Saturday, August 29, 2009

Air Conditioner

We, human, caused global warming. Since global warming increase the earth temperature, and we human are too high and mighty to live in a humid temperature, we resort to air conditioner. Air conditioner that doesn't actually solve the global warming problem but further worsen it.

But who cares, right? As long as we can live comfortably in the nice and cold temperature.
(Forgive my poor attempt to be sarcastic)

I'll tell you why you SHOULD care. Air conditioners are ruining our lives. The power required to run air conditioner consume fossil fuels and depleting reserves. These substances, of course contribute to global warming, which in turn, will force us to increase the usage of air conditioner. I would like to name this cycle as the 'vicious cycle' (actually, I want to name it the 'air- contioner-contribute-to-global-warming-but-we-still-use-it cycle', but it's too long).

So, what are we to do? Human shouldn't be blame for this. The temperature is simply too hot for us to bear. Seriously, in the heatwave of 2003, 30 000 people died across Europe. So, this is NO laughing matter. The earth has become too humid. The damage is done, people. In no way can we undo the global warming in the nearest time.

So, I suggest the eco friendly air conditioner- the geothermal air conditioner. Although it is extremely expensive, I'm sure we can find a way to buy it. I mean, we are only 14 right? So let's change our goal! Instead of dreaming in buying a Porche, let's work hard to buy a GEOTHERMAL air conditioner when we grow up! From now on, learn and study hard so we can have a succesful career someday and help the environment.

If you have no desire whatsoever to study hard, you can always buy a fan. A manual fan. This is to me, the best solution ever. And if that doesn't work, you can always take a bath/shower anytime you feel like you can't handle the heat any longer.

As for now, well, if you're parents are extremely rich, force them to buy one of those eco friendly air conditioner. If they're not, force them to buy a fan. And if you can't afford any of that, then good for you! That means, you are not contributing to the global warming. Unless, you are using a normal air conditioner of course. If that's the case, turn it off, NOW! Trade the normal air conditioner for a normal fan.

We all are apart of this earth. So let's do something to help her!


Friday, August 28, 2009

Welcome To The Board!

Hello, there dear Eco Ranger Members. The Job Scope for you guys is finally up. So, please read through it carefully :)
President: Farhanah
- nurturing activities: bio enzyme, compost, eco carwash
- plans activities throughout the year
- looking for sponsors
- making / ordering banners, tshirts and so on
- ensure members do their job
- incharge of Herbs Garden
- incharge of members “GOLD POINTS” (will be deducted if job is not carried out and will effect Co-curricular marks)

Vice President: Atikah
- incharge of recycling papers
- ensure members do their job
- replaces Cela to take down minutes if Vice Secretary is not around
- Helps Farhanah
- Incharge of Eco Mini Jungle
Secretary: Cela
- prepares name list for minutes and for all AJK’S (NAME LIST WITH FULL NAMES)
- prepares sponsorship letter, letters for visits and so on
- takes attendance during meetings
- prints out minutes and places them in eco files (FILES TO BE BROUGHT EVERY MEETING)
- prepares journals to be submitted once in two months (JOURNAL MUST BE SHOWED TO FARHANAH AND PN. YEO BEFORE SUBMITTING)
Vice Secretary:
- Helps Cela with minutes
- Replaces Cela when she is absent for meetings
- Helps Ramizah with her job (Planting)
Treasurer: Siti Sarah
- collects all the money needed
- collects receipts for redemption and passes it to teacher
- makes accounts and closes it every month, gets Pn. Yeo’s signature
- ensures that the money we have ties with the accounts
- makes recycled papers with AtiK
Blog: Elsa and Angela
- updates blog every meeting
- uploads pictures on blog after each meeting
- blog must be uploaded by Sunday of the same week the meeting was held
- updates blog on whether there will be meeting the following week/ not
- promotes blog through facebook ( Groups J), twitter and so on
- places interesting information on the environment every week (BY SUNDAY)
Scrapbook: Eishatur
- updates scrapbook every week
- changes the captions of the pictures updated to make it more interesting
Photography: Azrianna, Pui San
- takes picture during every meeting and event that has something to do with the environment
- uploads picture on scrapbook by Sunday of the same week
- passes pictures to Secretary, AJK Multimedia and Blog latest by Thursday of the same week
Research: Azmina, Husnina
- does research on every plant in gardens in school
- seeks help of experts from UM / YAWA if can’t identify the name and uses of plants
- prints out info on plants and places in Scrapbook (one scrapbook for each garden)
- keeps scrapbook in place and always updated
- brings scrapbook during every meeting and updates members on new plants and their uses
Board and Documentation: Ili, Samantha, Nadiah
- changes layout and design of board
- places pictures, information and organization chart on board (MADE YOURSELF)
- places notice on whether there will be meeting or not, the day before meeting
- does all types of artwork required by Eco Rangers
- incharge of making button badges
- Makes ECO files:
1. Minutes: 2 files
2. Plants Scrapbook: 3 files
3. Eco Ranger Scrapbook with pictures: 1 file (incharge of processing pictures and completing it too)
- makes labels for plants using recycled papers and sending it for
Lamination
M
ultimedia: Niraa and Soo Sun
- makes and updates slideshow after every meeting or activity
- slideshow must be given to Farhanah at the end of every month for checking
- slideshows must include animation and lots of pictures
- makes environmental videos when needed
Watering: Sophia and Keerthana
- take turns on ensuring plants are watered (ECO FOREST and HERBS GARDEN)
- making a checklist and ensuring members water plants everyday unless urgent matters crop up and it has rained/ is raining
- checklist must be presented every meeting
Planting: Ramizah
- ensures that there are no weeds at the garden and all the plants are healthy (FOREST and GARDEN)
- prepares checklist to keep count of number of plants which died and is still living
- checklist should be updated once a week
- checks out places to buy plants for a cheaper price and buys plants first if required (MONEY WILL BE REDEEMED)
- incharge of activities that involves the plants such as selling of herbs
Good Luck to the new board. I believe you will do a great job!!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

