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.