E.H-On Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm local time

  

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm local time, people all around the world will be turning off their lights for one hour — Earth Hour — to show their support for finding solutions to climate change. Earth Hour is a global movement led by World Wildlife Fund to demonstrate concern for our living planet.

Last year during Earth Hour 2008, more than 50 million people participated and the lights went out in the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Coliseum in Rome and the Sydney Opera House. Even Google went dark. Check out this video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjWD8pbK5t8.

This year, Earth Hour will be even bigger—already 250 cities in 74 countries have agreed to take part including Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville with more signing up every day. Around the world cities like Istanbul, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai and Mexico City will turn out their lights.

But Earth Hour isn’t just for big cities—anyone can participate. This year, students on campuses across the country are joining this important effort . Earth Hour is an easy way to stand up for the environment.

Participating in Earth Hour is EASY, FUN and FREE. I hope you will join me for this very cool event. To sign up, visit www.EarthHour.org. 。please pass this note along to anyone you think might want to take part. Let’s all turn out and take action on March 28 at 8:30 pm.

TEDtalks

Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Paint it white

Global warming may seem like an overwhelmingly complex problem to tackle. But one scientist thinks the answer is brilliantly simple: a lot of white paint.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Akbari is a scientist who has come up with a new way to fight global warming. It could be the easiest solution you've never heard of.
His big idea is based on principles as old as the whitewashed villages that scatter the hills of southern Europe and North Africa. Turn enough of the world's black urban landscape white, he says, and it would reflect enough sunlight to delay global warming, and grant us some precious breathing space in the global struggle to control carbon emissions.

Akbari is poised to launch a campaign to paint the world white. He wants dozens of the world's largest cities to unite in an effort to replace the dark-coloured materials used to cover roads and roofs with something a little more reflective.

It sounds simple, but the effect could be dramatic. Study after study has shown that buildings with white roofs stay cooler during the summer. The change reduces the way heat accumulates in built-up areas -- known as the urban heat island effect -- and allows people who live and work inside to switch off power-hungry air-conditioning units.

Together, roads and roofs are reckoned to cover more than half the available surfaces in urban areas, which have spread over some 2.4% of the earth's land area. A mass movement to change their colour, Akbari calculates, would increase the amount of sunlight bounced off our planet by 0.03%. And, he says, that would cool the earth enough to cancel out the warming caused by 44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution.

If you think that sounds like a lot, then you're right. It would wipe out the expected rise in global emissions over the next decade. It won't solve the problem of climate change, Akbari says, but could be a simple and effective weapon to delay its impact -- just so long as people start doing it in earnest. "Roofs are going to have to be changed one by one, and to make that effort at a very local level, we need to have an organisation in place to make it happen," he says. Groups in several cities in the United States, including Houston, Chicago and Salt Lake City, are on board with his plan, and he is talking to others.

Akbari says his plan is more workable than other geo-engineering ideas. The science is simple. Sunlight reflected from a surface does not contribute to the greenhouse effect, which drives global warming. That problem comes when dark surfaces soak up sunlight and send it back up as thermal energy, at just the right wavelength to rebound off CO2 in the sky.

Chinese Cuisine

Time flies.I've been in Dublin, my homestay for nearly 1 month.This is my first time to be in another country,far away from home.No homesick,cuz I adapted quickly to this brand new life in reland.I love the air,food,people here.The climate is tender,beautiful landscapes,bars and cafes are everywhere,the desserts are deadly yummy,and people are nice here,they always give you hand when you need help. As I 'm going to move into my new apartment this Friday,I did chinese cuisine for my homestay family last sunday,which was really a memorable night.

The ingredients were potatoes,pork-rib,cranberries,brown sugar,soybean source etc. which were bought from a chinese supermarket located in the city center.I do not know how to translate this meal into english,let's call it "potato stir fry with pork-rib" ("tu dou shao pai gu "is the chinese name),companied by the treasure porridge which was made by rice and cranberries.They are common meal in china.And my homestay family love this meal honestly, said that's really fantastic,and thanked me for preparing dinner.And I should really thank them as well,for living with this large warm family,always noisy (cuz they have 4 kids)but intresting.