Dr Strange Movie Review

This is my second movie review on this blog and I was quite surprised that I would be recommending this movie to other people. When i first saw the trailer i had the preconception that it would be another boring movie made by marvel that was just to bridge the story that started with the other marvel characters and to make some dough for marvel. The movie was very subtly mind opening( I find myself more of an intuitive person so i am more intrigued by things that are mind blowing in a sense).
MOVIE: Doctor Stephen Strange( Benedict Cumberbatch) is a brilliant and unique surgeon that specializes in surgery that deals with the nervous systems. He has never failed any surgeries in his career, he has a perfect record not just because of his talent and knowledge but also because he never takes on a surgery which he thinks he will fail. He was driving on a cliff to a talk that he was supposed to give on medical science on a rainy night and he was talking on the phone at the same time, choosing which patient to take on next when he got into an accident as he lost control of his car for a moment. The impact of the car crash crushed both of his hands, damaging all the nerves in it, he went from being one of the most skilled surgeons in the world to a guy who can barely lift up a pen to write his own name. With his ego damaged, he was desperate, loaning money from banks to try different procedures to cure his hands so he could go back to being the surgeon he was. Western medicine, which he was so invested in his whole life, could do nothing to even make his hands a little better. Until one of his colleague told him about a man who had a spinal injury which was seemingly incurable( which was one of the patients he turned down to protect his perfect track record), was able to recover completely and was able to walk. Having no other options he went to find the guy who was compassionate enough to give him the location of the place which he sough treatment. It was a place in Nepal, and Stephen Strange used the last of his wealth and possessions to get a one way ticket there. When he first met his master, The Ancient One, he could not believe his eyes, it was a bald headed woman, who explained to him that she healed the man with a seemingly incurable spinal injury with spiritual practices. Confined by he limits he placed on himself, Stephen was in a rage, he could not believe what he flew all the way to Nepal for, until he was shown the infinite dimensions of the infinite universe that we're in and how much he didnt know about the world( my favorite scene;). From then onward began his training in the mystical arts and blah blah blah......

MORAL/ what i took from the movie: I saw Stephen Strange as an ordinary human being going through life, thinking that is all there is and that they know everything which is the mindset we all have but are afraid to admit. We like to have a sense of control over things, we have a desired outcome and an undesired outcome in everything, and our whole life we chase the desired and avoid the undesired, kind of life pleasure and pain, chase one avoid the other like Dr Strange refusing patients that he doubt he could perform a successful surgery on. Main point is, we do not like to fail and do not like surprises, especially nasty ones or ones we feel are negative.
However, life is all about failures, surprises and the unexpected and the unknown, these are the zest of life itself! I am a big fan of basketball, and i used to care a lot about winning so i did not play in the games which i think i would lose, but what makes the game fun is the competing and going against the odds, thats why we feel more alive when we take risks and gamble, because we do not know what will happen. If you do know about everything and anything then life would be one big bore i feel. So embrace the unknown as it is what makes life fun and thats why we play! :)
This is all just food for thought, think about it especially if you have never thought deep about anything before, it very very intriguing.

How to save the environment and NATURE! ( Alan Watts Documentary)

I would like to share this video to provide a sense of perspective of how to deal with the current environmental problems of the world. This is a brilliant and mind opening video by Alan Watts, whom I feel was a very evolved human being, and well ahead of his time as this video was shot in 1971!!
He made a point for us to break or see through the illusion that man is somehow a separate being from the entire universe, planet and nature, which is a very popular and common view especially among Christians.
This post is not to target any religion or to put down anyone but just to give some food for thought or a different lens to look at our current situation.

