Global Warming: A Global Issue and A Personal One too

Greenland icesheet melting faster

Commentary:

Global Warming had been a big issue since the beginning of the 21st Century, there had been many signs to show the effects of global warming and research had been done to show the root and the cause of global warming, and action was taken to counter the global warming, but it was not effective.

In this article "Greenland icesheet melting faster", is just another article that emphasizes on global warming, more specifically the cause of the global warming. This article is to warn the citzens of the globe to take action and stop the global warming. We shall talk about the causes and the effects due to global warming, then suggestions could be made to slow down the process of global warming or possibly stop it completely.

There are many causes to global warming. A few examples would be the air pollution that the industries produce, they are the different harmful gases that thickens the ozone layer thus causing more heat to be contained in the Earth's atmosphere, thus leading to global warming.

Although the industries produce a large amount of harmful gases, as long as there are certain things that are able to absorb the hamrful gases, and the only thing or medium that is able to do that is trees generally, ranging from small shrubs that grows in deserts to large trees that grow in rainforests. As long as we have those trees, we would be able to survive even with the constant emission of carbon dioxide. But the trees are being cut down rapidly and there are not enough to replace them.

Those were just the basic causes of global warming, the effects are the extreme to be talked about. Global warming basically causes endangerment of certain species, natural disasters. For example, the polar bear, due to the fact that the globe is rising in temperature, the polar caps starts to melt just like tha article says, then polar bear would have no land to stand on, and since it is a mammal, it would drown in the ocean, thus leading o first endnagerment then extinction.

The above were the causes and effects of global warming, now for the solution of global warming. We could use other sources of energy, like the wind energy or the solar energy. Although they are currently used, they are not a common sight. Thus we can direct ourselves towards alternative sources of enegy. Another solution would be planting more trees. Currently there are many groups of people trying to protect the environment try to prevent people from cutting down the trees by hugging them. We should protect and plant more trees while we have the chance. In these ways, global warming could be slowed down or even stopped completely.

Recently, my group had debated on the topic regarding the poor environmental practies in general around the world. When I chose the topic, i was just thinking about the grades, however as i researched about it, i realise the depth and the seriousness of the global warming, and how important it is to prevent it. Through the interclass debating competition during the english lesson, the impats of global warming had become not only a global issue but also a personal one.

Though young, no matter how small your action might be, it is bound to make a difference to the world. As long as everybody takes part in saving the world and prevent global warming, we could be living in a better place with no air pollution and no extinction of animals.

I conclude by saying that even the slightest act of protection of the environment can always make a difference, and we should start now while we have the chance.

Gobal Warming: A Global Issue

Title of Article: Greenland icesheet melting faster
Author: Unknown
Publisher: The Straits Times
Date the Article was Written: September 1, 2008

The Article

PARIS - SCIENTISTS on Sunday said they could no longer rule out a fast-track melting of the Greenland icesheet - a prospect, once the preserve of doomsayers, that would see much of the world's coastline drowned by rising seas.

The researchers found that the great Laurentide icesheet which smothered much of North America during the last Ice Age melted far swifter than realised, dumping billions of tonnes of water into the ocean.

The discovery raises worrying questions about the future stability of Greenland's icesheet, for the Laurentide melt occurred thanks to a spurt of warming that could be mirrored once more by the end of this century, they said.

'The word 'glacial' used to imply that something was very slow,' said climate researcher Allegra LeGrande of New York's Columbia University.

'This new evidence from the past, paired with our model for predicting future climate, indicates that 'glacial' is anything but slow. Past icesheets responded quickly to a changing climate, hinting at the potential for a similar response in the future.'

Their investigation, published online by the journal Nature Geoscience, centres on a key factor in the climate-change equation.

In February 2007, in the first volume of a landmark report, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted the oceans would rise by between 18cm and 59cm by 2100.

The increase would depend on temperatures stoked by man-made greenhouse gases. The panel predicted warming of 1.8-4.0 deg C over the century.

