Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint can be defined as "the measure of greenhouse gases in units of CO2, that is produced by human activities." Measuring the carbon footprint helps individual, communities and countries to know how much co2 they are consuming, and their contribution to global warming. I took the personal test for measuring the carbon footprint and my result was 9.70 tons per annum which was relatively high.
My high results of foot print appeared from various reasons such as using all means of transportation such as cars, trains and airplanes. Also buying packaged food or leaving the air conditioner or the heater on in the whole house. I need to be careful about everything I buy and use.
After careful considerations, I realized that I need to walk more often instead of using my car to go to closer places. Also I need to buy unpacked food, and seasonal food and watch the electricity flow in my house.
It is very important for individuals to know their carbon footprint in the world, because its only then when we realize that this earth is our home, and taking care of it will help us live in a clean and a healthy environment and help our generation from further diseases. From my own experience I would like to reduce my carbon footprint, as I believe even one person matters.

American Cool Cities

1.Iowa- First municipal wind turbine.

2.Seattle- Reduced its own pollution by 60% by constructing green buildings and operating alternative fuel vehicles.

3.Klamath Falls- Geothermal heating system keeps the sidewalks clear and dry.

4.Houston, Texas- Plans to convert a substantial portion of the city of the Houston’s fleet cars, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles to hybrids by the year 2010.

5.Salt Lake City- Save #32,000 a year on its energy cost by installing 861 light emitting diode (LED) traffic signals.

6.Washington D.C.- Replace 414 of its polluting diesel buses with cleaner burning, compressed natural gas buses.

7.Twin Falls, Idaho- School increased their efficiency of energy which caused to reduce the cost by $3.2million.

8.Columbia, Missouri- Working to produce 10% of their electricity with clean energy like wind and solar power by 2015.

9.St. Paul- Has built a biomass fired power plant for heating buildings.

10.Scottsdale, Arizona- Has been a leader in the Southwest on energy efficiency buildings. It introduced Arizona’s first green building program in 1998.

An Inconvenient Truth

The movie titled An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary about Global Warming. The main character of the documentary is Al Gore, who was working in a public office and then resigned to become an advocate. In the 1970’s Al Gore became aware of the effect of global warming, he believed that this message should be acknowledged by all humans. Moreover he committed his life to the effects of the global climate change.

Al Gore became an advocate for the climate crisis, and proved that humans caused it. He wanted people to realize the importance of the environment, the consequences of people’s behavior to the environment and its later effects, and how we should encourage ourselves and others to keep our environment clean and healthy. He fought and struggled a lot to let his ideas reach people.

This documentary was directed by Davis Guggenheim. It was well directed, had captured people’s hearts, and won several awards. In my own opinion I believe that Al Gore’s main message “protect the earth” was not just for them at that time, but also for the next coming generations. He had left his foot prints in our history, he also made people recognize how we can live healthy and limit human’s future and unknown diseases.

Blood Diamond

The movie titled Blood Diamond is about the story of diamond trade in Africa – Liberia during the civil war of the 1990’s. Africa, at that time was rich with diamonds that people were hunting for. Two hero’s were presented in the movie; Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a village fisher man dreaming of his son going to college, and Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a former mercenary fetching for diamonds in Africa.

Danny, a young businessman who seeks his way to wealth was searching for Diamonds in Africa to achieve his dreams, However, he was captured on the Liberian borders. Solomon, on the other hand, was facing rebels attack in his village and was captured and became a slave, and was sent to prison later on. Before Solomon was sent to prison though, he found a rare huge Diamond that he kept and secretly hid.

In prison, Danny was released before Solomon. Then Danny heard that Solomon knew the way to the pink Diamond. Therefore, Danny got Solomon out of prison, and asked him of the diamonds location. Solomon refused to lead him to the diamond unless they make an agreement. Solomon was ready to lead the white man Danny to the pink Diamond in order for Danny to help him find his wife and his children. This was difficult because at the time, Solomon’s son was taken hostage by the rebels and was brain washed to kill other innocent villagers.

After many obstacles, Danny was able to find Solomon’s family and in return, Solomon rewarded him with what he promised; the pink Diamond.

I would like to conclude that the movie showed a lot of suffering, and death scenes that captured people’s hearts. I think that the main message behind the movie was to show how greed for wealth affects people and makes them capable of doing many terrible things to each other. Although the movie was about the search for diamonds, it showed another side to the story, Solomon’s family. Solomon found a diamond that was priceless; however, the only thing that mattered to him was finding his wife and son and being re-united with them and the price for that was exchanging this precious diamond for his family.

Severe Weather in the UK

Severe Weather hits the UK

The weather in the UK has become terribly windy. Gail force winds and rain affected roads, air
travel, rail and nearly every kind of transportation. About 12,000 homes are without electricity
and it is said that on Tuesday the flood will increase. More then 41 flights from Heathrow airport
have been cancelled and 14 flood warnings have been spread across the UK causing travel
desruption and power cuts. A wind speed of 82 mph was recorded in Swansea and South Devon.
Parts of England and Scotland have been hit by snowfall as well as high winds with
snow ploughs needed to keep some roads open. The high wind has caused sonsiderable damage,
blowing off garage roofs, and flooding city’s and towns that are by the coast.


My Opinion:

People think of wind as something that cools you off when the sun is hot or gives you chills in
the cold. Gail winds can be very deadly and can actually blow a house right out of the ground.
Thers is nothing much people can do when there is strong wind except to stay safe and wait until
it calms down. This is all part of mother nature. I just hope that the weather calms down and
nobody else gets hurt until things settle down.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7288975.stm

FloRida ft. T-pain - Low

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OTN2fFgb17s

Lebanon

Introduction:

Lebanon, a country that was called,”the land of milk and honey” in the bible. A country that has mountains, the sea and a lot of beautiful landscapes. Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon, it is also called “Paris of the East” because if it’s beautiful scenery and landscapes. The country’s which surround Lebanon are Jordan, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and Turkey. The famous singer Shakira is half Lebanese, and another famous person that was born there is the actor Keanu Reeves.

Modern History:

There has always been a conflict in Lebanon between the Muslims and Christians. In the 1940’s, after Lebanon gained independence from France, Christians held the balance of power and Muslims had little say in the running of their country. This caused a war between the two religions. In the mid 1970’s, there was a lot of tension after a bus full of Palestinians were killed in downtown Beirut. Revenge of killings followed and the country became a city of war and death. Syria soon sent in their army of about 20,000 troops that were invited by the Christians to kill the Muslims. Over two thousand people were killed. “No man’s land” developed between the Christian East and the Muslim West. In the early 1980’s the Israeli army invaded Beirut and aimed in removing the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). Eventually, the Israeli troops surrounded West Beirut and drove out the PLO. Thousands of innocent people were killed. Lebanon’s civil war wasn’t just about war between Muslims and Christians, there were a lot of different groups that formed their own armies and went to war.

Lebanon Now:

Beirut has been rebuilt and destroyed about seven times now. Beirut is being recovered now after the wars that have been going on. A lot of the Arab countries are helping it in becoming the beautiful country it once was and also a tourist attraction. Young people are living in a changing city with new hopes and challenges. More and more people are being employed and are able to feed their families. Hopefully it will once again become a growing country.