Muslims are the Reason Why the World Became Modern

(Unknown author as this article was viralled via the Whatsapp application)

ISLAM has always been underestimated. An American Professor imagined the World without Muslims and found out the most surprising results! Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and a University professor, highlighted an important point that overall, Muslims account for just 0.00625%. Moreover, he actually imagined a world without Muslims and the post went viral in no time as the result is actually the opposite. Muslims are the reasons why the World became modern.

The professor, Ian Bremmer, highlighted all the inventions made by Muslims, right from toothbrushes to hospitals. Without Muslims you wouldn’t have: Coffee, Cameras, Experimental Physics, Chess, Soap, Shampoo, Perfume or spirits, Irrigation, Crank-shaft, Internal Combustion Engine, Valves, Pistons Combination Locks, Architectural Innovation (pointed arch - European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc.), Surgical Instruments, Anesthesia, Windmill, Treatment of Cowpox, Fountain Pen, Numbering System, Algebra and Trigonometry, Modern Cryptology, 3 Course Meal (soup, meat or fish, fruits or nuts), Crystal Glasses, Carpets, Cheques, Gardens (used for beauty and meditation instead of for herbs and kitchen), University, Optics, Music, Toothbrush, Hospitals, Bathing, Quilting, Mariner’s Compass, Soft Drinks, Pendulum, Braille, Cosmetics, Plastic Surgery, Calligraphy, Manufacturing of Paper and Cloth, and many more.

It was a Muslim who realised that light enters our eyes, unlike the Greeks who thought we emitted rays, and so invented a camera from this discovery.

It was a Muslim who first tried to fly in 852, even though it is the Wright Brothers who have taken the credit.

It was a Muslim by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan who was known as the founder of modern Chemistry. He transformed alchemy into chemistry. He invented: distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration. He also discovered sulfuric and nitric acid.

It is a Muslim, by the name of Al-Jazari who is known as the father of robotics.

It was a Muslim who was the architect for Henry V’s castle.

It was a Muslim who invented hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes, a technique still used today.

It was a Muslim who actually discovered inoculation, not Jenner and Pasteur to treat cowpox. The West just brought it over from Turkey.

It was Muslims who contributed much to mathematics like Algebra and Trigonometry, which was imported over to Europe 300 years later to Fibonnaci and the rest.

It was Muslims who discovered that the Earth was round 500 years before Galileo did. The list goes on and on.

Muslims are the Reason Why the World Became Modern. Had there be no Muslims, imagine how our lives would be today? Perhaps we would still be in the dark ages?

References:

German documentary https://youtu.be/L1boEHaKAzE

British film https://youtu.be/dOsHenGodD0

BBC report https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2550624671839359&id=1391449297756908

Lanun Penghancur Industri Kreatif Malaysia

Oleh Johan Ishak

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

WARGA PENONTON KANDUNGAN TELEVISYEN atau filem, tidak kira di kaca televisyen, di panggung wayang ataupun di platform internet dan media sosial, seharusnya mengambil maklum, jika anda menonton di platform-platform lanun, anda adalah perompak juga. Ini adalah dilarang dari segi undang-undang dan tindakan boleh diambil oleh pihak penguasa kepada pengguna dan juga lanun-lanun berdasarkan Konvensyen Berne dimana Malaysia adalah ahlinya.

Jika di United Kingdom, pihak polis dapat mengesan pengguna yang mencabul harta intelek melalui internet dan hukuman dikenakan dengan setimpal termasuk hukuman penjara dan saman. Di Malaysia, ini perlu dilaksanakan oleh pihak Kerajaan secepat mungkin. Pihak penonton digalakkan untuk melaporkan mana-mana laman lanun kepada pihak penguasa seperti Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM), Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna (KPDNHEP), Organisasi Harta Intelek Malaysia (MyIPO) dan juga kepada pemilik kandungan seperti Media Prima dan Astro.