TER Official Website + Scrapbook

Take a look at our scrapbook and profile page. It's the second coolest scrapbook after the winning team from SS17.


Click on the "Future Seeding Plants" or something like that. The second button from your left.

Haven't been updated since June. Will be updated soon. After I kill myself with Sejarah drama, fanfiction and manga contest.

We didn't win Best Reporting simply because our pictures mostly contain brown things (sand, earth and compost) instead of greeneries (SS17 is like 0___O). Anyway, they copied our captions and our way of writing so, yeah. Whatever. We were still awesome. Farhanah, AtiK and Cela got their faces plastered in NEWSpapers.


Don't ask where did I get the pictures. I have tons of them, thanks to my fantastic googling skills.


Goodbye and good luck to the new board. Let us all suffer in peace,
Ryodhiah.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Green schools

By Sarah Chew and Yazreen Haron
WHICH would you rather do in environmental conservation — hear a talk about saving trees for a 100 minutes or plant a 100 trees in your school?
And yes, though planting a 100 trees may take more out of you, it certainly would go a long way in ensuring a healthier and greener tomorrow, as students in 22 schools found out.

These students were part of the Toyota Eco Rangers Programme, a partnership between UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd and Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam (Yawa), which kicked off last year with a Eco camp where they learnt how to care for trees and plant them in their respective schools.

This three-year programme involves workshops, concept paper presentation, tree planting, nurturing activities and networking with community and governmental bodies.
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Noor Rezan (fifth from left) talking to Sri Aman principal Alainal Hasani Md Noor about the school’s herb garden that was cultivated under the programme.
“As we end the first year of the programame, a total of 755 indigenous trees have been planted in the 22 participating high schools within the Klang Valley, by the students who have successfully applied the knowledge acquired from the Eco Camp workshop”, said executive director of strategic marketing group of UMW Toyota Motor Aminar Rashid Salleh at the first-year award ceremony recently.

Yawa and Toyota have been conducting on-site visits to the participating schools to monitor the progress and provide advice and feedback.

He also added that students will be taught on how to do labelling and inventory in the second year.

They would also be encouraged to carry out nurturing activities such as composting, producing enzymes and recycling, and also networking with the community, and move towards greening their school’s environment.
Schools were presented with a RM500 grant and starter kit of weeding, pruning and measurement tools, a test kit and fertiliser recipes.

To encourage the students in their endeavours, each school is monitored and assessed every year, with awards presented to schools in various categories.

The top three winners received cash prizes ranging from between RM1,000 and RM3,000 for the first year. They were SMK(P) Sri Aman, SMK Putrajaya and SMK Setapak Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

The Best Tree Planting, Best Nurturing and Environmental Practises and Best Reporting awards were won by SMK Bangsar, SMK(P) Sri Aman and SMK SS17 Subang Jaya respectively, with a reward of RM1,000 for each school.

The students and teachers agreed that they had gained valuable lessons and experiences through the past year.

“I’ve learnt how to plant trees correctly, know their scientific names, how to dig ponds, plan the ‘softscape’ and the ‘hardscape’ and even prepare presentations,” said SMK Putrajaya Form Five student Nur Azreen Hamidi, 17.

She added that when she leaves school, she would still return as an alumni to finish off the programme.
“In conjunction with the programme, we also conducted other eco-friendly activities as well, such as recycling, producing bio enzymes and an eco car wash where we used a pail of water for a car, and a pail of soap for several cars”, commented Nik Roshina, a participating teacher of SMK Setapak Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

Education Ministry deputy director-general (General Education Operations) Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim said the ministry hoped the environmentally-friendly culture would extend beyond school.
“In understanding the importance of trees, comes a sense of responsibility towards the environment, not only within the school community but at home too”, said Noor Rezan.

To bring out the “eco” mood, there were special performances by the choir and orchestra of SMK(P) Sri Aman .

The participants will also be invited to a Tree Planting event in November this year.

The second year Eco Camp will be held in March 2010 and the final awards presentation will be held in June 2011 to complete the three-year programme.