Conclusion ( The Last Post )

In this article, the author, Johann Hari states that the little things that were said it can reduce the effects of global warming are nonsense. Small things like reducing the amount of travels by plane or switching from the regular light bulb to the florescent light bulb or using different means of transportations other than cars like bicycles and busses or even reduce the water and electricity consumption. The author says that we need to take big actions towards this crisis. Big action by his definition is to let the governments do something instead of people. The people as he say, are important but the little things that were mentioned before won't have a big effect like the government's. We should volunteer or even better, donate to green foundations like Green Peace or Friends of The Earth or Plane Stupid. Those foundations can twist the government's arm and force them to take an action and do something instead of looking out for themselves.

In my opinion, I totally disagree with the author. He says that people have small impact to what is happening to our world. If people from all over the world put hand on hand and decided to do the "little things", the amount of CO2 will climb down dramatically. I don’t say that the government shouldn't do anything about, they should and I think they are. I am talking about our government; they are trying to reduce their carbon footprint by setting penalties to those who don’t adhere to the rules, and by building cool cities, like Masdar City. They are trying, but most of the effort must come from the people, not the government.

Cool Cities (SDSJ)

Since the start of the industrial revolution, there have been problems associated with economic development. One of those problems is Earth and environmental issues. When we say that, we mean problems like rising in population and increasing in the amount of CO2. If we don’t solve those problems, we will need another earth to replace our own. We have to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air by one half to live within the capacity of a single earth. In Japan during the last 30 years GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has gone up double percent while energy efficiency has increased 37% percent and oil consumption has decreased 8% percent. 90 percent of carbon dioxide emitted into the air comes from buildings and transportations. All this, led to the creation of cool cities. A cool city is a city that was built to reduce the CO2 emission and help with the global warming problem. A company named SDSJ is building the project and they are located in Japan. The types of transportation that will be used in Cool City are Monorail between cities, LRT, hybrid cars and solar ships inside the city. There are various zones in the city which each has its own functions. Those zones are the Business/public zone, residential zone, culture/sport zone and resort zone. A side of that , there are going to be some techniques like Putting an abundant of trees and water and natural breezes to reduce the heat. There are going to be two types of buildings. They are expected to reduce the CO2 by 80%. The overall percentage of reduction of CO2 emissions claimed in the video was 60%

One Planet Living

If everyone lived like an average North American we would need 5 planets.

If everyone lived like an average European we would need 3 planets.

If everyone lived like an average Emirati we would need 7 planets.

Our global footprint grew by 150% between 1961 and 2003. It is now 25% above the planet's biological capacity to support life on earth.

The WWF has developed an initiative called One Planet Living. It has ten guiding principles.

Masdar is going to be developed using these principles:

Zero Carbon: As a result of the increasing rate of CO2, our climate is changing.
Zero Waste: Products that are thrown away creates wastes and those wastes can create disposal problems and wastes valuable resources.

Sustainable Transport: When people travel by air or car, it participates in climate change and noise pollution.

Local and Sustainable Materials: The usage of destructive resources can escalate environmental damage.

Local and sustainable food: Unknown food quality and the harms of local system are all produced by the industrial agriculture.

Sustainable Water:Because of the pollution and the disruption of hydrological cycles, local resources of fresh water are not enough.

Natural Habitats and Wildlife: the over usage of natural supplies and the development of some natural locations have lost biodivesify.

Culture and heritage: As a result of globalization, local culture and heritage is being lost.

Equity and Fair Trade: Some people are living in poverty while some people can’t meet their basic needs.

Health and happiness: As a result of the increasing depart of wealth, health and happiness, questions are being raised.


I think that Masdar City will find difficulties in having a zero carbon.
The benefits and goals of the one planet living is:

1. “Build a world-wide network of One Planet Living Communities and other exemplary projects to demonstrate One Planet Living in action.”
2. “Establish One Planet Living Centres in each One Planet Living community as a focus for education.”
3. “Promote the imperative for One Planet Living and its guiding principles to catalyse change with governments, business and individuals.”

Why I would like to live in Masdar city.

Masdar city is considered the 1st step for the capital city of the United Arab Emirates to reduce it's gigantic carbon footprints. Masdar city , as they say, will have zero carbon and zero waste. I would gladly live in masdar city , because it seems that it would be one of the cleanest and greenest places in the world. In addition , it will change my life style to an active one . I will exercise in a fresh place. I can have fun and enjoy my time without feeling guilty about destroying our precious planet.

Is Abu Dhabi a Cool City?

Abu Dhabi is definitely on the right track regarding reducing their carbon foot print. I think Abu Dhabi is not yet a cool city but hopefully, will be one soon. As for your business, I think you should open a “Reduce Global Warming” store. This store sells all the alternatives that can improve the rates of global warming and life in general.

P & S: How to reduce our carbon foot print?

Our World, the world we are living in, is crying for help and no one is listening. We are abusing it everyday without even knowing about what problems and issues it may cause. As a consequence, we are facing now a major crisis that is called global warming. Global warming is measured by how big is a carbon foot print. Carbon foot print is a "measure of humanity's impact on the earth's climate through activities that emit greenhouse gases". I am living as if there were 3.24 planets. I will now present the problems that may lead to big carbon footprints and suggest possible solutions.

There are several important problems that can lead to gigantic carbon foot prints. One of the main problems is that we don't recycle. Recycling is an important factor that effects global warming. We can recycle papers, empty plastic bottles and cans. Another important problem is traveling. People, especially in the Middle East, travel a lot. In the winter and summer, the trips to countries double which means the airplanes burn gas which eventually, lead to big carbon foot prints. The last problem that I will discuss is energy consumption. We use a lot of energy either water or electricity which can leave behind big carbon foot prints.

For every problem in the world, there are solutions. One of the main solutions that can be applied is reducing the energy consumption. We can reduce it by simply turning off the lights when getting out of the room and close the water tap when unneeded. Another good solution that we can do is using alternative means of transportations that doesn't send out C02 to the air like bicycles or scooters. The last solution is that we could eat less meat. The lesser meat we eat the less we leave behind us big carbon foot prints.

In conclusion, it is not too late for us to change, if we follow the suggested solutions we could reduce our carbon foot print dramatically.

American Cool Cities

There are many American cities that became "Cool Cities". I will state 10 American cities that became cool cities and what they are doing to reduce their carbon foot prints. The cities are:


1. Seattle: They reduced global warming pollution by more than 60 percent by constructing green buildings and operating alternative fuel vehicles.

2. Washington DC: DC has replaced 414 of its polluting diesel buses with buses that burn natural gases.

3. Houston: convert a substantial portion of the city of fleet of cars and trucks.

4. Marion County/Florida: they use gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

5. The city of Scottsdale: has introduced Arizona’s first green building program which helps builders and home owners learn about how to integrate energy efficiency and water saving.

6. Salt Lake City: they changed 861 traffic lights to LED light signals.

7. Colorado: is working to produce 50 percent of the city electricity with renewable energy by 2017.

8. Charlotte: they switched from a gas only Ford Taurus to a hybrid Toyota Prius or Honda Civic and that would save city taxpayers approximately $800-1200 per vehicle including over $400 in annual fuel cost.

9. Twin Falls/ Idaho: Reduce energy cost and cut pollution by increasing the energy efficiency of its 11 schools.

10. St. Paul: they use a system that uses heat drawn from a biomass-fired power plant.