Penonton seharusnya membantu industri kreatif Malaysia dengan menentang cetak rompak dan platform-platform lanun dan bukannya terus menonton sesuka hati. Jika penonton terus memberi sokongan terkutuk ini, maka hancurlah nanti industri kreatif Malaysia. Dengan bersikap tegas, anda dapat membantu pengiat seni industri tempatan untuk terus mencari rezeki. Apabila penonton menonton di platform yang sahih, bayaran royalti akan mengalir dari platform-platform tersebut kepada pemilik kandungan. Tambahan pula, pengiraan penonton di televisyen contohnya, memberikan statistik sihat dimana wang pengiklanan juga akan mengalir kepada pemilik stesen televisyen.

Pengaliran ekonomi yang sihat dari penonton dan pengiklan membolehkan pemilik kandungan dan stesen televisyen untuk terus mempunyai keupayaan modal untuk membayar artis-artis dengan sewajarnya. Pendapatan yang sihat ini menggalakkan pertumbuhan sumber rezeki pengiat-pengiat seni. Apabila dibayangkan berjuta-juta wang Ringgit yang tertiris kepada lanun, tidak hairanlah jika wang yang halal kepada pengiat seni semakin lama semakin berkurangan. Hal ini seumpama dengan gaji bulanan anda yang dirompak dengan sewenang-wenangnya. Kita perlu perangi perompak sedemikian.

Contoh platform lanun adalah seperti yang tertera di dalam pesanan Johan Ishak, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Rangkaian Televisyen Media Prima, kepada laman lanun pada 5 November 2018 seperti berikut, "Kepada Admin Facebook Kepala Bergetar dan Instagram @kepalabergetar. Sila padamkan semua kandungan yang berkenaan dengan TV3, TV9, ntv7 dan 8TV. Jika pihak kami masih menjumpainya, kami akan ambil tindakan undang-undang berdasarkan tuduhan cetak rompak harta intelek kami"

Banyak lagi kesilapan-kesilapan yang diperlakukan oleh warga umum. Jika 10 tahun yang lepas, cakera padat (CD) cetak rompak berleluasa di pasaran, kini teknologi membolehkan kelakuan baru seperti merakam persembahan di konsert atau filem di pawagam. Ada diantara mereka meletakkan rakaman tersebut di media sosial seperti Facebook, YouTube dan Instagram. Jika rakamannya hanyalah beberapa minit sahaja, mungkin ianya dapat dimaafkan kerana ianya mempunyai sifat promosi percuma kepada pengusaha kandungan. Tetapi ada kes dimana keseluruhan filem atau episod drama telah dicabul.

Apabila ditemubual, Datuk Izham Omar, selaku Pengerusi Forum Komunikasi dan Kandungan Multimedia (CMCF) berhasrat untuk mengetengahkan hal ini secara serius kepada Pengerusi SKMM agar pihak Kerajaan dapat menggubal polisi dan rangka tindakan penguatkuasa yang lebih efektif dalam membenteras lanun industri. Menurutnya lagi, peranan beliau sebagai Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Primework Studios adalah untuk menjaga harta intelek kandungan Media Prima Berhad. Apabila dikaji, laman-laman lanun yang dibenterasnya pada bulan Ogos dan September 2018 menjangkau ratusan laman yang mendapat tontonan umum setinggi 40 juta tontonan. Ini amat menyedihkan industri kreatif tanahair kerana tirisan tersebut adalah penghancur sumber rezeki industri.

Oleh itu, marilah ramai-ramai kita membenteras lanun-lanun durjana tidak kiralah di internet, di media sosial mahupun CD cetak rompak. Sesungguhnya kegiatan lanun adalah se'dosa' dengan perompak, pencuri dan jenayah-jenayah lain. Semestinya sikap lanun ini hina dari segi undang-undang mahupun agama. Rakyat Malaysia secara amnya dan Kerajaan Malaysia secara khususnya perlu bertindak dengan kadar segera sekiranya mahu memperkembangkan industri kreatif negara dengan pengaliran ekonomi yang sihat dan halal.