Just some perspective

Egos are very important to some of us, I know, I play basketball and I want to be the star player most of the time, and kind of dictate every move the team makes. But ultimately,  the ego or identity, is just an illusion. We're given names when we're born, that is not who we are, the name serves as a tool so we can easily identify one another. Same with position and "power" , there is no such thing in reality, you just playing a different role with different benefits and downsides.
I do not mean to quote any religion or philosophy or thinking but ultimately in reality, everything in the universe is one, the entire planet earth is one.
Take the human body for example, would you say the finger is also the human body? When the finger is attached to the body it's called human, but then when detached it's called finger? Even a single human cell is also the human body and has its part to play. Only when all the cells and nerves at the different parts of the body are working then it is possible for us to be alive, so our lives are basically already a miracle. The air we breathe in, isn't it also a part of us? The oxygen enters our blood stream and is used by all parts of the body!! So we may not really be a human living on earth in the universe, but rather the universe itself. We are to the universe as a cell is to a human body. So we should take care of ourselves as destroying the earth equals to self destruction. Just some perspective..feel free to have your own:)

Poster: Heaven or Hell?

Here's a little poster I made with the spare time i had during the weekends. I thought about how I could relate to Singaporeans in Singapore TODAY and NOW. As we all should be aware of now in Singapore, the temperature of the environment has drastically increased not only by numbers, from an average of 31 Degrees Celsius to 35 Degrees Celsius on a daily basis. It is almost unbearable especially for people(like myself) who perspire easily and a lot, which leads to BO and other nasty results. 

What we usually think is that the big companies who use majority of the resources are the ones who contribute to all the pollution that leads the global warming effect that we all have the pleasure of experiencing right now, however, we fail to acknowledge and are ignorant to the fact that we are the consumers of all these products and services, be it electricity, food, daily necessities etc. Therefore I feel that every individual has a huge impact on the environment, and our everyday choices are the ultimate factor in determining the rate of global warming and pollution. I want us to start here, now, thinking about how we can improve the environment around us instead of "the world out there". It's not difficult to find a recycle bin, nor to go vegan just once a week, or to just practice energy saving measures in our very own home. Every microscopic action counts, if every individual really focuses on saving electricity and recycling, the effect would be overwhelming positive, do not underestimate the combined effort of individuals. 

Remember that our choices determines the environment we live our everyday lives in, therefore we create our own fate, we all have a choice! To create "Heaven or Hell" on our home Planet Earth:)

Reflection on movie: Finding Dory

                                                            Finding Dory Trailer

If you have not considered watching Finding Dory, I hope this will change your opinion. Most people have a preconception that this will be a kids movie based on the first move, Finding Nemo. However, I feel that it is not only a movie for all, but for those interested in protection of marine life, and 70% of us which is the sea and all the life within. By the way, isn't it coincidental, we are just like the earth, made up of 70% water( correct me if I'm wrong ).

Finding Dory is a movie about Dory, who is a fish which suffers from short term memory loss, she would forget many things, even what she's saying a moment ago. This has led her to be rather annoying to her friends and even herself as she beats herself up sometimes for being forgetful. All is well at the coral reef where she and her clownfish friends nemo and his father lives(i forgot his name), until one day, during one of nemo's class where they were talking about parents, Dory hada sudden recollection of her parents, who stayed with her despite her short term memory, they played with her, even came up with ways to help her remember things like the way to her home as she may wander off sometimes. Dory then decides to go find her parents with nemo and crew, the rest of the story, you have to watch the movie to find out, I am no spoiler;)

What has this to do with environment? In a part of the movie, where Dory traced her memory back to a water park where she thinks her parents might me, the movie highlights how badly the marine life are treated at the water park despite claims of protecting the wildlife. The shallow pools where we are allowed to touch the corals and starfishes are actually harming these delicate sea creatures as they can be very sensitive and vulnerable with so many fingers touching and some unaware kids pressing these sensitive creatures like it was a toy. The animation also shows the condition that the captured fish are kept in, no different from an ordinary fish shop, all the sick fish cramped together and then sent off to various locations as a showpiece instead of being released.

I think we humans are ignorant of our own actions, we literally want profit from every single thing and end up destroying all life on earth and ironically leading to our own death. Using marine life as tourist attractions and entertainment while claiming to be putting them in a better environment? I dont know about you but we are ultimately lying to ourselves in the end.

I strongly recommend this movie to all to raise awareness of this issue to all and hopefully we can understand and sympathise these marine life and that we are literally robbing their "families".

