At the beginning of this course, I came to the class with the mentality that I would just try my best to pass the course. I expected the lesson to be mundane and we would be doing grammar practices every lesson. However, during the first lesson, we had an ice-breaking session which was quite unexpected to me. In Brad's class, we were also expected to post all of our assignments on our personal blog. The blog served as a platform for us to evaluate each other's work and gave us the chance to interact with one another. I valued this opportunity and find that it really helped me in accessing my weaknesses and improving on them.
One of the most important academic skill I picked up in this course is the correct usage of grammar, mainly on sentence structures. Errors in sentence structures are common in my writings yet I have never realised them! Being aware of problems now, I would take extra caution to avoid such mistakes while writing chemistry lab reports. I am sure that writing skills are also important in other areas outside the field of chemistry such as in resume writing and these skills will benefit myself in the future.
Through ES1102, I appreciate the fact that essay writing is not about putting in all the content that you know but more of focusing on the right ideas and organising them. In this way, our ideas can be conveyed clearly to our audience.
Despite learning a lot from this course, I feel that I have not mastered the correct way of citing and referencing sources. I made such mistakes for several drafts of my essay but still could not get it right. However, in academic writings, citations and references are extremely important. I need to read up more on the APA style and other academic reports in order to fill up this gap of mine.
Having the oral presentation in this module has given me the opportunity to experience how it would be like in the working life and in higher levels of university life. Presentations are inevitable in these aspects of life and though I am still afraid of presenting in front of people, I have decided that I need to step out of my comfort zone and embrace every opportunity out there to practice on my presentation skills. I have to be more confident, and need to be louder and clearer for my presentations in future. With more practice, I am sure I can manage it.
Through ES1102, I have learnt skills that would benefit myself in the future. I feel that I have gained as much as I had put in. It is really fortunate for me to be part of this class where lessons are made enjoyable because of the teacher and classmates.
Monday, 21 April 2014
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Reflection on Presentation
I think that presentation should be included in ES1102.
Personally, I feel that having this presentation in ES1102 has given me an opportunity to share my ideas with the class. It is also a good learning experience as I can step out of my comfort zone and be exposed to comments from teachers and friends. Having presentation component in ES1102 also serves as a practice for the graded oral presentation in ES1541. In this way, ES1102 students will have an advantage over the others. Furthermore, presentation skills are essential for our future career too.
Through this presentation practice and from those feedbacks I received, I realised several shortcomings in presentations. It has helped me to realise my weaknesses and how I could deal with them in future.
Therefore, a presentation component in ES1102 is essential.
Monday, 14 April 2014
Essay FINAL
Economic
Development in China has led to its Air Pollution
Goldin (2009) pointed out in his TED talk that collapse in
biodiversity, climate change, financial crisis and inequality are some problems
caused by globalisation. Among these, we have witnessed air pollution becoming
more evident. A main cause of air pollution is the increase in excessive
greenhouse gases largely contributed by industries. Air pollution is a serious
problem in China, and it is heavily tied to globalisation. Globalisation
involves the movement of ideas, cultures and people across the world. Since the
1970s, China has been experiencing rapid expansion and urbanization. This was
due to the low cost of production in China, which works as an incentive for
many foreign companies to set up their factories there. Many job opportunities
were given to the Chinese locals and more knowledge and skills could be
acquired from the foreigners, aiding in China’s economic expansion. However, Zhang
(2012) noted that China’s aim to improve the gross domestic product (GDP) at
any cost has created environmental problems. In my opinion, air pollution has
plagued China ever since its growth and the country has been implementing
solutions to mitigate this long-term problem. However, it will take a long
time, and no one can be sure if this air pollution problem can be improved
completely.