The Earth Crumbles When Man Extincts

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com



Title: Life After People - The Series - Welcome to Earth. Population Zero
Seasone: One
Type: Documentary
Focus: Science
Year: 2009
Number of Episodes: 10
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes
Narrator: James Lurie
Producers: Louis C. Tarantino, Douglas J. Cohen, Paul Cabana & Dirk Hoogstra
Association: Flight 33 Productions, LLC for History

ARTH cannot survive alone without its number one inhabitant, humans. This 10 episode series of documentaries uncover the impact man would have on Earth should God decide to put man into extinction. Of course such consequential disaster (i.e. the impact) is possible because man. Technology uncovered by man works against nature when man is absent in managing it (technology). You'd have to watch the entire series in order to get the full understanding of how the entire Earth would crumble but as a sneak preview, here are some salient points taken from each of the 10 episodes - for you to ponder:

• After 10,000 years, all man made structures will be broken to pieces.

• Man tamed animals will get rabies, a deadly viral infection that is mainly spread by infected animals. Many species will fall into extinction.

• There is a great rubbish patch in the Pacific Ocean that is made up of 3.5 million tonnes of plastic pieces broken into small particles. These nasty pieces of rubbish, when no managed by man, will kill many marine creatures.

• 24 carat gold bars kept at the Reserve Bank totalling USD200 billion will remain uncorroded and safe underwater as flood hits Washington.

• Waste water treatment plant that requires man to operate it will now cause many man made lakes to dry as it ceases to be operated by man for water replenishment. With the increased volume of soil, dust and sand, huge sand storm will occur destroying many cities.

• An infamous piece of art by Leonardo Da Vinci, the Mona Lisa, will be left unprotected by man. After 100 years, the wood on which Mona was painted will be completely be destroyed by wood beatles.

• Desert cities like Las Vegas will be destroyed by cryptobiotic micro organism. After 1000 years, the entire city will be broken into particle of dusts.

• In 1968, K129, a Soviet submarine, sank in the Pacific Ocean. K129 carries warheads of plutonium and hydrogen explosives. Once the metal casing rusts and the explosive elements make contact with water, a huge explosion will take place destroying many marine animals. 

• With no one to operate the oil refineries, refinery reactors that controls the supply of 20 million barrels of oil per day (in America) will heat up and explode into continuous explosions from one tank of oil to another causing a big fire destroying vegetation and animals.

• After 50 years, the 3,000 satellites orbiting the Earth at an average altitude of 100 over miles above the ground will lose control of its movement (without man's intervention) and will crash into each other causing it to become flames of fire falling onto the Earth.

* kopihangtuah



| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |

Financial Instruments: The Opium of the 21st Century

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com



Title: Inside Job
Type: Documentary
Focus: Economics
Year: 2010
Length: 1 hour 48 minutes
Host: Matt Damon
Producer: Charles Ferguson
Association: Sony Pictures Classic, Representational Pictures & Screen Pass Pictures
Director: Charles Ferguson

"All this makes you wonder why those so called 'Financial Engineers' get paid 100 times more than 'Real Engineers'? Real Engineers build bridges. Financial Engineers build dreams. However, when the dream turns into a nightmare, other people pay for it. Financial Industry turned its back on society, corrupts the political system and plunges the world into economic crisis."

INANCIAL instruments replace opium in destroying people's lives. In a small modern country of 320,000 population in the North, its banking losses went up to USD100 billion, a figure well beyond its economic capability of only USD13 billion Gross Domestic Products per year. With such a messed up position, Iceland had collapsed into bankruptcy. Who would have thought that a developed country that boasts clean energy, good education services and impeccable health system would be on their knees? It all started when the Icelandic Government adopted the policies of deregulation in the year 2000 allowing the privatisation of its three largest banks, namely, Islandbanki, Kaupping and Glitnir. These banks borrowed USD120 billion via debt instruments issuance to the public which allowed the general public to obtain financing for realty properties and the share markets. Housing market then experienced inflations of up to 200% in the price hike up. Share market showed even shocking percentages of 900%. It had to end up in a bubble burst in 2008. A burst that collapsed those three banks, increased unemployment threefold in three months and paralysed the entire economy. Despite the ratings of AAA by rating agencies and a clean opinion from a Big Four Accounting Firm, no consultants we blamed.