Reflection on Newspaper cutting: Pebble pinching perturbs Taiwan

Pebble pinching perturbs Taiwan, Thursday, 24th March 2016

This is a rather interesting article as to why it has anything to do with the environment at all. Not only are the Taiwan authorities confiscating pebbles collected by the tourist, most probably for momentos, but they are also imposing a fine of as high as NT50,000(S$21,000).

The reason that tourists are not allowed to collect stones from seascape areas in Taiwan is because the authorities fear that it might cause the erosion of the beaches in Taiwan and slowly erode the shore.
" Taking one or two doesn't seem like a lot, but our scenery will slowly disappear the more it happens," said Miss Lin Wei-Ling, Deputy Director of the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration.

Signs have been put up all over the seascape areas of Taiwan but they also focused on educating the public, using media such as this article itself to make the public aware, some visitors have also sent back rocks they have taken after knowing its illegal and harming the shoreline.

This is the sort of issue that seems minor but could have a major impact on the environment, thus thumbs up to Taiwan for educating the public on the issue and imposing a harsh fine to prevent people for further committing such acts.

Relfection on Newspaper cutting: Australia to pump $1 billion into clean energy

Australia to pump $1 billion into clean energy, Thursday, 24th March 2016

Australia Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said that they will a A$1 billion(S $1.03 billion) clean energy innovation fund. This is reportedly to combat climate change, and his response to the people of his country who criticised the former prime minister for failing to support renewable energy . The money will be used bit by bit annually in clean energy technologies.

I feel that this is has both good and bad like all things, good as it serves as an example to other countries, which creates a beneficial kind of competition, like Singtel vs M1 kind of competition, other countries may also invest more in clean energy technologies to show that their country is not falling behind and that is what we need to reduce our heavy reliance on fossil fuels which increase the rate of global warming.
The downside, however is countries seeking to gain something from these clean energy technologies, or seeking profit of some kind, in this case is the Australian prime minister seeking approval from his people and this gives the upcoming generation an inappropriate impression and influence as countries do things for profit and popularity instead of trying to solve a worldwide problem. Clean energy technology might also be altered by manufacturers so that more can be sold for profit instead of being reliable.

Reflection on Newspaper cuttings: Abrupt climate shift perilously close(study)

Abrupt Climate Shift Perilously Close: Study, Thursday, 24th March 2016

"Rapidly rising sea levels may inundate coastal cities before end of century, warn researchers"
The world just might be coming to an end, not in 2012, but very very soon. Aside from the Kyoto Protocol, which was a good attempt in my opinion the nations of the world have established many other agreements to try to reduce the rate of global warming to a level where it is tolerable. However, this article states that despite all the efforts, the leading climate scientists have warned that the level of global warming that we are already at is beyond the threshold of tolerance for us. Any further increase will result in disastrous consequences, as the warming will lead to an increase in the intensity of natural disasters such as killer storms and also the rise in sea level caused by the acceleration of the melting polar ice sheets, sufficient to drown coastal cities by the end of the century! That's by 2099, we have another 75 years or so to come up with a solution!

The article addresses the one thing that is really of concern, which is ironically that the young people, myself included, are not taking this issue seriously and are not equipped with the knowledge or awareness to deal with the situation. We are being taught about global warming and almost all of us have a rough idea of climate change when we are asked in a test or in an interview but once we go back to our everyday lives, we basically flick a switch and do not care about our actions. We walk by recycle bins, take away food, choose meat over whole plant foods, all these actions, multiplied by the population of the world, actively contributes to the alarming rate of global warming. There are people that argue that a major contributor of global warming is agricultural farming and that it also uses a huge amount of resources, however, they fail to realize that a large percentage of these crops are used to farm the animals, such as cows and chickens, to get the eggs, milk, chicken and beef that we eat on a daily basis and is so highly in demand.

"In 2009, nations agreed to try to limit planetary warming to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. The earth has already warmed by about half that amount."

The climate scientists in the article state that the rapid rise in sea level could rise to a high enough level to force humanity to retreat from all the coasts, and imagine what would happen if it increases further.