But nine months later, in a precis for policymakers, the IPCC scrapped the 59-cm (23.2-inch) upper limit, admitting it did not know enough about meltwater runoff from Antarctic and Greenland, the world's two mighty stores of land ice.

Although scientists are confident Antarctica has so far escaped major damage from global warming, they are far less sure about Greenland, whose icesheet holds enough water to drive up sea levels by 7m.

Seeking help from the past, geologist Anders Carlson at the University of Wisconsin, led a team that delved into sediment left by the Laurentide Icesheet.

At its apogee some 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide was three kilometres (1.9 miles) thick and reached as far south as New York and Ohio today.

Then a big warming occurred, apparently caused by a slight orbital shift which increased radiation that the Earth received from the Sun.

Mr Carlson's team looked for radioactive tags, left by organic debris in the sediment, as a telltale of when the icesheet retreated and vegetation began to sprout once more on the denuded surface.

Using this, they built up a map and a timetable for the Laurentide's retreat and compared this with coral records pointing to Earth's historic sea levels.

They calculate that the Laurentide had two bursts of very fast melting before finally disappearing about 6,500 years ago.

The first phase, around 9,000 years ago, drove up sea levels by around 7m, at 1.3cm each year. The second, around 7,500 years ago, accounted for a rise of 5m at the rate of 1cm annually.

By comparison, sea levels today are rising around 3.3mm every year.

The researchers caution that Greenland is an island bathed in chill water, has a somewhat different geology from that of North America, and so the timetable of the Laurentide's breakup may not exactly apply to it.

Even so, the upper range of the IPCC's temperature estimates at century's end are in line with those of the naturally-induced warming that doomed the Laurentide, they said.

In addition, the Greenland ice sheet is far smaller than the Laurentide and thus lacks frigid bulk to help shield off warming.

'We have never seen an ice sheet retreat significantly or even disappear before, yet this may happen for the Greenland icesheet in the coming centuries to millennia,' said Mr Carlson.

In a commentary, also published in Nature Geoscience, Earth scientists Mark Siddall and Michael Kaplan said Greenland's glacial slab was entering into a temperature range at which it was becoming 'particularly vulnerable.'

' work suggests that future reductions of the Greenland ice sheet on the order of 1m per century are not out of the question,' they said.

Argumentative Essay "Democracy creates stability in the society"

Before writing down the points, let us find out the exact definition of stability and society, and what it means to create stability in the society. The general idea of stability is the state or quality of being stable; society basically refers to a body of individuals living as members of a community; hence, stability in the society means that individuals living as members of a community having equal rights, and both stable and equal in terms of power.

Firstly, the reason why i believe that democracy is able to create stability in the society is because democracy allows the people of that are governed would be able to have the right to choose. Therefore, with the ability to choose their own government, the citizens of the country would be definitely happy. Through this form of action, it promotes utilitarianism. Stability could also refer to the fact that the country develops in terms of economics, politics, social and etc. In order to be financially stable, the country would definitely have to be able to control their money, and etc. In order for development to take place, the country needs to be democratic, because democracy is about the means used to achieve goals. Democratic values and processes imply peace, reconciliation, dialogue, consensus and, above all, intellectual and political choice. The two perfect examples would be Singapore and South Korea, they government is democratic and they are now among the world's richest countries. Thus, i feel that democracy creates stability in the society.

Secondly, democracy is able to do a good job in making sure stability is because it is a choice of a system to maintain stability to a certain extent rather than having no system at all, which would cause more chaos. Democracy is a political idea that is people-driven and not elite-driven, people-driven means the people of the country is the priority above all the others. Communism is supposedly to be people-driven too, everybody governed under communism is supposed to be treated equally, but if we take a look at North Korea, this is not true. The citizens in North Korea does not live as well compared to those living in the South. Thus with corruptions, communism will become elite-driven. Thus, not all government or political system is able create stability in the society, only democracy is able to complete that task.

