Sunday, February 21, 2010
New blog skin
How did you guys change the blogskin? Any idea where we can get a tag board so that we can talk to each other when we are online?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Climate change
No doubt, climate change is a pressing issue. The lecturers showed us in their slides that the current climate situation is no laughing matter. From the statistics that analyze the alarming rate at which the temperature increases to the evidence of the effects of global warming, the lecture reminds us that we are living in no comfort zone. Truly, the climate situation is a ticking time bomb ready to explode and create devastating effects upon mankind.
In later part of the lecture, we were told of the measures we could adopt to actually lower the carbon emission that contribute to climate changes. Ironically, facing the doom, mankind still remain selfish, ignoring all warnings and precaution necessary to curb climate changes and its effect. Just touch our heart and ask ourselves, how many measures we remembered from the lecture and how many of them are we going to start implementing into our lives? Ultimately, I feel that the problems posed by climate changes would not be solved easily if we continue to live in our own sweet world and waiting for an external hand to eradicate these problems for us. How long we are going to wait? I seriously do not know. But the time bomb is still ticking...
In later part of the lecture, we were told of the measures we could adopt to actually lower the carbon emission that contribute to climate changes. Ironically, facing the doom, mankind still remain selfish, ignoring all warnings and precaution necessary to curb climate changes and its effect. Just touch our heart and ask ourselves, how many measures we remembered from the lecture and how many of them are we going to start implementing into our lives? Ultimately, I feel that the problems posed by climate changes would not be solved easily if we continue to live in our own sweet world and waiting for an external hand to eradicate these problems for us. How long we are going to wait? I seriously do not know. But the time bomb is still ticking...
Climate Change and its issues.
After listening to last Friday’s insightful lecture, it has increased my awareness and understanding of the issues related with climate change (global warming) and its implications. The point that caught my attention was countries with higher GNP per capita have higher carbon footprints, as they should have the technology and money to combat global warming. Over the years the effect of global warming has become imminent and hence the need to cut down on carbon footprints is inevitable. There has been a temperature rise, which in turn cause an increase in water level, thus endangering low-lying countries. For example Tuvalu , which is among the world's lowest-lying countries, they are suffering from two kinds of damage. One is from higher sea water levels that erode their coastlines. The other is from sea water penetrating the atolls, contaminating their wells and farmland and sometime even rising up through the floors of their homes. Hence we cannot leave this problem unchecked.
Prof. Sovacool shared with us some useful means to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases. There are a few methods which could be used or have been done by the Singapore government which I would like to highlight. In terms of transport the Singapore have done a good job in keeping the number of vehicles on the roads in check. For example the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), instituted by the government of Singapore, is a program designed to limit car ownership, and hence, the number of vehicles on the country's roads. This system, in effect, requires residents of Singapore to bid for the right to buy a motor vehicle, with the number of certificates deliberately restricted. Furthermore she has incorporated good land use regulations and infrastructure planning. However, I feel that Singaporeans tend to have high spending power, in which 95% of goods most people purchase are no longer in use after the 1st year. In my opinion, perhaps the government can educate citizens on the impact they play in fighting global warming and how they can change their daily actions to mitigate the situation, or if need be impose a limitation to the amount of goods they can buy.
I hope people realize the situation and do their part in fighting global warming and our future generations live to see a brighter future.
Prof. Sovacool shared with us some useful means to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases. There are a few methods which could be used or have been done by the Singapore government which I would like to highlight. In terms of transport the Singapore have done a good job in keeping the number of vehicles on the roads in check. For example the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), instituted by the government of Singapore, is a program designed to limit car ownership, and hence, the number of vehicles on the country's roads. This system, in effect, requires residents of Singapore to bid for the right to buy a motor vehicle, with the number of certificates deliberately restricted. Furthermore she has incorporated good land use regulations and infrastructure planning. However, I feel that Singaporeans tend to have high spending power, in which 95% of goods most people purchase are no longer in use after the 1st year. In my opinion, perhaps the government can educate citizens on the impact they play in fighting global warming and how they can change their daily actions to mitigate the situation, or if need be impose a limitation to the amount of goods they can buy.
I hope people realize the situation and do their part in fighting global warming and our future generations live to see a brighter future.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Summary on Friday Lecture
I am doing a summary on the first guest lecturer Prof Liong from the Tropical Marine Science Institute.
To kick start the talk, he did a quick introduction of the aspect of global warming by defining important terms like climate, climate change and the greenhouse effect. Following by presenting graphical evidence of graphs and charts that pointed out the huge contributor of the harmful green house gases are from human activities.Not forgetting to show the effects/scenarios (fossil fuel intensive ) if no measure are done to mend the harm humans have done to Earth.
Going into the main topic, he introduced the IPCC( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) an organization that was set up to monitor and do researches on the global climate. Telling us about the GCM( Global Climate Model ), how a volume of earth is broken up into different part and readings were taken and analyst. Being a small dot on the map, the GCM could not cater to our country needs, therefore the TMSI was set up by the government to monitor the climate in the region of south-east asia. GCMs are further down size to RCM which give higher resolution and are able to simulate precipitation to a larger accuracy.
The lecture was very informative and give us a very good explanation/introduction to the Climate topic which we are to cover this semester. It was strategic to place this lecture first as the next lecturer covers more on the aspect of methods/actions that can be taken by government and us individuals to play our part against climate change.
To kick start the talk, he did a quick introduction of the aspect of global warming by defining important terms like climate, climate change and the greenhouse effect. Following by presenting graphical evidence of graphs and charts that pointed out the huge contributor of the harmful green house gases are from human activities.Not forgetting to show the effects/scenarios (fossil fuel intensive ) if no measure are done to mend the harm humans have done to Earth.
Going into the main topic, he introduced the IPCC( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) an organization that was set up to monitor and do researches on the global climate. Telling us about the GCM( Global Climate Model ), how a volume of earth is broken up into different part and readings were taken and analyst. Being a small dot on the map, the GCM could not cater to our country needs, therefore the TMSI was set up by the government to monitor the climate in the region of south-east asia. GCMs are further down size to RCM which give higher resolution and are able to simulate precipitation to a larger accuracy.
The lecture was very informative and give us a very good explanation/introduction to the Climate topic which we are to cover this semester. It was strategic to place this lecture first as the next lecturer covers more on the aspect of methods/actions that can be taken by government and us individuals to play our part against climate change.
Climate change: issues and response - based on lecture 05/02/10
From the two lecturers, we further understand the issue and response of climate change.
Climate change, also known as global warming, is the increase in the average temperature of Earth since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase was caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. Global warming is expected to cause glacial retreat, long-term shrinkage of Greenland ice sheet. As a result, worldwide sea level will rise, putting low sea-level nations in danger, including Singapore.
Human creates this problem and is responsible to solve it, for sustainable development and the next generations. Measures should be taken for climate stabilization, through institutional and individual actions. Institutional actions include energy supply, transport, buildings, industry, agriculture and waste management sector. Individual can fight climate change by leading a sustainable lifestyle, from consuming sustainable food, staying in sustainable home, to recycling used items and supporting green technology. Everyone can make a difference in the fight with climate change, and the best time to do it is always today!
Friday, February 5, 2010
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