lunes, 22 de noviembre de 2010

Letter to the Organizer of the Sello Verde

Alonso Álvarez Thuel


San José, September 26, 2010

INTEL

Dear Mr. Alfredo Arce:

I wrote this letter to express my congratulations because of your exposition about the Supply Chain. Specifically about what has INTEL done in the last years. First of all, I found it very interesting that there are only 4 companies that do the assembly job, 3 in Asia and the other Costa Rica. Also how does this chain works with the demand, supply and product.

Moreover, it was really remarkable that the 4 companies even though they are from INTEL, they try to compete with each other so the level of efficiency rises. And last but not least important to know that INTEL’s Supply Chain is in the top 30 of the world, competing with companies like Apple, P&G, and others, and what makes it incredible is that none of us buy something from them, because they make microchips that are inside computers, telephones, etc.



Greetings,
Alonso Álvarez Thuel.

viernes, 5 de noviembre de 2010

Global Warming

One problem that had taken a huge concern in society is global warming. Global warming is when the earth heats up (the temperature rises).  It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature. This affects not only humans, but animals and vegetation too. What happens is that, due to the heat and the gasses, our poles are losing land because the glaciers are melting, so many species do not have too much space.

Also according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2008), global surface temperatures have increased about 0.74°C (plus or minus 0.18°C) since the late-19th century, and the linear trend for the past 50 years of 0.13°C (plus or minus 0.03°C) per decade is nearly twice that for the past 100 years. The warming has not been globally uniform. Some areas (including parts of the southeastern U.S. and parts of the North Atlantic) have, in fact, cooled slightly over the last century. The recent warmth has been greatest over North America and Eurasia between 40 and 70°N. Lastly, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1995. As a consequence of this, the climate change, we can see that in many countries people die because of the heat, with temperatures of 40ºC or higher.
The first cause of global warming is the greenhouse effect; this is the warming that happens when certain gases get inside of the Earth's atmosphere and trap the heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse.

This problem affects everyone of us, so we have to make some changes now so it wouldn’t be late, for example, some car companies had create new types of cars that don’t need gas to work out, instead of this they function with electricity. Another one is to use only the things that we are using, for example turning the TV off if no one is watching, the same with computers. Recycling is also a good example, because with this there is less garbage and some of this can be used again and again.

Novi Meadows Elementary (2002) declares that governments are doing many things to help stop global warming too, for example the American government create a law called The Clean Air Act so there is less air pollution. Global warming is making people get very bad illnesses that could make them disabled, very sick, and sometimes even die.  The Clean Air Act is making many companies change their products to decrease these problems.  Part of the law says that you may not put certain amount of pollutants through the air.  Hairspray and some other products, like foam cups, had this problem. Now, almost all of these products have a label on them telling people what this product can do to the environment and many people.  By 2015 all products listed on the Clean Air Act will have this label on them:

WARNING: contains or manufactured with (the chemical would go here.  For example chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), a substance which harms public health and the environment by destroying ozone in the upper atmosphere.  






Reference



Novi Meadows Elementary (2002)
Retrieved September 20, 2010, from

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Retrieved September 20, 2010, from


National Geographic
Retrieved September 20, 2010, from