However, despite the above two points, democracy might not be successful in creating in the society is because although the majority might be happy, when their elected political party governs the country. But, there is a significant minority that might oppose the government thus causing an uproar. Let us take a look at South Korea currently. The Grand National Party had managed to win 48% of the votes is now governing the country. The Grand National Party had discussed with the United States (U.S.), regarding the import of beef from the U.S., and have agreed under the condition that the beef that enters South Korea must not be more than 30 months old. However, the citizens are against this idea as they will never know whether the beef is more or less than 30 months old, after it has been cut, sliced and packaged. Thus, South Koreans are now rioting in a peaceful manner, by holding candles through the days and night, to voice out their opinions. This event shows how the government's actions deeply affects the citizens and shows how the minority can be significant enough to cause an uproar.

Therefore, although there might be some opposing points, I feel that democracy is able to create stability in the society. Although there might be a few events, where the government makes a wrong move and upsets the citizens of the country, that is not the case for every democratic government in the world. Take a look at Singapore, the citizens are happy with Singapore's democratic government, and Singapore is developing fast.

"Democracy creates stability in the society"

This url: http://ri3q08chanongkochin.blogspot.com/ holds the discussion regarding the topic whether democracy creates stability in the society.

This discussion was held by Jerry Chan, Edwin Ong, Ko Yuen Hyung and Ryan Chin.

Once again, http://ri3q08chanongkochin.blogspot.com/. The URL link will be available at the side of the blog.

The argumentative essay will be written above.

Reaching out to students at risk of dropping out

By: Ho Ai Li

Commentary:

In this article "Reaching out to students at risk of dropping out", Ho Ai Li had written about how the teachers reach out a helping hand to the students when they are not doing well academically. It is stated inside the article that most drop out students have trouble when they continue their studies from the lower secondary levels to the higher secondary levels. If the students had given up on themselves, there was always the school counselors to continuously encourage the students.

This can seen as Michael ( not his real name ), was repeating his secondary 3 life when all his friends had moved on to the next level. Michael was completely stressed out as he had to study the same lessons in a whole new environment with all his classmates a year younger than him. He had started to skip school, that is when the school counselor, Ms Eunice Lim stepped in to help him, Ms Lim were able to support him by the side as Michael went back to school and do his work. "She gave me a lot encouragement" were Michael's exact words as Ms Lim counseled him.

This was just one example from various cases. Mr Kannan Kalidasan, who is the head of student welfare had picked students who were struggling academically and for 10 weeks she asked them to report to separate classrooms during school hours and she will coach them one-to-one. Mrs Lena Ang who put in extra three hours just for the students, although it was tough at first she had gone to the point where the students had started to hand in their work and said this happily, "Teacher, I can finally do something". Some school counselor like Mr Foo Kit Meng uses videos to teach the students how to manage their anger.

What I find heartening is that for some schools, every student is part of the school and plays an important role. For example, when a student of Zhenghua secondary school starts to skip school regularly, the principal or vice-principal and a teacher would be at their doorstep to talk to them and their parents. When this happens, the student who had been skipping lessons would be comforted that no matter how academically challenged he was, he will always be part of the school and that he is important enough for a principal or a vice principal to come knocking on his front door, says Mr Sng, discipline master of Zhenghua secondary school.

However, not all attempts are successful, there were cases when the teachers went out to search for a particular student whom they could not contact after the family moved and not able to get them back to school to study.

Currently a 15-year-old student myself studying in Raffles Institution, I have seen similar trends. It is definitely challenging as I am competing with students who are the top 3% of the 1993 batch during the primary 6 PSLE. However, as the years progressed, the PSLE score does not really matter in the secondary life, secondary studies are whole new topics and you need effort to score well.

I have friends who are right now struggling with the Secondary 3 academic studies. They are finding it difficult to pass Class Common Tests for almost each subject. When they fail, their scores are drastic whereas if they pass, they are just above the line. Some even had trouble in their Secondary 2 life and had to take re-tests for the End-of-year. Some of these students had been sent to the school counselors and seems to be coping well right now. This is just one of the successful cases.

Based on my years of academic experiences, listening to the teachers in class might be the best way to score well in the upcoming tests, but depending on that alone will not help you to excel, one have to put in effort, for the academic results to improve, one have to take action.

