There are some questions for people to think about while watching the movie "An Inconvenient Truth", these questions include the significance of global warming, the causes of it and the consequences it will bring if people do not do something to counter it.
In fact, the movie does discuss some of these problems and the presenter, Mr. Al Gore, former USA vice president, supported the view that global warming is getting worse with concrete evidences like the temperature and concentration of carbon dioxide measured over the years and the photographs of the same ice caps over a period of time which indicate the melting of ice caps, caused by the rise of global temperature. These would bring about results such as flooding of low lying areas due to rise of sea water level and climate change.
Therefore, it is important for people to come up with solutions to the problems of global warming as it is us who are contributing to global warming and us who are living on this planet. The government should step out and take a lead in providing the solutions since they have the most influencing power over the people. For example, the number of cars on the road can be reduced by increasing the price of COE, or having more fly overs and underground tunnels so that there is less traffic congestion, thus reducing the time cars spend on the road, which could lead to a drop in the emission of CO2 gas.
In Singapore, some actions are being taken by both the government and non government groups. These include having posters in some of the busy streets and MRT stations to remind people that taking public transport is more environmentally friendly, using the media such as television programmes and advertisements which teach the public on how to save the environment by reducing the usage of energy and recycle resources. There are also programmes being organised for the school like recycling competitions which aims to promote the habit of being environmentally conscience to the students.
Thus, the people and the government must take actions to combat this problem together as the effort of either one group alone is not enough. It is also equally important that the next generation is well educated on this area as they are the ones who are going to continue to live on Earth.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
The Expanding World of Engineers
According to Prof. Ramakrishna's article, "The Expanding World of Engineers", he stated that " an engineer's training helps to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic (systematic) approach in designing solutions."
It is true that throughout the education, engineers are trained to handle problems and come up with solutions in a systematic way such that the solutions are efficient and are able to tackle the problems effectively. An example would be when a student is asked to solve a complex mathematical question, the tutor would usually encourage him to use a method that is simple, and easy for others to understand so that less mistakes would be made and less time would be spent.
When an engineer analyze a complex information, he would usually first take note of the main points and tries to classify those points accordingly. This gives him a clearer view and enables him to see the main problems. After looking at the big picture, he would look at the details to see if there is any information that is useful to him that would enable him to design the solutions. Hence, by first summarising the information using main points and then looking at the small details for more data, the whole complex information could be analyzed systematically, without leaving out anything important.
After analyzing the information, an engineer would have to come up with solutions to solve the problems. He would usually approach the solutions in a holistic way so as to save time and effort. Thus, an engineer would first approach the main problem that leads to other problems, so that when the main problem is solved, the other problems could be solved as well with minimum time and effort. This could be done usually by listing out all the problems and try to link them together and see if there is any way of solving them with a method that is as simple as possible.
It is true that throughout the education, engineers are trained to handle problems and come up with solutions in a systematic way such that the solutions are efficient and are able to tackle the problems effectively. An example would be when a student is asked to solve a complex mathematical question, the tutor would usually encourage him to use a method that is simple, and easy for others to understand so that less mistakes would be made and less time would be spent.
When an engineer analyze a complex information, he would usually first take note of the main points and tries to classify those points accordingly. This gives him a clearer view and enables him to see the main problems. After looking at the big picture, he would look at the details to see if there is any information that is useful to him that would enable him to design the solutions. Hence, by first summarising the information using main points and then looking at the small details for more data, the whole complex information could be analyzed systematically, without leaving out anything important.
After analyzing the information, an engineer would have to come up with solutions to solve the problems. He would usually approach the solutions in a holistic way so as to save time and effort. Thus, an engineer would first approach the main problem that leads to other problems, so that when the main problem is solved, the other problems could be solved as well with minimum time and effort. This could be done usually by listing out all the problems and try to link them together and see if there is any way of solving them with a method that is as simple as possible.
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