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TDIC developments
15 years ago
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Abu Dhabi Developments
Abu Dhabi is a modern city with a modern view. Many projects are currently being development, a glimpse on what Abu Dhabi's projects are can be found at http://www.tdic.ae/default.aspx. One project which really catched my attention was Saadiyat Island.Saadiyat Island is project planned to be completed by 2018, it is made to occupy 160,000 residents on 27 square kilometers. In this island there will be seven districts with 29 hotels and 3 marinas. Saadiyat Island will be the talk of the year in 2018 since it is developed to be more like a tourist attract rather than an enviromental rescue.
In my opinion Saadiyat Island looks like it will be a great project will many attractive features and activites, but won't be any help to our enviromental crisis. As announced by Saadiyat Island's main website that only one district out of seven will be an fully eco-address. other districts will be 7 stars hotels which in no way will be happy to save the enviroment on the account of loosing a customer's saticfaction.
However this is just an opinion, but no one knows for sure how these hotels will operate since not much information was provided on this island. All we need to do is just wait and see !
References
A Cool City...
Cool Cities and SDCJ is a project to make people live a sustainable lifesytle. This means livings in cities where flats and houses are rather cool instead of being a frigde and where SUVs are replaced by public transport and exercise. The UAE has become a big concern by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF). This is what made the UAE contribute to launch Masdar. In Masdar transportation will be by foot or by buses and buildings will be rather closer to each other to provide more cool and shade instead of being far apart.
Masdar is an environmental friendly project development by a $22 billion to make a carbon neutral city. This development gives people in the UAE the option of living sustainably. However Masdar's engineer coordinator has some doughts that this city won't appeal some people. But according to a British engineer Masdar's project will cut it's energy usage by around 50 - 70 per cent compared with a smaller size city.
A big problem in the UAE is the unbelievable summer heat. This cause people to use the air conditioning in an extraordinary way especially during the afternoon when the temperatures could reach up to 50 - 50 degrees Celsius. This is an issue because lots of energy is being used by air conditioning systems. However several ideas have been planned and the latest one was a project inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore. The idea was to provide large fans and misters as well as canopies and umbrellas to shade the 1.4 million square metre plot near Zayed Sport City Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
All in all these cities will really make a big of contribution to lose the stress of global warming and help reduce carbon emission, nothing comes cheap nowadays. These cities really cost a tremendous amount of money which makes people think again before starting to develop, that's why we haven't seen none of these projects and I guess we won't see them soon.
Masdar is an environmental friendly project development by a $22 billion to make a carbon neutral city. This development gives people in the UAE the option of living sustainably. However Masdar's engineer coordinator has some doughts that this city won't appeal some people. But according to a British engineer Masdar's project will cut it's energy usage by around 50 - 70 per cent compared with a smaller size city.
A big problem in the UAE is the unbelievable summer heat. This cause people to use the air conditioning in an extraordinary way especially during the afternoon when the temperatures could reach up to 50 - 50 degrees Celsius. This is an issue because lots of energy is being used by air conditioning systems. However several ideas have been planned and the latest one was a project inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore. The idea was to provide large fans and misters as well as canopies and umbrellas to shade the 1.4 million square metre plot near Zayed Sport City Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
All in all these cities will really make a big of contribution to lose the stress of global warming and help reduce carbon emission, nothing comes cheap nowadays. These cities really cost a tremendous amount of money which makes people think again before starting to develop, that's why we haven't seen none of these projects and I guess we won't see them soon.
References
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Carbon Footprint
A Carbon Footprint measures how much land space is required for a person living on earth depending on their lifestyle. Two websites which I used to measure my carbon footprint are:
These websites let you undergo a series of questions about how you live and what you use and also how often. After answering those multiple choice questions you are given a measurement of how much land will be needed to occupy you on Earth.
