Climate Change and Global Warming - Assignment Example

Portfolio 1 and Portfolio 2 University Student Id Course Date Portfolio 1 Introduction This portfolio provides a reflection on various topics. The first topic is climate change and global warming where the effects of the climate change on environmental sustainability. Also, the possible causes of global warming and climate change are explored. The second topic is about environmental where the various issues surrounding sustainability of the environment are explored. The third topic is energy efficient design that entails the different designs that can be adopted in the process of ensuring efficiency in the use of energy. The last topic is about teamwork that entails the features that are common in effective team management. Climate Change and Global Warming Climate change has been of great concern in different parts of the world due to its negative impacts on the life of the people. Due to climate change, there has been many changes in the amount of rainfall and the level of temperatures. The major causes of the climate change can be mainly associated with human activities that are destructive. Some of these human activities leading to the increased climate change can include burning fossil fuels that release greenhouse gasses into the environment, cutting trees among other activities. However, there are some other causes of climate change that are natural like volcanic activity and intensity of the sun, but their effects are not significant to the climate change. The increasing climate change is exposing the lives of people to risks concerning their welfare and health. The effects of climate changes have extended to agriculture hence affecting the economy where many farmers are facing challenges due to reduced rainfalls and increased level of temperatures. The effects of climate changes are expected to continue being experienced in different parts of the world as the destructive human activities have continued to release more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere (Graham, 2012). Despite the many efforts of managing the increased climate change globally, there has not been changing making its effects continue being experienced in different parts. Therefore, there is the need to increase the awareness among the people globally concerning the impacts of climate change and the possible strategies that can be employed in the process of managing the worsening situation. Sustainability and Environmental Sustainability Sustainability entails meeting the present needs while considering the future generation. It is through sustainability that people can ensure that they use the available resources and way that they meet their needs and ensure that the future generation will be in a position to use the same resources to meet their needs. Therefore, sustainability ensures that the resources available are safeguarded to make sure that they are used in an efficient manner. Through sustainability, the natural environment can be protected from any form of harm hence ensuring that the environment is kept at the right conditions free from pollution. Sustainability can be achieved through ensuring that the human activities do not result in any pollution where people develop concerns for ensuring environmental protection. Environmental sustainability involves protecting the natural environment through avoiding the human activities that are destructive. The sustainability of the natural environment can be possible of only the people have the concern for the future generation where they should protect the current environment to ensure that the future generation can find in good conditions. Healthy development in any country can be achieved through ensuring sustainability of the environment where people are not only considered about the economic outcome but also the effects of their economic activities on the environment. Therefore, there is the need for ensuring a balance between the economic and environmental consideration in the process of making decisions. Energy Efficient Design Energy efficiency ensures that the available energy is utilized aiming at achieving maximum benefits from the available energy. Efficiency in the use of energy is one of the ways of ensuring that the energy available is used sustainably to avoid depletion of the energy sources hence ensuring that the future generation can be gain access to the same energy in the future. Energy efficiency has been an issue of concerns globally as people are looking for ways of saving energy leading to the introduction of energy efficiency standards in building operations (Graham, 2012). Achieving energy efficiency results in a reduction of the greenhouse gasses that are responsible for increasing climate change hence energy efficiency can be considered crucial to achieving sustainability. There is the need for regulating the energy use of buildings as building sector has been considered as the major contributor to the greenhouse gasses. For instance, the energy that is used in the buildings approximately accounts for 27% of the energy associated with the greenhouse gas emissions. In the residential areas, the consumption of energy is expected to increase by around 56% by the year 2020 mainly because of the number of the energy users hence creating the need for ensuring efficiency in energy use. Teamwork Working in teams has become common in most of the modern engineering organizations. The productivity of the employees who are working in teams is said to increase due to increased sharing of ideas and improvement in communications making consultations among the employees possible. Many engineering organizations are currently embracing teamwork as they have realized the need for employees working as a team to achieve the targets of the organizations. Innovations in engineering can be achieved through ensuring that the employees do work as teams leading to improvement of quality. Communication is crucial in the process of developing teamwork in any engineering organization. It is through proper commutation, a good working environment necessary for teamwork is created through increased interactions and sharing of information. Teamwork ensures that talents, knowledge, and skills are pooled together where communication becomes very important. Conclusion The building sector has great impacts on ensuring environmental sustainability due to its increased use of the natural resources. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the designing and strategies adopted in the sector are in a position to guarantee efficiency in the use of the natural resources. Through efficiency in the building sector, the use of the natural resources can be controlled and emission of the greenhouse gasses causing climate change minimized. Portfolio 2 The efficacy of double glazing The efficacy of double glazing can be important in ensuring energy efficiency in buildings through controlling heat transfer. Double glazing in buildings is achieved through making use of tinted glass windows that have control over the transfer of heat between the internal environment of the building and the external environment. This ensures that there is efficiency in energy use as the transfer of heat through conduction, radiation and convention can be controlled. Double glazing efficacy ensures that there is control of the heat transfer through the three mechanisms. The amount of solar radiation is controlled ensuring that the necessary amount of solar is allowed inside the building through windows hence controlling the temperatures inside the building (Graham, 2012). The type of class used in the windows is entirely determined by the surrounding environment where engineers are looking for ways of ensuring that the indoor temperatures are not affected by external temperatures through heat loss. Energy efficiency can also be achieved in buildings through controlling the amount of heat lost or absorbed by window glasses through the convention. This ensures that the temperatures in the external environment do not affect the indoor temperatures hence ensuring energy efficiency inside the building. Glass windows are heat conductors hence they have effects on the level of temperatures inside a building hence it is necessary to consider the type of glasses to use to ensure energy efficiency. Therefore, double glazing can be crucial in achieving energy efficiency through ensuring that the heat loss is controlled. The use of radiant barriers in building construction Radiant barriers have been considered crucial in designing energy efficient buildings making them important elements in the building. Some of the radiant barriers that are common in building sector can include walls, tiles, bricks veneer, timber facings and roof structures. The radiant barriers achieve energy efficiency through providing thermal insulation aimed at controlling loss of energy from inside of the building to the extra environment. The common features of the radiant barriers include surfaces that have low absorptivity to ensure that the eliminate energy loss. As a result, the radiant barriers ensure that heat transfer in the building is controlled through making use of radiant materials that are suitable considering the environment surround the building. Creating and innovation are essential for the engineers using radiant barriers to ensure energy efficiency in buildings. It is through creativity that the engineers can be in a position to make choice of the best radiant barriers that can ensure energy efficiency. This is because the different building might require different types of radiant barriers depending on the external environment. The climatic condition is different from one region to the other hence determining the type of radiant barrier to be used in building to ensure energy efficiency (Graham, 2012). For instance, in some regions, the building requirement can include ensuring no heat is lost to the environment from the inside environment of the building. The engineers need to consider such requirement in the process of designing the house and determining the radiant barrier they can use to ensure no heat loss to the external environment. The definitions of humidity Humidity c9an be defined as the amount of water in the form of vapor that is contained in given volume of air. Further definition of humidity can be provided through considering vaporization physics that is explained by making use of the states of matter. The liquid contains molecules that become loose on heating as they gain kinetic energy. The molecules of water then escape to the environment in the form of vapor hence combining with air. It is the molecules escaping into the atmosphere that determine the humidity. Temperatures do affect the ability of air to hold water as more molecules are said to turn to vapor with an increase in temperatures to the point the air becomes saturated that it cannot accommodate more vapor. The levels of humidity are expressed in percentages. The humidity level is different from one region to the other where the temperatures determine the humidity levels in the regions. This creates the necessity for the engineers to consider the humidity of the environment they are constructing a building. The external temperatures can be determined by the humidity in the region hence automatically creating the possibility of affecting the internal environment of the building. Therefore, engineers need to consider the level of humidity in designing buildings as humidity affects the internal temperatures of a building (Graham, 2012). Energy efficiency can be achieved through ensuring that external environment affected by the humidity does not affect heat loss inside the building hence making necessary to ensure correct selection of the construction materials depending on their heat conductivity. The art of writing reports and giving presentations The art of writing reports can help engineers in ensuring that they achieve energy efficiency in buildings. The engineers through the proper writing of reports and giving correct presentations concerning designing of buildings can ensure that the right materials that can ensure energy efficiency are used in the construction. Besides, the environmental factors affecting the general temperatures of the buildings can be reported and presented to the various stakeholders involved in the construction of the buildings to ensure that the necessary materials are used. Giving presentations is crucial in communicating results of the findings of the engineers concerning the effects of different designs of buildings on the energy efficiency in the buildings. It is through the excellent art of writing a report that the engineers can ensure proper communications related to buildings making the various stakeholders aware of the various issues related to energy efficiency measures concerning the building. The presentation can be done to the suppliers and the manager of the building project to ensure that the materials do consider the environmental factors are hence ensuring energy efficiency is achieved in building. Therefore, engineers need to have the necessary report writing skills that can ensure that they communicate the necessary information concerning the best designs that can be employed in ensuring energy efficiency in buildings. Reference Graham Thorpe, 2012, September. Optimizing embodied energy of building construction through bioclimatic principles. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference on Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM 2012) (Vol. 2, pp. 1401-1411). 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