Wednesday, 28 May 2008

One Planet Living



  • If everyone lived like an average North American we would need five planets.
  • If everyone lived like an average European we would need three planets.
  • If everyone lived like an average Emirati we would need seven 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.

Masdar is going to be developed using these principles.


1.Zero Carbon: Using renewable sources energy in building and infrastructure to achieve zero emissions of Co2.

2.Zero Waste: Destroying the concepts of waste by encouraging reuse, recycling and composting which is produced from waste.

3.Sustainable Transport: Trying to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels on all vehicles to reduce Co2 as much as we can.

4.Local and Sustainable Materials: Using local materials in construction can increase stocks and boosts the local economy.

5.Local and Sustainable Food: Supporting the local food production will help to grow the local economy.

6.Sustainable Water: Implementing suitable system of reusing and recycling will reduce extraction and pollution and save water source.

7.Natural Habitats and Wildlife: Human activities lead to loss (biodiversity) natural habitats and wildlife.

8.Cultural and Heritage: Construction our building on a local cultural heritage is a main way to protect our cultural heritage and regional identity.

9.Equity and Fairtrade: Ensure that the OPL community’s impact positively on all communities on all the world and trying to prevent poverty.

10.Health and Happiness: Providing health lifestyle, physical, mental and spiritual through achieving all social and environmental goals.

  • Which principles do you think will be difficult for Masdar City to maintain?

1. Local sustainable food.
2. Equity and fair trade.

  • What are the three goals of the One Planet Living programme?
  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.
  • Masdar is one of the Emerging One Plant Communities, where are the others?
    1. Panyu Jinshan in China.
    2. Sibaya in South Africa.
    3. OPL London in UK.
    4. Montreal.
    5. Masdar City in UAE.

  • Where are the Officially Endorsed One Planet Communities?
    1. Sonoma Mountain Village in Canada and USA.
    2. One Gallions in UK.
    3. Mata de Sesimbra.

  • American Cool Cities.

1.Charlotte North Carolina
The government has changed the fuel of cars to a hybrid gas.

2.Washington DC
Has changed their buses to natural gas which is less than the diesel fuel to improve air pollution and cut global warming pollution.

3.St Paul Minnesota.
Providing electricity by using a renewable resource as its primary fuel.

4.Houston – Texas.
The government has started to reduce emissions by using hybrid vehicles. By the year 2010 they will have no petrol cars. A hybrid vehicles are produce about 43 tones of carbon less than the average of other cars.

5.Seattle.
They have replaced old vehicles with a “ clean and Green fleet and have sett strict rules about CO2 emission. They have already reduced green house gases by 60 percent.

6.Fort Collins.
Fort Collins uses renewable energy wind to reduce global warming and has reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 472,000 tons.

7.Waverly Lowa.
Waverly Lowa municipality has used wind energy to reduce the emission of CO2 in the city. This method who helps provide local economic development.



8.Twin falls-Idaho.

They reduce energy costs and cut pollution by increasing the energy efficiency of its 11 schools. This include the lightning, ventilation and air condition systems by this the city saved $3.5 million in energy savings.

  • Living in Masdar City.
    I really want to live in Masdar City.
    It’s something will help me to feel comfortable living in Masdar City. The city which is free of Co2. I’m as Emirati; I want to do something to protect earth and to reduce the amount of Co2 in the air as much as I can. I will do my best to help my family to live there.


Saturday, 17 May 2008

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Carbon Footprint

Carbon Footprint is a result of our bad behaviors and activities that help in increasing the amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the air. It is called footprint because we leave a mark from our bad activities on the earth like the mark that we leave on a sandy beach. I have done the footprint quiz and I’ve got 2.45 planets. This score means that according to my bad activities, I need two and half planets.



There are lots of daily activities that lead to my Carbon footprint becoming bigger and bigger. One of those activities is driving a four wheel car for a long distance. That thing will increase the amount of harmful gases. The second problem is the side effects of using electricity. Keeping the temperature at my home under 20 C means using the electricity for long time and everyone knows what the result of using more electricity is? The third wrong activity is the big amount of waste with different kinds such as plastic, tin cans, glass, paper and food. All of these kinds are very difficult to destroy from the environment.











Because of all these negative effects of my activities, I’m going to display some solutions to reduce as much as I can the bad results. First of all, using a small car and public transportation will reduce a big amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the air. The solution for the second problem is reducing of dependence on electricity. Turning off Air conditions and lights when we don’t need them is a suitable solution for the second one. Finally, reducing our home wastes and using the environmental friendly stuff will keep our environment clean and will reduce the size of our Carbon footprint.



To sum up, although several solutions have been mentioned, it is hard to correct our bad habits. Feeling responsibility is the first step to change our life. All people should cooperate to save planet because saving it is one of our major duties.

Reaction to “An Inconvenient Truth”

In my opinion, this film is one of the most important and fantastic documentary films that has ever produced.


I think the director and presenter did their best. Both of them used modern and scientific methods to explain their important ideas to all people. Supporting this film with some statistics, real pictures and events helped us to understand what Global Warming means. Warning people about lots of disasters that are coming to kill thousands of them is really a good way to keep the people attention in the film.
I think lots of people changed lots of their bad activities after they watched this film and this is the purpose of the film.

Critical Thinking