From
1991 to 2010, industrial waste gas emission in China was increasing at 43.1
billion cubic metres annually (Cui & Shi, 2012). Increases in
health problems are mostly attributed to the air condition. Small particulates
can permanently stay in the lungs and aggravate many respiratory illnesses and
heart problems (Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, n.d.). According to a World Health Organization report, 40 percent of the 7 million
people in the world who died from air pollution in 2012 lived around China (Chen & Bennett,
2014). Being one of the worst polluted countries and not doing anything to
reduce air pollution, could also result in China suffering from economic
problems. In 2008, China’s economic losses due to pollution and environmental
degradation accounted for 10.51 percent of gross national income (Zhang, 2012). To deal with
all these ongoing problems, China has implemented several solutions to reduce
the impacts of air pollution.
The first solution is to cut down dependence on coal.
According to Chew (2013), the construction of new coal-fired plants is
prohibited and replaced by 18 synthetic natural gas (SNG) plants. This can
reduce air pollution since burning of coal contributes to harmful air
particulates. However, this is a short-term solution. Although switching to SNG
plants can help to reduce particulate air pollution, the process of mining coal
and converting it to natural gas can yield 36 percent to 82 percent more
greenhouse gas emissions than burning coal directly (Chew, 2013). Shutting
down the coal-fired plants is also not sufficient to mitigate this pollution
problem because emissions from vehicles, shipyards and aircrafts also
contribute to air pollution, in Shanghai especially, after Shanghai became an
international transport hub.
A second solution was implemented by Hanergy, the largest
non-state-owned enterprise of clean energy power generation in China, which
focuses on hydropower and solar power as alternatives (Dinell, n.d.). The
ShangHai Tower, upon completion in 2014, will serve to reduce energy usage as
wind turbines are built at the top of the tower and electricity generated will
run the exterior light. We can see that with clean energy power generation,
industries have alternative sources to run the plants instead of using coal.
Less coal will be burnt, giving rise to a cleaner Shanghai. However, there are
limitations to this implementation. Other sources of energy like hydropower and
solar power require much capital to operate. It also takes a long time to start
these operations, which is not effective to solve the imminent air pollution
problem in Shanghai.
In
conclusion, globalisation drives rapid expansion and industrialisation in
China, sacrificing the environment at the same time. However, efforts have been
made by China over the years to solve this issue. They have been targeting the
root of the problem by controlling the greenhouse gases emission from
factories. Apart from that, China can also look out for other sources of
greenhouse gases emission, and implement some regulations to control them. On
top of solving the root of the problem, China can also deal with the health
impacts experienced by the people living in the area. The government can give
out free face mask to the citizens and also allow a regular health check at a
lower price. Though it will take a long time, China can only aim to reduce air
pollution. It will be hard to eliminate this problem entirely as air pollution
is happening at a faster rate than their actions to deal with the problem.
(781 words)
References
Chen, C. & Bennett, S. (2014, March 26). China Smog at Center of Air
Pollution Deaths Cited by WHO. Bloomberg.com.
Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-25/tainted-air-kills-more-than-aids-diabetes-who-report-shows.html
Cui, L
& Shi, J. (2012, October 25). Urbanisation and its environmental effects in
Shanghai, China. Urban Climate 2, 1–15.
Chew, K. (2013,
November 14). China’s Solution for Combating Air Pollution? Convert Coal to
Synthetic Natural Gas. Enn.com. Retrieved
March 27, 2014, from http://www.enn.com/environmental_policy/article/46681
Santa Barbara
County Air Pollution Control District (n.d.). Air Pollutants and Our Health. Sbcapcd.org. Retrieved March 27, 2014,
from http://www.sbcapcd.org/sbc/pollut.htm
Dinell, S.
(n.d.). Pollution. Bizjournalism.org.
Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://china2012.bizjournalism.org/?page_id=229
Zhang, J.J.
(2012, September). Delivering Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth: The
Case of China. Asiasociety.org. Retrieved
March 27, 2014, from http://asiasociety.org/files/pdf/Delivering_Environmentally_Sustainable_Economic_Growth_Case_China.pdf
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