We'll save the planet only if we're forced to

By Johann Hari

This article was talking about reducing greenhouse gases by rules and taxes as a motivation to force people to use items which are friendly to the environment like changing your light bulbs or buying carbon offsets. That was another idea to reduce people is carbon footprint.

First of all, I didn’t like the idea of being forced to do something and I think many people will think the same. Second, people are free to choose what items they buy and what kind of cars they are driving. If you want some one to do something it would be better if you gave him advice not punishment.

Masdar Initiative - Worlds First 100% Carbon Free Community

Future City

Abu Dhabi is now trying to build a city between Abu Dhabi International Air Port and Khalifa City called Masdar. This city will be the future of all new cities; it will be the first city where carbon emission is zero, where its energy waste is also zero, water production is reduced by about 75% and 80% of its water would be recycled; also it would rely 100% on renewable energy.

This is a good development for Abu Dhabi and I think if this project succeeds many cities will be built according to Masdar City, because it would reduce the carbon footprint and it would provide a better life for our children.

Cool Cities

Cool Cities are cities that are built to reduce the rate of carbon dioxide on the earth, by building a city that depends on natural resources, renewable energy and using hybrid cars. These are some solutions to reduce global warming around the world.

Abu Dhabi is in its way to become one by building Masdar City which is going to be a good example to other countries. Government is also building hydrogen power plants and making people aware about the danger of the global warming issue.

Critical Thinking

Global Warming

What is Global Warming?

Global Warming is the rise of the earth's temperature. Before the year 2000, it was hard to tell that the atmosphere is temperature was increasing but now you can sense it by spending five minutes without an air conditioner.

In the past, greenhouse gases like Carbon Dioxide were at their normal rate but since the huge development in industries and the increasing number of cars these gases are now off limits. These gases are trapping the heat we get from the sun and that affects the sea level by the melting of Antarctica. Climate has been changed by this process, animals are forced to move to other places because of the unstable climate and islands are covered by the sea water.

Global Warming is a very serious problem and we should bay attention to it because if we don’t it would be hard to live on the earth in future.

“An Inconvenient Truth”

Two weeks ago, mr. Hedley showed us a video called “An Inconvenient Truth” presented by Al Gore. Al Gore has dedicated his life in educating people around the world and I felt that he looks like a hero. The video was about global warming and the problems that are caused to the earths' atmosphere. It was a feel moving documentary that makes you think about what are the things that are causing this crisis.

The World Diamond Trade

Diamonds are the most precious stones in the world. They formed from around 1 billion tears ago under the earth. Now I’ll talk about the important location along the trade route these most valuable of rock pass.

De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd in Johannesburg, South Africa is the biggest diamond mining company in the world and they control trades about two-thirds of the world rough diamonds. In the 20th century they restricted an amount of diamonds in order to keep prices high in the market.

Antwerp has been a diamond center for about 600 years. Few cutters and polishers are left in this city, about 1,500 employees in Antwerp. However, 80% of the world rough diamonds still pass through the city.

India has high number of employees who cut and polish diamonds for about 40 cents for every finished gem. About 90% of the world’s rough diamonds are cut and polished in India. Most of the rough diamonds came from two places Antwerp and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Dubai now has a growing reputation in diamonds business. The government is also attracting diamond traders with a special deal of 50 years zero tax holidays for diamond. The business in Dubai is worth now about 1 billion pound.

Hip hop stars have been making music about bad diamonds from Africa. They like to show there success by buying diamonds also to show of and to attract the people eyes.

My Profile

My name is Mohamed I was born and bred in Abu Dhabi, I'm 19 years old. My father was working in the army but he is retired now. I have three brothers and one sister; I am the second child in the family but my older brother waited for me to start school together. Before I went to school I used to be the spoiled one and everything that I wanted my parents got it and gave to my older brother the same thing but with a different color because they knew that if we had the same in everything we would start fighting. I started school when I was six years old; my school was very popular at that time and almost everyone in our family used to go there. I remember that I had a lot of friend and all them were nice and friendly to me and my older brother who was in the same class as mine.

When I was a teenager, and I think I am still, I used to do crazy things with my friends. I remember that we used to stay outside the school after finishing our day of courses, we used to talk and tell jokes about anything that came to mind and people looked at us as crazy because of the way that we laughed. One day when we were outside the school as always we were talking and laughing very loud, the principale saw us and he told us to go home but we didn’t listen to him because we used to talk almost everyday until 4 o’clock in the afternoon but when he saw us again he told us that if we didn’t obey him he would bring our parents to the school. Anyway we did what he told us because we didn't want to get in trouble. He was a very good person with a long beard and he was smiling all the time.

I have traveled to a few places. I went to Egypt twice and I visited many places there like the pyramids and I saw the Egyptian museum and I was impressed by what I saw; that’s why I went there once again. In the evening I used to go with my friends there to the cinema and electronic parks where we spent all the time playing around with other people from all over the world. We used to spend two weeks or more there but with that time we couldn’t see every thing because Egypt is a very big country with plenty of things to visit and watch. I also went to Shalala in Oman with my cousin by car; we took a very long time on the road but when we reached the Hotel we couldn’t sleep because we were astonished by what we saw on the way so we left our stuff and started to discover the green city in the very hot summer. We went to the mountains in the early morning to sit and enjoy the cool weather beside the beautiful nature there. We spend there three days because my cousin had to get back to Abu Dhabi to his work.

In my free time I love to walk along the Cornishe in the winter but in the summer it’s very hard to open your car window. I also like to go to the beach and sit there with my friends talking and remembering the old times when we were in school. If I had the chance I would love to buy a small fishing boat and spend a couple of days in the wide sea with my friends and my cousins. I like horror movies and my best horror movie is Silent Hill because it has a lot of scary scenes and tells a story about a girl who was burnt by her village people because they said she was born of a fleeting relationship but the poor girl didn’t deserve to die because of something that her parents did wrong. So her ghost was taking revenge on the people who did that to her every night in the range of the city and she isolated them from other villages. I believe that Abu Dhabi will face a lot of changes in the next few years because of the government and H.H. Shaik Khalifa and the improvements that they are making and some day everyone in the world would like to visit it.

One day I decided to go with my friend to Fujairah which is about three hundred kilometers from Abu Dhabi. I prepared my self and checked up on my car then I called my friend to get going. At 6 o’clock we took the emirates road because it’s faster and had no traffic. My friend was very tired so he took a nap and I was listening to music while I was driving but the road got darker and there were no road lights but it’s normal on that road because it is still new but after a few seconds I heard the rear tire explode and when I tried to control the car and stop it at the side of the road there was a big rock and the car ran over it so we went off the road where I lost control completely. The car turned a few times but thank God it stopped finally, some people rushed to check us and they called an ambulance which took us to Rashid Hospital in Dubai. They called my father and he came as quick as he could; the doctor told him not to worry and we were fine. After a couple of hours we went out of the hospital with some simple injuries thanks to God. From that day on I learnt not to drive in dark places and to drive at the speed limits and always to fasten my seatbelt because it could save your life.

In the future I want to be a network engineer because I like working with computers and electronic things and sometimes I triy to repair our electronic equipment but sometimes I fail and make things worse but with computers I follow the instructions and some times I do it correctly without using a guide book. If I could change anything in the UAE I would add more fun places so that we didn’t have to take our children outside the country.