We could look at renewable sources of energy, waste to energy and also clean sources of energy, but ultimately, in my opinion, it our actions in our everyday lives that we have to watch if we want to prevent a potentially world ending disaster in the near future. I agree also that in public and among our friends and family it is not an easy task to change our habits such as suddenly going vegan or collecting all used plastic bottles and other recyclable materials due to peer pressure. We just have to remember that every individual effort counts, and we can always start simple. Every small action can have a great impact, it is not really the action that counts, it is the attitude that you develop. When we are bold enough to do what we feel is the right thing to do, we will also develop courage in other areas of our lives, and realize that other people's opinions of us do not matter sometime. We as a society do not like to be left out or do something out of a social norm due to our conditioning since birth and also our fear of being left out, but how can we ever improve and evolve as a human being if all we are concerned about is pleasure, profits and being up to date on trends?

We have to realize that we are a part of earth, and the earth is also part of us, always connected. The things we throw to the earth, whether beneficial or harmful, comes full circle to us. The waste we throw, such as plastic, decomposes and produces gases harmful to the environment WE are living in. The rubbish that we conveniently dump into the sea affects the marine life which is a major source of food for us, and it also pollutes other nearby water bodies. These are just a few of the countless examples. One small action such as throwing a plastic bottle into the sea can have a large impact, but so can recycling one plastic bottle. Until we see that we are the ones that control our own fate, and that we are creating "hell on earth" for ourselves, we will not actually fix anything but continue to contribute to global warming.

Local newspaper article on environmental sustainability issues and clean energy

Trouble in renewable energy spotted in China's idled wind farms

This article addresses the shortcomings of renewable energy, quoting the wind farms in China as an example. It states that China has a large concentration of wind turbines in the country, "accounting for about one in every three turbines currently installed, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. In turn, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology". However, even with its large capacity, the efficiency of the wind farms in China is outweighed by wind farms in USA which has only half the capacity of wind turbines.
China's wind capacity increased by 89 times from 2006 to 2015, while USA wind capacity only increased by 7 times. However, China's wind farms only produced 0.5 Terrawats/hour more electricy than USA.
The inefficiency of China's wind farms is due to various regions, which include the low quality wind turbines with low turbine efficiency used in their wind farms due to a shift on low cost energy production. Wind quality is also another factor which impacts the energy output of the wind farms in China, the breezes are weaker in China compared to USA and wind turbines work more efficiently on short periods of strong wind as compared to long periods of constant weak wind. There are also many other issues such as grid connection problems and reluctance of connecting wind energy to the grid due to preference for other energy sources such as coal in China, as coal is more predictable and reliable and does not have the problem of being intermittent. 
Despite the huge increase in renewable wind energy in China, majority of its energy still comes from coal-fired power generation, which is much less environmentally friendly, and China has to, at some point, make sacrifices in one area in order to stablize the energy output from different sources.
In my opinion, they should focus on having more high quality wind turbines instead of using more coal as coal not only one of the most non environmentally friendly sources of energy but is also a rapidly depleting source and is not a reliable source in the long run. The impact on the environment in China would also be increased negatively by coal. China is now in a lose-lose situation as they are not using renewable energy efficiently, and also relying on a non-renewable carbon heavy source. I feel that they should sacrifice some of the profits made from coal and move on to cleaner sources of energy if they are striving for a sustainable environment in China in the future.