Now, what happened to Iceland was just a tiny portion of a bigger disaster, the United States of America (USA). This documentary, Inside Job, uncovers the underlying machine that created one of mankind's worse recession, if not the worst. That machine is 'Financial Instruments'. Similar to Iceland, the American story also involved the realty properties but in a much more creative manner. It was as if the Devil had turned into a Banker. Bankers with 666 on their Balance Sheet. In 2008, Lehman Brothers and AIG collapsed. Investors who had bet their monies with these corporations find the white ball stopping in the wrong section of the roulette table. Their monies were frozen. Financial transactions also froze resulting in a global domino effects of significant fall in trading, exports, projects, economic activities, employment and social lives. 30 million people lost their jobs. The USA debt had suddenly went doubled. Like Iceland, the USA too had started deregulations. Theirs was in the 80's. Financial institutions were allowed to use depositors' monies to invest in risky investment activities.

Many natural warnings manifested itselves via the bubble burst. One of them is the internet industry bubble burst where Investment Bankers channelled too much of investors' monies into businesses that had no substantial form. In the 90's a new form of opium had emerged. A new financial instrument mechanism called Financial Derivatives. Bankers now gamble for upside in the tradings of the secondary markets of fundamental economics. Instead of investing in the core businesses, they had invested in options that bet for or against those businesses. Instruments such as swaps and futures found themselves into existence. A new opium. A new weapon of mass destruction. A new gambling game. A new beast that accounted for USD50 trillion of the market's transaction. What was more devastating was that they (USA) even passed a parliamentary bill to ban regulations surrounding the Financial Derivatives transactions by the market particularly by the Investment Bankers. Without regulation, the world was surely doomed to face a definite future of a pervasive disaster - a hell sure to break loose - which it did in 2009.

The fall of the financial markets caused many companies to close. More people lost jobs locally and internationally as consumption expenditure and import and export activities significantly curtail.

So what happened in 2009? The Financial Derivatives come in many forms. 2009 was the year CDO, a form of derivative, made its way to the headlines. CDO are Collateralised Debt Obligations, a form of asset backed securitisation that unfortunately, was also being treated as a derivative. It became the reason for greed and gambling by the bankers. Traditionally home buyers seek loans from lenders with the expectation of repaying back the lenders at an agreed interest rate. And that was all it was. Now it went further. The lenders sell these loan assets to Investment Bankers. These loans, from various underlying transactions not limited to home buyers only, are packaged into portfolios of assets, i.e. future income generating loans. The purchase of these portfolios of assets are funded by monies invested by various investors who put their trusts in Investment Banks. It is just like investors putting monies into unit trusts hoping that the shares that those unit trusts invest in can make profits. In this case, it is called CDO. The original lenders took the money and off they went with their profits. The new owners of the loans, i.e. the purchasers of the portfolios of assets, now are entitled to get the future streams of cash payments from home buyers that consist of both principal and interests.

The issue with CDO would be those assets. How good are they? They consist of various loans for which credit ratings may not be of sufficient quality. To address this, rating agencies were asked to give ratings on the those CDOs, which they did, and they did with flying colours boosting the morale of investors when ratings such as AAAs are produced. Of course these agencies do not bear any liabilities of misrepresentation in respect of their ratings because they protect themselves behind the veil of classifying their ratings as mere "opinions" only and not valuations that can be relied upon. When the underlying assets, i.e. the home buyers, face difficulty in paying the loans in a wide spread manner, the entire cycle collapses. How would this happen? Well when the property market faces a bubble burst, the home buyers find themselves unable to pay the loans which means the CDOs are unable to pay the investors the return they had expected. In the end the investors lose. Was there a bubble burst? The property market in the USA experienced a 100% inflationary growth from 1996 to 2006 until it reached the peak before it burst. The Investment Banks were highly leveraged at 33:1 where they themselves borrowed 33 times the value of their assets. When Investment Bankers operated at such a high leverage and the USA Government did not put any regulations on it, it was a time bomb for sure. To make things worse, the insurance industry that covers the tradings of CDOs faced significant losses paying of the investors who had insured their CDO investments. So we heard - AIG collapsed.

