Month: March 2017

The thirtieth:
Time to remember

Article published in April 2014

Few years ago, a young man asked me: “What is carbon ?”
I talked to him about carbon dioxide, graphite, coal and diamond. Then I wrote some chemical formulas with many letters “c” and showed it to him. I could see disappointment in his face…
I was talking about something really difficult to imagine.

Today I would answer that carbon is part of many things around us. It is like an ingredient that you don’t see, but you know it is there. It is part of our body, of gasoline, of ethanol fuel, of the food we eat, of the air we breath, etc.

Why people talk so much about carbon nowadays ? It is a matter of quantity. The air we breath in our planet has increasingly more carbon. This carbon was part of the oil, for example, that was once below the earth and the see. Since roughly hundred years, it started to be used by the industry and automobiles, which, by burning their derived products (gasoline, diesel, etc) throw carbon in the air. Air pollution started to increase therefore.

The problem is not carbon, but the unbalance about its quantity: in the past, it was below the soil and today it is in the air, in an excessive amount. By means of plants, Nature could solve this unbalance. Through the photosynthesis phenomenon, trees capture carbon gases from the atmosphere transforming them into oxygen gas. The problem, again, is the amount: day by day, more carbon is thrown in the planet’s atmosphere while the quantity of trees that could help to solve this problem gets shorter.

The thirtieth:
Time to remember

Article published in March 2014

Most of our planet is covered with water (oceans). Above the earth, we have the atmosphere. And the dry land (continents) is the space reserved for us, human beings. What we call “the world we live in” is a finite territory, and to a good extent, is custom made for our existence.

Part of the dry land is not liveable due to temperature extremes. The frozen land around the south pole, and other areas spread around the globe, like the Sahara, are some examples. Our body internal temperature is around 36°C. We are very sensitive to the external temperature: it affects our body’s equilibrium and our well being.

To live in the midst of the ocean is possible. Some projects of marine platforms are pointed as a solution for countries that have small territories. To live immersed in water, artificially, is also a reality. Inside a submarine, we have temperature and pressure of the earth’s surface created by equipment. But both are expensive alternatives.

In analogy to the see, to live in the atmosphere, or above it, is also possible: inside an airplane or a space station. Inside them, temperature and pressure, similar to those found in the earth’s surface is recreated, and we can also live there.

Underground cities exist in projects, to be used in case of war. Life in other planets is still a mistery to be unveiled: first, it would be necessary to find a planet with conditions similar to our Earth’s, and then, create an efficient mean of transportation to colonize it.

Nothing is better than taking care of our good old Earth. Keep the cities we live in clean and organized, reducing the amount of pollutants, replanting forests and protecting the natural sources of water. Like poets once said, our planet is unique: it is the only one…