Pardon the dust...we're working on it!

Urban Renewal! This blog is undergoing major renovation in Spring 2012. Please pardon the inconvenience while the site is being reconstructed. We welcome your comments and suggestions on things you'd like to see here! In the meantime, there's a quick link back to my web site in "About Me."

The Cool City Video

Today the English 174 classes watched a short video called “Toward Sustainable Urban Development and Architecture.” It featured the Cool City proposal from the SDCJ business group. The video explained plans to create a future city in the Arabian Gulf.

To sustain life on earth, we must reduce our carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to 50% of present levels. Nearly all of the CO₂ comes from transportation and buildings. Cool City is planned to reduce up to 60% of these emissions.

Cool City will use natural energy from the sun and wind, with lots of water and trees to prevent the “heat island” effect. Cool City is laid out in a circular pattern with a radius of one kilometer from the city center transport hub. Transportation around the city is by monorail, light rapid transport, solar ships, hybrid cars, and pedestrian decks. New buildings called eco-towers will use fifteen different technologies to be energy-efficient.

In my opinion, the video shows a very imaginative approach to a future city. This vision may become reality in Abu Dhabi, where the desert is blooming with the wonderfully cool new Masdar City.

Earth Day 2008

Today--April 22, 2008--we celebrate Earth Day around the world.

For the first time, the UAE is doing something to celebrate Earth Day.

Here's an exercise for my English 174 students to add to their blogs in class today:

Search the Internet to find out when Earth Day first began. Write a paragraph to
explain the importance of this holiday. If you like, include what is happening today in the UAE to honor this special occasion.

When you finish your post, please leave a comment for me below. Tell me your opinion about this assignment.

Happy Earth Day!

My summer vacation

What is a carbon footprint?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/carbon-footprint-green-basics.php

Dunn, Collin. Green Basics: Carbon Footprint. (c) 2008.

Here's a summary of Collin Dunn's excellent explanation of a carbon footprint.

What is a carbon footprint? It’s away to understand global warming. It measures the amount of greenhouse gases like CO₂ that come from the things we use.

There are different formulas to calculate carbon footprints, for individual people or products or for entire countries. Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, but there are others. Personal carbon footprints are calculated by the energy we use for our homes, transport, and things we consume.

We need to know the size of our carbon footprints, so that we can reduce them. Three ways to reduce carbon footprints are using energy more efficiently, reducing our consumption of energy, and using carbon offsets. There are several web sites to use to calculate your carbon footprint.

World Traveler Game

How well do you know your world? Enjoy this fun quiz!

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq

Global Warming and the UAE

Today's newspaper has the latest report. The Arabian lepoard and a species of frog join the list of native animals that are being wiped out of the UAE by climate change.

So sad....

http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Environment/10127167.html