AIG, with all its creativity, saw opportunity to make money by issuing insurance products to back up the CDOs. They called it Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Investors were paying high premiums to them (AIG) to insure their CDO investments. When CDOs collapse, AIG naturally finds itself jumping into an inferno of hell paying the recovery monies to the investors. A toxic asset (CDOs) leading to another toxic asset (CDSs). What they had not expected was the unethical conduct of Investment Bankers who were trying to make gains from CDSs even to the extent of going against the CDOs that they (Investment Bankers) had created. Goldman Sachs bought CDSs against their CDOs. So when Goldman Sachs issued CDOs collapsed, Goldman Sachs could get the recovery monies from AIG at a higher return rate than the CDO itself. The Investment Bankers make money leaving behind the investors and the insurance company facing doomsday. The professionals in the Investment Banks created all this risky mess on behalf of the Investment Banks for short term significant profits that earned them handsome bonuses. When the Investment Banks collapse, they (those individual professionals) do not owe the banks anything. They can gladly resign with those bonuses still in their hands.

Now let's talk about the rating agencies who claimed that their opinions shouldn't be taken seriously. How can professionals that charge millions of Dollars providing 'opinion' services on ratings of assets disclaim reliability of their opinion? They had rated those CDOs at AAA ratings. The highest standards that gave investors the confidence to invest. The issue here is the conflict of interests. Those rating agencies practically get more fees for higher ratings. How dumb is that for a highly evolved society that preaches independence, ethical values and conflict of interests? Who were the culprits? They were Moody's, Standard and Poor's; and Hitch. With such con job, no wonder the assets went bad when the economy hits a recession. Many borrowers couldn't pay their loans. As a result, lenders face bankruptcy. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the largest home lenders in the USA, collapsed. Shortly afterwards, working its way up the value chain, the Investment Bankers that bought loans also collapsed. Next was of course the insurance company AIG. At the side, many hedge funds who had monies invested with Investment Banks also faced losses when assets were frozen not to be recovered. It basically caused cardiac arrest of the global financial system. The USA Government had to bail out the industry costing tax payers USD700 billion of which, USD160 billion went to save AIG.

We have learnt that the financial market in Iceland resulted in the collapse of the entire country. In the case of the USA, it had the same effect. The fall of the financial markets caused many companies to close. More people lost jobs locally and internationally as consumption expenditure and import and export activities significantly curtail. China for example experienced 10 million job losts when the Americans significantly reduced their imports from China. Other countries also experienced the same negative impact particularly those with significant direct tradings with the Americans. To conclude the frustration, an interviewee in the documentary said, "All this makes you wonder why those so called 'Financial Engineers' get paid 100 times more than 'Real Engineers'? Real Engineers build bridges. Financial Engineers build dreams. However, when the dream turns into a nightmare, other people pay for it. Financial Industry turned its back on society, corrupts the political system and plunges the world into economic crisis."

* kopihangtuah



| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |

When the Clock Strikes 23:59:59, Humanity Faces Extinction?

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

"Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity. We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet" - Leonardo DiCaprio

Title: The 11th Hour
Type: Documentary
Focus: Save the Planet
Year: 2007
Length: 1 hour 32 minutes
Host & Narrator: Leonardo DiCaprio
Producers: Leonardo DiCaprio
Association with: Warner Independence Pictures
Directors: Leila Conners Petersen & Nadia Conners

lobal warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity. We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet - that was the inspiring words of the producer of this documentary, Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor with clear conscience. Humans, with their technological advancement are destroying Earth. Destroying the World they live in. Destroying Nature. Eventually, they destroy mankind. They chart their own extinction. They dig their own grave. Inevitable? Not really. They have the power to undo the course of evolution. An evolution that is derived from the actions of Humans themselves. In their dreams, their future generations are screaming "What are you doing?" but they ignore. Ignorance in the name of money and wealth that are not sustainable.

