According to statistics (An Inconvenient Truth, 2006), the actual measurement of temperature increases every year especially in the recent years. Ten hottest years on record have occurred in the last 14 years, and the hottest of all was 2005. The increase in global temperature is resulted from the increase of the amount of emission of green house gases which trap the infrared radiation from sunlight and heat up the earth.
In the mid-1990s, my home country, Malaysia ranked among 50 nations with the world's highest industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totalled 70.5 million metric tons per year, a per capita level of 3.74 metric tons per year. Statistics shows that both industrial and automobile sectors are the main contributor to the carbon emissions. As a result, Clean-air legislation was adopted in 1998 to monitor and control the carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Under this legislation, discharge of oil by vessels in Malaysian waters is prohibited as well.
Under The Environmental Quality Act of 1974 administered by the Division of Environment of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment, housing developers have to plan and space out area to plant trees in the housing area in order to get their development projects approved. As one of the largest timber exporting countries, Malaysia has set strict rules to make sure the developers replant the tree for each tree they have chopped down. They are also being restricted from cutting the trees which are younger than 15 years old. Besides, open burning is also prohibited.
Individual who found guilty under The Environment Quality Act of 1974 will be subjected to heavy fines, mandatory caning or jail terms (depending on the situation). The licenses of commercial companies will be forfeited for committing similar types of crime.
In conclusion, besides government’s policies, each individual have to take initiative to help reduce the problem of global warming. Each one of us contributes actively to global warming, but each of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use and the car we drive. We can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make them happen. (Al Gore, 2006)
Al Gore (2006). An Inconvenient Truth.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
E-Portfolio 1 - Engineer’s Approach in Designing Solutions
According to the Dean of Engineering at NUS, Prof Seeram Ramakrishna(2007, August 5), with the advent of service-oriented economy, engineers are not only people who build high-rise buildings, dig underground tunnels, manufacture electronic goods and medical devices, they are now also highly sought after to design and manage health care systems, run data and information management systems and design and run complex logistics and supply chain systems. In addition to this, they run transportation systems, manage efficient distribution of water and energy supplies, manage large-scale projects/mega developments and they also design early-warning systems against natural catastrophes.
I believe that the processes and principles of problem solving and approaches of designing solutions will always remain the same, regardless of which area the engineers are involved in. As an engineering student, we were taught that there will always be a solution for a problem.
Engineers always begin with understanding the definition of the problem thoroughly prior to designing the solution. They are trained to study and break down a complex problem into bite - sizes, and start to gather the relevant information in order to analyze the current situation of the problem. From the results of these researches, they will be able to draft a few possible solutions for the problem. Engineers will then conduct the feasibility studies on every possible solution, and select one which is most practical and which meets most of the criteria required for the solution. This is followed by a detailed design to fulfill all major and minor specifications of the full solution. After that, evaluations of the solution will take place to investigate if the solution meets its ultimate objectives.
Evaluation is not the final step of designing the solution, but it serves as a bridge for the engineers to continuously observe the performance of the designed solution until it is outdated sometime in the future. This will lead the engineers to re-run the cycle of designing the solution.
Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.
I believe that the processes and principles of problem solving and approaches of designing solutions will always remain the same, regardless of which area the engineers are involved in. As an engineering student, we were taught that there will always be a solution for a problem.
Engineers always begin with understanding the definition of the problem thoroughly prior to designing the solution. They are trained to study and break down a complex problem into bite - sizes, and start to gather the relevant information in order to analyze the current situation of the problem. From the results of these researches, they will be able to draft a few possible solutions for the problem. Engineers will then conduct the feasibility studies on every possible solution, and select one which is most practical and which meets most of the criteria required for the solution. This is followed by a detailed design to fulfill all major and minor specifications of the full solution. After that, evaluations of the solution will take place to investigate if the solution meets its ultimate objectives.
Evaluation is not the final step of designing the solution, but it serves as a bridge for the engineers to continuously observe the performance of the designed solution until it is outdated sometime in the future. This will lead the engineers to re-run the cycle of designing the solution.
Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.
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