Reflection the short film: A SEA Change

A SEA CHANGE is an environmental documentary shot in Diego Martin, Mayaro and Toco, Trinidad. People always ask is climate change really affecting the world? Or how is it affecting us? This documentary uses Trinidad and Tobago as examples of the devastating effects of our human activities on the environment and climate, which ironically affects our livelihood. 
As Diego Martin, where the documentary is filmed, is located near the sea the main topic addressed is how our human activities, which all have a carbon footprint, is affecting the sea and climate in that area.
Diego Martin has been affected several times by hurricanes, floods and landslides that destroyed many homes in the area, as mentioned in the documentary. Locals that were interviewed said that it was hotter during both wet and dry seasons, and that the rains during both wet and dry season were also heavier. The climate expert in the video, Dr Roger Pulwaty from the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, mentioned that the reason for this seemingly odd climate change is that every desert is shaped by water, as the temperature of the atmosphere affects the amount of water it holds, thus affecting the rainfall patterns. A warmer atmosphere holds more water, thus having larger interval between rainfalls but has is more intense as more water is released.
The documentary then moves on to talk about the various negative effects of climate change, such as floods, caused by a mix of human and physical events, humans are responsible for the design of drainage systems and also the management of the wetlands and forests in the area which serve as natural protections against floods, as for physical (natural) factors, they are unpredictable. Another significant impact on Diego Martin is the obvious loss and erosion of land, which is caused by higher sea levels and also a not so known factor which is the increasing acidity of the ocean. The acidity of sea rises due to carbonic acid produced when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves in the sea. The acidity of the ocean not only affects the shores and the structures near the shore but also several coral specimens which therefore affects the food web of the sea, resulting in a decline in the number of fish in the sea. This phenomena is witnessed by the local fishermen of Diego Martin as they said they used to be able to catch truckloads of fish everyday during the fishing season but now only maybe one or two days of the fishing season they are to catch that amount.
Next, the documentary shows the importance of well managed forest areas as they help reduce storm runoffs, as the leaves of the trees and plants reduce impact of the intense rainfall on the surface thus help keeping local water bodies such as rivers and nearby seawaters clean of pollutants such as fertilizers and pesticides that may be present in the soil when it is eroded into the river.
A group of passionate locals in Diego Martin, aware of the climate changes in their area, constantly work on Reforestation, which is planting of trees and plants to restore forested areas destroyed by landslides and forest fires. 
The host of the documentary stated that, " The best way to save the environment is to plant more trees.". Trees are often overlooked, as they seem to just stand and do nothing, however they are of huge importance to the environment. They are silent workers, helping to regulate the ratio of carbon dioxide and oxygen through photosynthesis, helps to remove other more harmful gases such as Sulphur oxide, Carbon Monoxide and also Nitrous Oxides, and lastly, help prevent soil erosion as their roots cling firmly on to the soil, not allowing surface runoff to wash away the soil. Preventing soil erosion also improves the quality of water in the water bodies as less soil and pollutants enters the water bodies which also leaves the flora and fauna in the water bodies unharmed as their living environment is not tampered with. Therefore, well managed forest = Better quality of water in water bodies.
Lastly, the documentary touched on how the daily activities and the daily choices of the locals in Diego Martin and also everyone, affects the climate.  One factor that is most significant but we all are ignorant to is our food choice, which is now a luxury for all of us, we do not even check the labels on our foods to see where it comes from. The main comparison is Local VS Imported Food. The host recommends local food as it has less embodied energy, as it does not require pesticides, and a huge amount of workmanship and non-renewable energy sources spent on agricultural machines and transport required for the food to be imported from one country to another, which is not environmentally friendly in the least.
Plastic also causes many problems to the environment from the way people handle them as garbage. Plastic is produced from another non-renewable source, oil, and does degrades in a much longer period of time compared to organic matter, and also produces harmful gases when it is incinerated. The plastic bottles when dumped into the water bodies, restrict the flow of water and affects the fauna of water bodies if any happen to ingest the plastic bits thinking its food. The hosts started a program to help educate the locals on recycling, teaching them to separate the plastics from their trash and giving it to them to bring to recycle.
The documentary ends of by giving 6 tips on how to improve the environment and reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the climate: 
1. Plant trees
2. Eat/ Grow local food
3. Reduce Reuse Recycle
4. Preserve Wetlands
5. Improve drainage systems
6. Refrain from building on flood prone areas or hillsides


Personal Opinion
I feel that it is a very inspiring documentary and that they show us the effects of climate change around each one of us instead of melting ice glaciers which no one can relate to. They also mention that the most important thing is Inter-generation equity, which is one generation of humanity preserving the environment for the next generation. I also feel that climate change not only affects our livelihood and environment but also affects us psychologically as we are constantly in fear of intense natural disasters which could be reduced or prevented. 
We all play a part in preventing climate change and saving the environment as we are the creators of our own future through our everyday actions. As quoted at the start of the documentary, " Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk." , all dependant on what we do with it.The link to watch the documentary is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRX-ZmPbjms&index=2&list=PLeH6JyFuC4snZADrdMvd-K7hZQRQlrc7d