We (Humans) used to only depend on current energy. What is current energy? Resources that derive life from the Sun. From the Sun, comes light. From light comes vegetation, water, animals and everything that are contained in this planet we call Earth. We used to consume resources only to the extent provided by the Sun. With technology, uncovered by Humans, we now consume energy far beyond that provided by the current Sun. We now consume energy from ancient energy from Sun billions of years ago trapped in a form of hydro-carbon fossil fuels. No wonder our (Humans) population is at 7 billion. If it was only energy from the current Sun, our population would have been maintained at less than 1 billion, a sustainable figure supportable by current energy.

How does the technology made consumption of ancient energy possible? With the discovery of fossil fuels, Humans are able to expand their activities further. They can travel farther with various types of transportation that live on fossil fuels. They can travel deep out in the ocean to catch more fish. They can produce more electricity from various power plants. They can grow more from agriculture activities. All of these lead to various other technological advancements such as biotech, medical, mass-production, mass distribution, news and information networking. All of which that made it possible for more Humans to survive causing a surge and exponential growth of the population from less than 1 billion to 7 billion in the last 100 years. The entire Human civilisation prosper until they become the leaders on Earth (perhaps at the expense of nature itself?). The fossil fuel industry is so wealthy that they become powerful, far powerful than the politicians rendering the peoples' voices (via politicians) unheard - those who love mother Earth gets ignored.

Global Warming as God's warning to Mankind. A warning that punishment awaits for those who have sinned. Who have sinned? Humanity have sinned. We have sinned,... to mother Earth

Such advancement in Human civilisation has its consequences. Global warming and climate change are the most apparent ones. After 200 years of industrial revolution, Human civilisation has magnified itself in the ecology. It is as if what we have now is Humans vs Nature. Temperature has risen quite dramatically. We have wildfires everywhere. The ice cap in the arctic are melting by the day. Floods destroying many lives. Tornados. Hurricanes like the one in New Orleans in 2005. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. With all these continuing, planet Earth may end up like its sister planet, Venus, with temperature of 250 Celsius and sulfur gas in the air which is not liveable by Humans.

Some choose not to believe in this fear called "Global Warming". The thing is, Global Warming is not a religion. It is not the question of whether one believes or not. It is a matter of facts that requires responsible actions by Humans. These facts (scientific evidence of Global Warming) are supportable by findings by many scientists. The United Nations conducted the World's biggest Global Warming research involving 1,300 scientists from various countries across the globe. All these scientists agree on a consensus that Global Warming is very real. Regardless of religion, Global Warming presents to us signals that we ought to open our eyes. If religion is indeed to be inserted into the equation, take Global Warming as God's warning to Mankind. A warning that punishment awaits for those who have sinned. Who have sinned? Humanity have sinned. We have sinned,... to mother Earth. No wonder God, via His prophets, forewarned armgeddon. Are we facing armageddon soon? We may, if we don't do anything.

The cost of putting back oxygen into the air is USD35 trillion per annum. That is the value of service trees and forests are giving Humanity free-of-charge! Sum of all the countries' Gross Domestic Product is only USD18 trillion. Indeed nature is 2 times more wealthy than Humans, in its capability to operate Earth

We (Humans) have taken too much, too frequent, too fast, too irresponsibly and we have not given anything back. In fact we have dumped too much, too frequent, too fast and too irresponsibly back to nature. We have polluted the sea, the air, the rivers and many more, some at huge proportions such as oil spills. Studies have showed that seafood now contains dangerous level of chemicals such as mercury to the extent that seafood becomes dangerous if consumed in large proportion. It is believed that it can cause cancer. We (Humans) continue to fish. We have so far consumed 90% of the ocean dwellers. Seafood will become extinct. Even if there are some left, it'll probably be dangerous to eat them.

At least 7 countries have already lost 100% of forests. The United States of America (US) has lost 90% of its forests. Forests are nature's way of managing water. Trees absorb gallons of water. purifies it and returns water back to Earth in a manageable manner in the aquifers. The water from aquifers flows naturally at manageable speed back into rivers and the sea. If you cut the trees, you are taking away this magnificent mechanics of nature for water management. With no trees, you have nothing to absorb water. The water are dirty with nothing to purify it. It returns back to the sea disasterously through floods that destroy lives and properties. Truly, industrial civilisation is taking away nature from us. The worse and worst thing that can happen is, we (Humans) are not doing anything. Scientists and economists have together estimated that the cost of putting back oxygen into the air is USD35 trillion per annum. That is the value of service trees and forests are giving Humanity free-of-charge! Sum of all the countries' Gross Domestic Product is only USD18 trillion. Indeed nature is 2 times more wealthy than Humans, in its capability to operate Earth. We cannot afford to replace nature, at least economically as proven.