For me it was a high figure which was 22.63. This meant that I was in no way helping to make global warming any better. However after reading a couple of articles about how to reduce your carbon footprint, I started to realize that simple procedures and changing some habits could make this figure drop. One thing was about using a big engine car while not in need as well as sharing rides could help. Saving some electricity by using energy-saving bulbs and switching off appliances when not in use was also another consideration.
In fact almost every person is capable of reducing his carbon footprint. Look at it in this way, you won't die if you drove a compact 1.8 litre engine car to work daily instead of a 8 cylinder SUV !
For me it was a high figure which was 22.63. This meant that I was in no way helping to make global warming any better. However after reading a couple of articles about how to reduce your carbon footprint, I started to realize that simple procedures and changing some habits could make this figure drop. One thing was about using a big engine car while not in need as well as sharing rides could help. Saving some electricity by using energy-saving bulbs and switching off appliances when not in use was also another consideration.
In fact almost every person is capable of reducing his carbon footprint. Look at it in this way, you won't die if you drove a compact 1.8 litre engine car to work daily instead of a 8 cylinder SUV !
My Opinion On "An Inconvenient Truth"
"An Inconvenient Truth" is a great scientific movie on global warming, it shows what global warming really is about and how it can reduced. One of the main conclusions which I noticed from this movie was that goverments around the world played a big role in creating global warming. However although Al Gore made this great movie not much contribution was made by him to reduce what he was talking about which is global warming. One thing which I really wanted to see in this movie is alternatives to current daily use technologies which can contribute be enviromental friendly and reduce global warming.
An Inconvenient Truth
The movie presented by Al Gore about global warming called An Inconvenient Truth talks mainly about how people are making technologies a priority on the earth. It mostly talks about how global warming is changing the earth. However Al Gore adresses his concerns about how the world could become if humans activities continue to threaten the enviroment. Many lifestyles have changed due to global warming, and what concerns him the most is how future generations will find the earth. All the facts which have been provided in this movie were dependent on charts and figures which were compared in the interval of years. In this movie the most important part was the consequences which could occur if goverments and individuals around the world dont act.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Gobal Warming
The term which is used to refer to the warming of the atmosphere near the earth's surface is global warming, in other words global warming is the rise of the earth's temperature. Global warming however is a big issue in which all species linving on the earth are facing. Actions must be taken and this matter should not be neglected, because no one knows to what extend could the consequences reach and how bad the effects could be if global warming continues. What happens during global warming is this, sudden heat waves and periods of unusual warm weather, oceans warming up causing a rise in sea level and coastal floods, glaciers melting and the Arctic and Antarctic warming. And all this has to do with the early spring arrival, drouhts and fires, downpuors and heavy snowfall, plant and animal range shifts and population changes and also the spreading of diseases.The main cause of what scientists call global warming is pollution and precisely the release of carbon dioxide in the air. what happens is that when CO2 and other polluting gasses are released they collect up in the atmosphere to form a blanket traping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. The two main sources of CO2 pollution are the U.S coal-burning power plants which produce 2,5 billion tons of CO2 every year. Second are automobiles which produce annually 1.5 billion tons of CO2. The U.S however is currently a big issue in the global warming matter since it produces 25% of the world's carbon dioxide.
Reducing the release of pollutant gasses is a big step in stopping global warming from happening, other than that we could use the new technologies available such as enviroment friendly cars (electric cars), also the use of alternative energy source which don't require producing harmful gasses such as solar energy. Many things can be done by every one of us but the main problem is not many people take this matter seriously.
It's not only one who's going to suffer... so think about it !
References:
NRDC
Sunday, August 31, 2008
About me...
As a civil engineering student in Abu Dhabi Men's College, one of the major parts of my studies is researching. Although researching is so important, what is being researched is more important. The topic which i chose to research is global warming, which I see is an important matter in which every human being is involved in. Some people however wonder, what is all the fuss about global warming? The answer to that question will be answered in this blog in order to make people pay more attention and also to be aware of how vital the global warming issue is.
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