Quiz

1- Critical thinking is the ability to use the mind effectively to think about something in a critical way. That include a lot of factors that lead to critical thinking which are:

a- Ability to read between the lines and beyond the point of view.

b- knowing exactly what people are referring to or think about when they say something.

c- Being able to understand the issue and think about whether it has a do-able solution or not.


2- Barriers of critical thinking:

a- Lack of experience and practice.

b- To think that criticism means only bad comments on a specific argument but in critical thinking criticism should be about pointing out the good and the bad points of view of someone's else opinion.

c- people`s emotions : it happens when an argument leads someone to emotional distress while discussing the matter with another person ; due to the emotional facts in the argument some people will refuse to listen to others opinions.

d- The rationality of people

e- some people are just lazy and would not want to trouble their mind thinking about whether or not a certain fact is true and will believe any thing said to them.


3- A fallacy is an argument based on poor reasoning and it may or may not  have a true conclusion. A fallacy can be formal or informal and there are a lot of factors that lead to fallacious argument and they are :

a- Ignorance : a belief could be true because there is no fact stating that it is not true. Some people believe in aliens  because they just saw a sight of an unidentified flying object flying around in some places so they just decided that it is an UFO that contains aliens.

b- The community believe in something

c- Authority : declaration of facts based on years of experience so it is decided that a certain fact is true.


4- Benefits of critical thinking :

Good critical thinking provides us with numerous benefits and helps us to thin in a better way. The first benefit is the ability to address a problem and think about viable solutions to it.

Good critical thinking leads to good conclusions and it is a good exercise to the brain that keeps it working in a healthy way and your brain will never age!  

Finally, critical thinking makes me happy because I'm able now to read between the lines and beyond the regular point of view which helps me to be effective in discussing a matter or be in an argument with someone else.

Efficient Energy in UAE

 

Ever since fossil fuel was discovered in the UAE, it was the main energy source for everything, and it is used to run motors and produce electricity in order to feed the main cities with enough power. However, as we all know that fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide which cause a huge impact on the earth’s atmosphere by preventing radiant energy received from the sun to be reflected back to space as heat. So as a result there will be an increase in the temperature of the earth due to the greenhouse effect.

Another thing is that fossil fuels will not last forever and there will be a time when we will run out of it so an alternative energy source should be found. Our government put a huge budget and efforts to find an alternative power so they decided to use solar power due to the fact it’s clean and it is usually sunny in daytime.

 For this purpose, a company called Masdar initiated a project called Shams1 for solar energy; it was funded for 2.2 billion dirhams and built on a 2.5 square kilometer site. Shams1 has the capability to produce enough power to feed up to 20,000 houses which will reduce the carbon dioxide in the air by 175 thousand ton yearly, and that is similar to planting one and a half million trees or preventing 15,000 cars from running  Abu Dhabi`s streets.

People will say that solar energy is a way to go and it is clean, safe and environmentally friendly. I totally agree with them but is it efficient? It is well known that solar energy is clean but it is very expensive to be applied on a larger scale and to be the main feeder for major cities; millions if not billions of dirhams should be spent in order to have the needed power. So another source of energy should be found so it was decided to rely on the nuclear power to generate the needed power for the cities in the UAE.

AS a result, “In December 2009, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, established by decree the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the organization charged with implementing the UAE nuclear energy program as it produces electricity, supports economic development, and provides opportunity for the people of the nation.” (http://enec.gov.ae/about-us/history/)

Nuclear energy is considered to be the most efficient energy source found on earth due to the fact that it produces more megawatts while using a small amount of fuel, and it’s considered to be clean since it doesn’t produce any CO2. However, many people will say it is dangerous because of what they heard about how hazardous the nuclear radioactivity can be. In fact, nuclear energy is very safe because the rate of reaction is manageable and the reactor is built out of thick walls that prevent the radioactivity to get out.

Finally, we can be sure that nuclear energy is a way to go since it is efficient and reliable. However, that doesn’t prevent us from using solar energy since we have the sun needed to generate power. Solar and nuclear energies are the energy of the future!