We forget the power of love. If we apply love appropriately, we can save the Earth. Save the Planet, and we will save Humanity. We will save Ourselves.

50,000 species of animals extinct every year. Since Humans are at the top of the food chain, when we extinct, majority of animals would probably have extinct. What a shame that will be given that we (Humans) are an infant species. We must act now! Energy is the key solution. We have to find ways for sustainable development. As mentioned earlier, our capability to harvest ancient energy is the cause of Global Warming. Hence, that very action ought to be where the solution is. Scientists have come out with many methods of sustainable energy generation - Renewable Energy! - e.g. wind, hydro and solar. At this 11th hour, we face our own extinction? or do we save ourselves from extinction? Not only we are at the 11th hour, we are at the 11th hour 59th minute 59th second. We need to change. We are capable to change. We forget the power of love. If we apply love appropriately, we can save the Earth. Save the Planet, and we will save Humanity. We will save Ourselves.




* kopihangtuah



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Save the Planet: Al Gore Reveals the Inconvenient Truth

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com






Title: An Inconvenient Truth
Type: Documentary
Focus: Save the Planet
Year: 2006
Length: 1 hour 36 minutes
Host: Al Gore
Producers: Laurie David, Lawrence Bender & Scott Z. Burns
Association with: Paramount Classics
Directors: Davis Guggenheim




l Gore, the former Vice President of the United States urges fellow Americans (and the whole world) to save the planet. He seems sincere but regardless of his motives, I do subscribe to his points of view. This documentary opened my eyes. Yours should be as well. It is so far, I think, the best short documentary I've watched with respect to saving our planet Earth. Highly recommended. Now, what can I share with you? I wouldn't want to spoil the documentary for those who haven't seen it. So, I'll keep it simple by just sharing salient points enough to pursuade you to buy this DVD from Amazon and embrace love for planet Earth!. Here goes (my first documentary review):

"This (global warming) is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. If not addressed, it is deeply unethical!"

Quotation by Al Gore in 2006

Let us start with the atmosphere. It is thickening because of the pollution. The heat from the sun via its infra red rays cannot escape the atmosphere when it is too thick. The heat gets trapped and accumulates surrounding Earth. This is what we call Green House Effect - the mechanism of global warming. How does the thickening happen? Well, naturally, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gets absorbed by plants in their food-creation process. You take away those plants, you take away the primary cleaner for CO2.

In autumn/winter, as we know it, there are not much leaves to absorb CO2 and vice versa for spring/summer. With that you can aspect that the level of CO2 during autumn/winter to rise and subsequently reduce - a yearly trend causing yoyo over the years. This is natural. One would aspect that if a hemisphere is experiencing a particular season, the opposite hemisphere should have the opposite season, negating the CO2 yoyo. That is only true if the land mass between northern and southern hemispheres are the same (... and we know they are not). What worries us is that, if that yoyo over the years forms an upward trend, it means heat is rising. The graph above shows that we ought to be worried. This is supported by scientists' study of trapped air burried in ice for the last one thousand years - i.e. rising heat in correlation with rising CO2.

Al Gore said "This (global warming) is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. If not addressed, it is deeply unethical!" Little do we realise that the global warming has significant negative consequences to us all. Heat level rising causes increase in wind velocity. True enough we do now see stronger hurricanes such as Katrina back on 29 August 2005. The number of storms has increased from 27 in 1975 to 93 in 2004 (USA only). Similarly, big floods have increased from 25 in 1960 to 100 in 2000. We have also noticed that the thickness of the ice in the North Pole has decreased by 40% in the past 40 years. The Arctic ice cap sea-ice extent has dropped by 1.5 million km2 since 1970. With that rate, by 2050 it would be fully melted! Polar bears will drown themselves in search of land (which is the case already in some areas).