Global Warming Board Game

13/5/2016
I played the Global Warming Board Game on 13th May with my classmates during ENE class and it was a very interesting experience. Its a 2 to 4 player game and it is a game that kind of simulates the real world competition over oil control and all the players get to choose how happy their country is and how large their carbon footprint on the world will be.
All players start the game with 5 dollars in their bank and they can use the money to buy oil, or to place a consumer or environment card. A player can either draw 3 cards and discard as many as they want(max 7 cards in hand), play a card, or place an oil rig in any country that is available, buy oil from countries which they have placed an oil rig in, or lastly pass a turn, if they dont want to do anything for that turn. There are 3 barrels on the global warming track, which is an indicator for the total carbon emissions from our industrial actions in the game and there are 3 markings, on the 30, 60 and 100 point mark, when we pass the marks we have to do some actions, depending on which mark we pass. The game ends when all the oil and money has been used up or when the 100 point mark is reached, and the player whose country has the highest happiness index, which is increase by the use of consumer or environment cards, wins the game.
In my opinion, the game answered all my questions of why different countries in real life, are fighting so hard for control over oil. At one point of the game i had around 20+ dollars in the bank and i had a rig in Saudi Arabia, so when it was my turn i bought 8 barrels of oil for $16, as it was $2/barrel, this gave me a huge advantage as i was able to have more money as i was able to use the oil to carry out more industrial actions and also to increase my happiness index. Thus oil is not only a source of energy but also power. The global warming index was also very difficult to keep under the 3 marks as we had to carry out industrial actions that increase the temperature of the world for money but even though individually the temperature increase seems little it adds up over time.
I learnt alot from this game especially in terms of how important natural resources are to the world and also how each country contributes to global warming and i strongly recommend this game to all who are in the age limit:)

Reflection on Livestock and Climate Change article

Livestock and Climate Change
This article(link above), touches on the subject of GHG(Greenhouse Gas) emissions produced by livestock farming, which is the farming of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs for consumption purposes. The article states that the livestock and feed farming accounts for 18% of total global GHG emissions and is also an industry that is destroying rain forests, which are major carbon sinks carrying up to 200 tons of carbon per hectare, compared to a degraded grassland used to feed cattle, which only carries 8 tons.
I feel that this article touches on a very good point that we overlook, that is how these livestock farming practices are destroying the environment and have a similar if not greater impact than that of fossil fuel use. The article states that aside from destroying the rain forests and all the ecosystems within it, the respiration of the livestock also accounts for global carbon emissions as there are much more animals now than there were in the past due to livestock farming. Not only that, "Fluorocarbons (needed for cooling livestock products much more than alternatives),which have a global warming potential up to several thousand times higher than that of CO2. Cooking, which typically entails higher temperatures and longer periods for meat than alternatives, and in developing countries entails large amounts of charcoal (which reduces carbon absorption by consuming trees) and kerosene, each of which emits high levels of GHGs. Disposal of inevitably large amounts of liquidwaste from livestock, and waste livestock products in the form of bone, fat, and spoiled products, all of which emit high amounts of GHGs when disposed in landfills, incinerators, andwaterways. Production, distribution, and disposal of byproducts, such as leather, feathers, skin, and fur, and their packaging.  Production, distribution, and disposal of packaging used for livestock products, which for sanitary reasons is much more extensive than for alternatives to livestock products. • Carbon-intensive medical treatment of millions of cases worldwide of zoonotic illnesses (such as swine flu) and chronic degenerative illnesses(such as coronary heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and hypertension leading to strokes)linked to the consumption of livestock products. Full accounting of GHGs attributable to livestock productswould cover portions of the construction and operation of pharmaceutical and medical industries used to treat these illnesses.", all these provide larger problems for the environment.
I agree with the article on the point that we should market a more vegan based diet to reduce the amount of livestock farming, it states in the article that forests have the ability to regenerate if we stop the farming practices. After all, we only eat meat because we are used to its tastes and not many of us are aware of the farming practices thus I feel that marketing veganism is not impossible as we just have to shake the common myths about it and also show that farming vegetables and plant based foods are much more friendly to the environment and also safer, as plants do not carry as much diseases as animals and also does not lead to chronic diseases due to saturated fat related diets which comes with meat consumption.
Why does meat taste so good?
The video above explains why we prefer the taste of meat, because we flavor our meat with plants.  It also shows that we are able to survive on a plant based diet as well and that there are many options even if we are vegans so it is not impossible to make a change. FYI, the best tasting burger in the world is a vegan burger!
However there are many people who have jobs in this sector and countries who rely on livestock for economy so they have to find alternatives to strike a balance between livestock farming and also reducing its carbon footprint.

