e-Portfolio Posting 2: Comments on Desmond's WA1 Draft

CHUA YUN XUAN POST 2

With respect to the thesis statement, it should be stated clearly that the two reasons are offered on why an integrated approach should be taken in combating global warming, leading from the viewpoint that climate change is a threat to both nature and human. The thesis statement can also be fortified by stating the two reasons explicitly.

For the first idea, the first two sentences can be combined to show the link on why natural ecosystems should be part of our response to climate change. To support this idea, the example of a natural carbon storage system has been cited from the reading. Further discussions on the "basic materials" and carbon reduction can be included to substantiate the first idea. The second paragraph also stated the urgency in slowing climate change before the planet's capacity to accomodate it diminishes to the point of no return.

The second idea elaborated on the potential value of the natural ecosystems and ways in which it benefit and protect human. There is a clear flow on how climate change affecting the ecosystems will in turn affect human.

More compelling examples should be cited in paragraph two and three to support the strong concluding statement that "victory against global warming can be secured". By having a clearer thesis statement and topic sentences, coherence and the flow of ideas of the written assignment will be clearer. In general, the written assignment can be further refined to remove grammatical errors and to improve the sentence structures.

Internal Groups 2

For e-postings 2 and 3, the groupings are as followed:

1) ShiTien with FanRui and ChenYan
2) YunXuan and Desmond

Comment on "Lecture on Climate change and modelling by Dr Liong Shie-Yui from Tropical Marine Science Institue"

CHUA YUN XUAN POST 1

During the EG1471 lecture on 5th February, two invited speakers Dr Liong Shie-Yui and Dr Benjamin K. Sovacool discussed the topics of monitoring climate change with climate models and the possible responses to climate change respectively. The first speakers's presentation was summarized by the writer.

The first part summarized the effects of climate change. The writer mentioned an important fact that it is the excessive emission of green house gases that leads to global warming which implies that an acceptable amount of the gases is necessary. This was supported by Dr Liong's comment that greenhouse gases are required to sustain life on the Earth. The writer also stated the effects of climate change which were supported by statistics provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The second part summarized the usage of Global Climate Models in tracking climate change and the alterations made for its application to smaller regions in the form of Regional Climate Models. Contrary to the writer's impression, the models provides a platform for monitoring climate change to a greater extent than as a response in tackling the climate issue.

The writer concluded his summary by stating the scale and urgency of climate change. Furthermore. he mentioned the ability of every individual in alleviating this pressing issue. This was elaborated by Dr Sovacool but due to the length constriant of the summary, the writer was unable to further discuss the issue.

To conclude, the writer provided a concise and structured summary on the presentation by Dr Liong.

Posting #1-Lecture on Climate change and modelling by Dr Liong Shie-Yui from Tropical Marine Science Institue

On 4^th Feb, I attended Dr Liong’s lecture on climate change and modelling. Two major discussions were made in his lecture namely the issues on global warming and the responses. In the first discussion, Dr Liong pointed out that the excessive emission of greenhouse gases by human activities caused global warming. With global warming, environmental problems such as rising sea level and increasing temperature have arisen. In addition, evidences from Intergovernmental Panel on climate change which also called IPCC were presented in graph form to support the discussion on the first issue.

In the second discussion, Dr Liong briefly talked about the responses that were made to tackle the drastic climate change. Global Climate Model (GCM) is created by IPCC to predict the climate change and study on the impacts that were made. However, GCM cannot be used in smaller regions like South East Asia. As such, smaller GCM which is called Region Climate Model is used instead which also served the same purposes as GCM. Similar to the first discussion, visual aids were given during the lecture to reinforce on the idea of modelling.

Finally, Global warming is a pressing issue faced by the whole world and I felt that everyone can play their parts in saving the environment starting from today!

Source: "Brief Introduction To Climate Change & Modelling" by Dr Liong Shie-Yui and Climate Team

Shi Tien(Posting #1)

Global warming

Climate change, also known as global warming is a worldwide phenomenon that is now considered to be one of the most pressing issues facing the humankind. Human activities have be proven to be the primary cause for the change in climate. Greenhouse gases, the main culprit for this crisis, are emitted into the atmosphere due to human activities. These gases absorb and emit infrared radiation which will heat up the Earth, causing a rise in temperature.

Greenhouse gases are made up of methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, also known as the IPCC, has stated that carbon dioxide makes up 76.4% of the total amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere. The committee also found that the top three nations that are responsible for it are China, United States follow by Indonesia.

Many solutions are available to lower the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. These solutions include setting up mandatory fuel economy, biofuel blending and carbon dioxide standard for road transport. While these solutions are primarily for the government to implement, we can do our part by altering our individual lifestyle. These changes include substituting a fan for an air conditioner, recycling materials as well as purchasing goods which we really have a need for.

Although the temperature and the sea level of the Earth are still expected to rise even after achieving stabilization of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as shown in the synthesis report released by the IPCC, we can start implementing changes and solutions today to salvage the situation. AS the saying goes, it's always better late than never.

Internal Groupings

Hi all,

as decided, Desmond(summarise) will group with ChenYan(comment)
and
ShiTien(summarise), FanRui(summarise) and YunXuan(comment) in the other group.

This is for the summary of the lecture.