We discussed about heat level, ice level, storms, floods, wind, etc. There are also bio-habitatual effects. Changes in climate cause disruption to the natural ecology of the animal kingdom. Scientists in Netherlands studied the seasons for bird reproduction. In 1980 they recorded that the birds hatched in June coinciding with the hatching of caterpillars. As a result of the shift of the world climate, caterpillars seem to hatch earlier in April (2000 study), depriving those chicks of their natural food source. There are many more examples that are devastating. Heat rise improves survival rate of microrganism, increasing the number of new diseases. Both deprivation of food and introduction of new diseases are the recipe for extinction for some animals. One other impact worth mentioning is the bleaching of corals. A sad case really. I have covered this in my earlier blog Coral Armageddon: A Field of Skeleton

This deteriorating health of planet Earth is/will be further compounded by human race's demand for more resources. The population is rising tremendously causing increase in consumption of food, oil and gas, water, tree-cutting, and many more. With the technological advancement of medical sciences and less wars, human race has multiplied itself from a 2.3 billion count in 1945 (just prior to World War 2) to 7.0 billion in 2011. With that rate, we will reach 9.1 billion by 2050. It is interesting to note that the human population was somewhat controlled at sustainable rate for thousands of years (at least from 5,000BC) and suddenly saw an event-turning numbers of significant increase just over the last 66 years (1945 - 2011).

CO2 level is at the top of the list nowadays with the introduction of Kyoto Protocol. Our (humans) attemp to control carbon emmission is noble but many have not yet embrace this. If, as mentioned earlier, significant disasters flooding our lives just in the space of 50 to 100 years, we then do not have enough time. We must rectify in the immediate 50 to 100 years. Back to carbon emmission, who is the biggest culprit of all? Well, surprise, surprise,... the United States of America ranks #1 at 30% contribution to the world carbon emmission of 5.47 billion metric tonnes. China comes second, then Europe, Russia and Japan.

What do we need to do? We should reduce the use of oil and gas and increase the use of electricity that is more efficient. We need renewable energy - the likes of hydro. If this is to be the main driver to reduce carbon emmission and thus, help address global warming, we need the political will to enforce it. Do we have the political will? Politicians have a lot to lose when they derive significant income from oil producing ventures. Kyoto Protocol must be taken seriously. At the time this documentary was made, only 2 nations have not yet ratified their support for the protocol - Australia and the U.S.A. I hope by now they have.

We need to do this collectively as human race. After all, we have not yet found another planet that can replace Earth. Are you ready? To change the way we live. The climate crisis can be solved. At least visit www.climatecrisis.net. At the end of the documentary, the following message was shared. If you love planet Earth, spread this message around. Save the Planet. Save our Planet. Save Earth. Save humanity. God bless.

You can reduce your carbon emmission to zero. Buy energy efficient appliances + lightbulbs. Change your thermostat (use clock thermostats). To reduce energy for heating + cooling, weatherise your house, increase insullation, get an energy audit and recycle. If you can, buy a hybrid car. When you can, walk or ride bicycles. Where you can, use light rail + mass transit. Tell your parents not to ruin the world that you live in. If you are a parent, join with your children to save the world they will live in. Switch to renewable sources of energy. Call your power company to see if they offer green energy. If they don't, ask them why not? Vote for leaders who pledge to solve this (global warming) crisis. Write to those leaders. If they don't listen, run for election. Plant trees, lots of trees. Speak up in your community. Call radio shows and write to newspapers. Insist to freeze CO2 emmissions + join international efforts to stop global warming. Reduce our dependence on oil. Help farmers grow alcohol fuels. Raising fuel economy standards require lower emmissions from automobiles. If you believe in prayers, pray the people will find the strength to change. In the words of the old African proverb "... when you pray, move your feet". Encourage everyone you know to see this documentary. Learn as much as you can about the climate crisis. Then put your knowledge into action.

"... when you pray, move your feet" An old African proverb

* kopihangtuah



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