The TDIC Development (ADTA and TDIC Headquarters)

UAE is one of the modern countries that is improving quickly and attracting many visitors annually by the great projects. Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) implemented many projects in UAE. A lot of projects are being achieved in Abu Dhabi these days and each one has its own specifications. I’m going to talk about a project that I liked the most which is the ADTA/TDIC Headquarters project.

A development consisting of 9 floors of office space and 3 levels of basement car park, located at Al Maqtaa of Abu Dhabi. The building has been designed to benefit from several eco-friendly energy conservation features. There is a building integrated photovoltaic roof to harness solar energy to power some of the development’s operations, as well as ample green decks at the rooftop level of adjoining blocks to actively reduce heat transfer into the building. Also, use of daylight and sun- pipes to minimize the use artificial lighting but maximize the use of natural light will reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. Another energy saving feature which can be added is using hybrid cars or any other type of eco-friendly transportation. So I think I will give a green mark of (A) For this project.

To sum up, these projects are very costly, but Abu Dhabi government is thinking far ahead of the cost issue. Reputation is where they are heading. However, I think there are some projects will not help much like Qasr Al Sarab. The main reason is the location which is very far from Abu Dhabi city. Also, it just contains about 150 rooms which are few in contrast to other projects. As we know the main target of these projects is to reduce the global warming so the governments have to cooperate seriously to build like these cities.

http://www.gulfconstructionworldwide.com/bkArticlesF.asp?IssueID=283&Section=1807&Article=9505

Cool Cities

The cool cities are carbon free cities with zero waste. These cities will contain many things like public commercial, residential zones, cultural and sports zones and resort zones. Also, these cities will reduce carbon emissions by 60% so global warming will decrease.

Using green roofs in cool cities is the main way to reduce carbon emissions by 60%.The new Abu Dhabi Central is a good example for those mechanical roofs that respond to the temperature and will close up in summer. Moreover, Green vehicle, Energy efficiency, and Renewable Energy are major solution to reduce carbon emissions in these cities. Let me explain some details about these solutions. Using hybrid vehicles which are vehicles with low fuel consumption will reduce emission of carbon dioxide because of the electric motor that each car has. Using the light emitting diode (LED) instead of using Ordinary light will save more energy because it turns off if there enough lights. Finally, producing energy from renewable sources like sun and wind instead of using fossil fuels will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that cause global warming.

In my opinion, these future cities will help to reduce the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions but there are some disadvantages like cost. The cost of building cool cities is too expensive and there's too much effort and time to build them. That means people can’t afford to live there.

Ref : http://coolcities.us/resources/bestPracticeGuides/CoolCitiesGuide.pdf

http://thenational.ae/article/20080505/BUSINESS/69195690

Carbon Footprints

Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

There are several tasks on the net that can calculate the amount of footprint use by each person. I did one of those tasks and my score was horrible comparing to my colleagues. My score was 27.55 and that equivalent to more that four earths to live in. In my opinion I think those task it’s not suitable for Middle East courtiers. Many of the questions are pointed on transportation and food. To use a bicycle in U.A.E it’s very difficult due to the hot weather. Walking as well, the streets in U.A.E are not prepared for those who want to walk to work or to school.

I have been over question regarding food. The site asked me whether I bought organic fruit or vegetables but it did not ask whether we have fruit and vegetables in our country or not. To buy local vegetables it means to eat fertilizers and chemicals. I think the main carbon footprint source is factories. It is better to focus on them rather than thinking where those fruit came from.

There are many solutions for carbon footprint issue as per researchers and specialists. For the primary footprint there are several actions can be done by each person. First, don’t travel by air. Second, instate of using fossil fuel to produce electricity switch to renewable energy like solar and wind. Thirdly, by sharing cars or using local transportation as much as possible will reduce the carbon produced by cars. Yet another way to reduce carbon footprint is to use local goods like foods, drinks, cloths or any daily use material.

ICE MELTING AND GLACIERS

An Inconvenient Truth Movie

An Inconvenient Truth is a movie was presented by Al Gore in 2006 who was the Vice President of the United State. This movie shows the danger of global warming and its effect on our world. Al Gore discusses this issue with evidences such as; graphs, images and some statistics. This movie was widely interested by people because it was presented from political person. Al Gore makes his presentation funny to encourage people to see movie until the end. Also, he used a part of the animation to explain the global warming. Al Gore began the movie showing some images of our earth that taken from space. According to Al Gore, our atmospheric layer became thinner every day. The atmospheric layer was affect by the green houses gasses and the reflection of the sun emission. Human activities also mentioned as a reason the global warming. All these reasons increase the temperature of earth in the last two decades. In addition, Al Gore showed a graph that explains the relationship between the Carbon dioxide level in the earth and the increase in temperature. Moreover, higher level record of CO2 ever was recorded in 2005 and it is getting higher and higher. Also, some horrible images of the Katrina hurricane and the collapse of many ice sheets in many places like Antarctica and Greenland were shown too as results of global warming.

As a result of global warming, Al Gore said that the High temperature in the sea causes typhoons, tornados as well as flooding. In addition, the most areas which are affected from global warming are the two poles of the earth. Also, he mentioned the ice areas in the world were decreased by 40% within 40 years. Coral reefs also didn’t continue to exist and their beautiful colors have been changed as result of global warming.

At the end, Al Gore explains many ways to solve this serious problem. For instance, , he exhorts the people and government to change their way in dealing with the events in the world like stop the wars, and look for new energy sources in order to reduce the CO2 gases .

My Opinion about An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is a fantastic movie because it shows for people that their life in risk because of global warming. In my opinion, Al Gore made this film to get more people around him for his own political objectives, Al Gore asks people to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home. In fact, Al Gore spends through 22,619 kWh—consuming more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. Also, he tells other people how to live and he's not following his own rules. At least he should use some renewable resources such as solar, wind, and methane gas, which create less waste and pollution. In addition, Al Gore is one of the major shareholders of Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum which has been drilling in environmentally endangered areas. Gore also gets thousands of dollars in royalties from Pasminco Zinc - the company that has been polluting Tennessee Rivers with zinc waists. For all these reasons, I believe Al Gore is not the right person to promote such as this film to the world, if I met Al Gore I will say “Actions speak louder than words”. Also, I think AL Gore movie rate 7 over 10 just for his presentation.

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the earth’s temperature and it is one of the most serious challenges facing the world today. This is because it has a serious consequences and the world has little measures to control this issue. Here I will elaborate about the causes and consequences of the global warming.

The most serious cause of global warming is the carbon dioxide emissions by human activities. Deforestation, power plants, cars, air planes, factories are the most contributors to these emissions of carbon dioxide caused by our self. These emissions absorb some longer wavelengths from the atmosphere. The absorption of these long waves warms the atmosphere .Theses emissions act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space.

Due to the above contributors the nature has been disturbed and the greenhouse phenomena is applied on our earth which led to raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900.

If the world continues as of today, at the long term, ice will start to melt which will increase the sea level above some cities around the world and millions of people will be killed.ALSO, millions of species worldwide could be death by 2050. Therefore, the global warming is one of most serious problems in our life.

http://timeforchange.org/cause-and-effect-for-global-warming

http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/

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