Perhaps, our teachers could go on a one-to-one tuition with students who are finding it difficult to cope academically, another suggestion would be to give special classes that go slowly compared to the others so that the students will be able to learn.

Nonetheless, we mus not forget what these teachers had helped us do when we are in need of help.

Reaching out to students at risk of dropping out

By: Ho Ai Li

HE JUST wanted to quit school. Michael had found himself repeating Secondary 3, and did not like it one bit.

All his old friends had moved on to Secondary 4, but here he was, faced with the prospect of going over the same lessons all over again.

"I found it boring," he recalled. "It was a different kind of stress. You are facing a brand-new environment where everybody is younger than you."

He started to skip school, once or twice a week. Even if he showed up, he would stay in the toilet to avoid teachers he disliked. He did not join any school activity.

Things got from bad to worse before he went to see his school counsellor, Ms Eunice Lim

"She gave me a lot of encouragement," said Michael (not his real name). Their sessions made a difference, and he decided to continue attending school.

Now he is in Secondary 5 and aiming to do an engineering course at polytechnic.

Ms Lim's efforts with students like Michael have helped Gan Eng Seng School maintain a zero drop-out rate for the last two years. There used to be a few who left each year.

To help schools do more to keep vulnerable students in school, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be giving an extra full-time school counsellor and an operations manager, someone who can help monitor student attendance, to 70 schools over the coming years.

At a Teacher's Day event two years ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong promised that the ministry would work towards reducing the attrition rate to 1.5 per cent by 2011.

The number of dropouts is not big, but every child who drops out is one too many, he said.

The dropout rate has already come down, from 3.6 per cent of each cohort in 2002, to 1.6 per cent now.

A small proportion quit in primary school or are lost in the transition between primary and secondary school.

Most students who drop out do so during Secondary 3.

Teachers say that the jump in academic standards from lower to upper secondary can prove too much for some.

School becomes even more painful for these students, mostly from the Normal stream and already struggling with their studies.

Secondary schools have reduced their dropout rate, and this is the result of efforts by teachers and counsellors using a variety of programmes.

To keep a group of vulnerable Secondary 3 students in school, New Town Secondary started its Project Heart last year.

Five students in danger of dropping out took a "time-out" from classes.

Mr Kannan Kalidasan, the head of student welfare and a former guidance officer with the MOE, said that the students shared a history of failure and disadvantaged backgrounds.

"They don't do well academically. There's a lot of frustration in their lives. They all believe they can't control their anger," he said.

So for 10 weeks, the students reported to a separate classroom during school hours, where teachers coached them one-to-one.

Mrs Lena Ang, who put in an additional three hours a week to teach these students, said it took some doing but they finally reached the point where they were handing in their schoolwork and were thrilled about it.

"They said: 'Teacher, I can finally do something'," she recalled.

The school's full-time counsellor, Mr Foo Kit Meng, uses movies and videos to discuss anger issues with vulnerable students, helping them to master their anger.

He also has them playing the boardgame Game Of Life to set them thinking about their future.

As Mr Kannan said: "If you make them focus on their future, they all aspire to own cars and live in big houses."

The time out with their teachers and counsellors allows the students to learn that reaching their goals will take some effort. "They begin to see the relevance of studying," he said.

While not every student has made "a marked improvement", all have improved their attendance and meet their teachers weekly to chat.

At Zhenghua Secondary, keeping students in school is everyone's business.

Many a student who has skipped school found the principal or vice-principal and teacher at their door.

"They are surprised and touched that so many important people in school come to visit them," said discipline master Sng Chin Seng.

Still, it may take more than one visit before some students return to school.

When it comes to students at risk of dropping out, Mr Sng said, teachers have to be more patient when homework is handed in late, or other behavioural problems occur.

And not every effort ends with success.

Mr Sng recalled how he could not reach a student who went missing after the family moved. When he finally tracked down the teenager, the parent did not want the child to return to school.

But when students like Michael come back from the brink of leaving school, the teachers cheer.

As New Town's Mr Kannan said: "As teachers, we want to see a difference in our children. We can make the most impact with this group."