Earthopoly Board Game

Played Earthopoly board game with my course mates Elias and Gabriel. Earthopoly is a game like monopoly where you roll the dice and move along the board, there are different properties for us to buy along the way and whenever someone lands on our property they have to pay rent to the owner of the property. Similar to monopoly, we can cannot buy property in the first round around the board, and we collect $200 everytime we pass the starting point. We are all given the same amount of money at the start of the game to spend on property. The properties are color coded and we are allow to buy houses if we own all the properties of 1 color. There is also a place on the board known as pitch in, and whoever lands on that area gets to collect the money in the middle of the board, which is all the money used to pay for the properties. There is also a dump where if a player lands there, he has to roll a double( 2 same values on the dice) to get out of the dump, he is given 3 tries and if he fails he has to put $100 in the middle of the board.The game continues until someone runs out of money.
We played the game for around 2 hours and i was the one who ran out of money as i did not get a single pitch in and i kept buying properties so i could not pay rent when i landed on someones property.

Watched the movie "The Last Mountain" in class

22/4/16:
Watched "The Last Mountain" in Energy and Environment class and was given a quiz that we were supposed to complete during the course of the movie including 2 personal opinion questions at the end of the quiz.

Review
The movie was a documentary on the Appalachia Mountains and the people who are living in these mountains, which they call the Coal River Valley. The people of the Coal River Valley are protesting against a company called Massey Energy as they are responsible for the mountaintop removal of over 470 of the Appalachia Mountains and in the process polluting the rivers with sludge and the air with coal dust. These made the conditions of the Coal River Valley unsuitable for living and caused many health issues for not only the adults but the children who are studying in the area.
The activists in the movie state that even though around 50% of the electricity in America comes from coal mining, there are other alternatives such as wind turbines that produce the same output but do not harm the environment, which is something that cannot be replaced once it is destroyed.

They show in the movie that the activists have protested many times to the government but to no avail as the coal mining industry is a source of economy in their country and a source of jobs for many people. Thus, the CEO of Massey Energy has enough wealth and power to violate safety rules for his workers and also environmental regulations and only get away paying a small fine.

Robert F. Kennedy, John Kennedy's nephew is also on the activist's side in the movie and supports their idea of building a small scale of wind farms on the top of what is left of the mountains that were removed and maintains that " The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind", hoping that it would reduce the reliance on coal mining and therefore reduce the pollution and other harmful effects that the coal mining industry brings.

The film concludes showing that the protest is still ongoing and that " the fate of the River Valley Mountains is still in the balance" and that " we are all connected to coal, whether we know it or not".

Personal Opinion

In my opinion,i think that certain actions of the activists are not required and that they should have focused their effort on the implementation of the wind farms or other alternatives because the coal mining industry, like any other industry, generates income and jobs for people thus the government, which usually rely on these numbers to gain the recognition and popularity among citizens, would not take any action against them unless a similar alternative is produced. Therefore, the activists are making the lives of the riot police and the coal miners difficult as they are just doing their job and that is their livelihood, they are not responsible for the greed of the company's plans. The movie is informative and shows the effect of human activities on other humans and their environment and also shows the effect of greed, but it is still biased. Nevertheless, i still recommend it to all as it shows the side of the coal mining industry that the companies would rather not let the general public see.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Mountain
Watch the full movie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6neSdVOh_BM

Details of the Assignment and Score Sheet.

Attached are the details such as the requirements and "rules" of the assignment and also a score sheet which we use, along with this blog, to keep track of our progress.