. For example, footprint methods are still lacking in their ability to distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable management of forests, croplands, pasturelands, and fisheries. Footprint 3.0 is under development, and will remedy most of the remaining scientific concerns. When Footprint 3.0 is complete, the quiz will be modified to be consistent with its approach.


More Accurate Countrywide AveragesThe quiz relies on initial countrywide averages for the carbon footprint, food footprint, housing footprint, and goods and services footprint and then makes a series of additions or deductions to these based on visitor choices. The initial countrywide averages are based on data sets published by international agencies such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank. There are concerns about the accuracy of these data sets and the time lag between gathering and publishing the figures. Our goal is to replace these data sets with more accurate data derived from in-country sources wherever possible. In addition, there are emerging opportunities for use of real time data derived from satellites that can alleviate the time lag concern. These new data sources will be incorporated into the quiz as they become available.

Refining the Effects of ChoicesWith most questions, the quiz adjusts a visitor’s ecological footprint up our down from countrywide averages based on their choices. For each question, there is a mid-point selection that is assumed to represent the countrywide average in terms of consumption or behavior. For example, the quiz asks a visitor to select a diet profile based on five choices: vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, carnivore, or top of the food chain. It is assumed that omnivore is the country wide average, and adjustments are made to the visitor’s footprint if he or she makes a choice other than this assumed mid-point value. The assumed mid-point value and the marginal effect of choices away from this mid-point are important topics for ongoing research. While the quiz relies on published research in most cases, the overall body of research supporting the quiz is still lacking. Because of this, we will be constantly looking for additional studies that, for example, tell us just how much the carbon footprint can be reduced by moving from a carnivorous diet to a vegetarian diet.


Additional Sustainability Issues and AspectsThis quiz addresses the effects of a wide range of lifestyle choices such as diet, shopping habits, transportation and spending behavior, but not all. It is our intention to modify the quiz to address important sustainability issues and aspects we’ve overlooked or that emerge as time goes on. For example, when the first version of this quiz was launched, carbon offset markets were still in their infancy. Now, it is possible for households to purchase carbon offsets quite easily, and so we’ve included that choice in our quiz. The Footprint Forum will be the primary way we gather input and identify where we need to make changes to the overall quiz design.

My Opinion About the movie :)

I think (An Inconvenient Truth) movie is very interesting because I was not aware of the serious global warming problem. It actually makes me wonder that when this problem is actually started and if we can reduce it.

In my view this movie’s layout is easy to follow because the speaker lays out the problem and gives us facts about the problem with nice and clear presentations.

As I see this movie, I think it is time for everybody to start to reduce this problem, because it is everyone's responsibility to keep this planet safe.

Global Warming :)

During its long history, the climate of the Earth has changed dramatically many times. But now the world faces a serious problem, because changes are taking place that do not seem to be the result of natural processes. Scientists believe that these changes are a result of the way we live. In this essay I will write the definition of global warming. Also I’m going to explain some causes and effects of this problem.

First of all, global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation.

The first cause and is the greenhouse gases. The earth’s surface soaks up the sun’s heat.
Some of this heat then escapes back into space, but some of it is absorbed by gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere. The second cause is too much carbon dioxide. We are putting more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning more and more fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), and by clearing huge areas of forest. Forests are especially important to us because trees, like other green plants, take carbon dioxide from the air when they make their food by the process called photosynthesis.
The main effect of the extra pollution is that our Earth is warming up.

The problem began more than 100 years ago when people began to use petrol and oil on a large scale. Many scientists now believe that the average global temperature will be at least 1 degree Celsius warmer by the year 2030. The next effect of this problem is that some British scientists have discovered that spring is starting earlier each year. Some trees now open their leaves ten days earlier than they did 40 years ago.

In conclusion, I think people should realize the global warming is a very serious problem and it increases year after year. So we should try so hard to reduce this problem because we just have one planet and if we lose it will be everybody’s loss.