Earth to Nathalia

-learn about her; take care of her; for she is magnificent-

[earthtonathalia]

CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS. (DID YOU JUST INSULT ME?)

Have you ever heard of chlorofluorocarbons – the famous CFCs? You probably have, but do you really know what they are, where they come from and what they do? Well, come with me!

CFCs – or chlorofluorocarbons – are organic compounds that contain chlorine, fluorine, and carbon (OH REALLY?). They do not have a natural source, so they were completely synthesized to be widely used as refrigerants, solvents and aerosol propellents (in aerosol sprays). Now they can be found in old refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers and other items used on our daily lives.

CFCs also are greenhouse gases, meaning that they contribute to climate change. Now let me tell you how. When released to the atmosphere (specially when it is closer and/or at the stratosphere), these organic compounds undergo a photolytic decomposition (or photolysis) – a process where a compound gets broken down into smaller compounds, where it separates into two different compounds, when in the presence of light. This decomposition is able to occur because of the presence of UV radiation and light from the sun. After the CFC’s undergo photolysis, some of them release inorganic chlorine, which then becomes active in reacting and destroying the ozone in the stratosphere.

Let me tell you something: the ozone layer is SO important. It is the thing that absorbs the UV light and radiation from the sun, only letting enough pass through. Without it, too much light and radiation will be able to pass the stratosphere, putting Earth’s temperature up high (global warming? anyone?). In 1985, scientists announced that 40% of the stratospheric ozone above Antartica was reduced. This depletion even got a name – the Antartica ozone hole. It was being speculated that the amount of skin cancer incidents was going to increase because of this. Since this layer is SO important, we need to protect it, meaning, less CFCs please.

So, in 1987 we got the Montreal Protocol, which said that the use of CFCs were to be cut in half. Later, this protocol was changed to completely cut the use of CFCs and ozone depleting chemicals. Instead of chlorofluorocarbons, scientists found the HCFCs and HFCs were good substitutes. HCFCs – or hydrochlorofluorocarbons – are better than the CFCs because that hydro group – or just a hydrogen – will react with the tropospheric hydroxyl group – OH (an oxygen and a hydrogen group), sorry for all the specific terms – which lowers its atmospheric lifetime. But since it also has that chlorine group, it still can react with the stratospheric ozone. So, here comes HFCs – hydrofluorocarbons – that has less atmospheric lifetime because of the hydrogen and NO chlorine! It is amazing!!!!!

To finish this article up, make sure to check your deodorants (or whatever else you buy that is in aerosol, or a refrigerator, or an air conditioner – and see that they have HYDROFLUOROCARBONS and NOT CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS! Thanks!

References: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/hats/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/chemicals-and-contaminants/chlorofluorocarbons-cfcs https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/cfcs-ozone.html

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[earthtonathalia]

Helium Balloons?

So, my birthday was September 3rd (if you want to wish me a belated happy birthday, I’ll accept it) and my roommate -and one of my best friends- gave me a beautiful helium balloon that said “Make a Wish” on it and I loved it! So cute! (Love you roomie). Until she herself told me that we are currently undergoing a helium shortage! I screamed. Not even kidding. I said WHAT? And searched about it.

A little bit of history, helium was discovered by mistake by Georges Rayet (and a couple other people) when they were studying a solar eclipse back in the 1800’s. They saw this yellow fog around the sun and they thought “hum… interesting…” but never really focused on it (why oh why). A couple years later, two humans named Norman Lockyer and Jules Janssen were doing the same thing -studying a solar eclipse- and saw the same yellow fog. But they actually took it into account and named the gas helium -after Helios, the Greek God of the sun. Pretty cool.

Now, the universe has an ABUNDANCE of helium. Earth, not so much. It’s mostly found in underground chambers just like a fossil fuel. Its production is given by the radioactive decay of Uranium over millions of years. Translating, an atom is composed of a positive nucleus that is filled with protons and a negative “cloud” where the electrons are. A radioactive decay means the breakdown of the atomic nucleus by the release of energy, matter and radiation. So, it means that depending on what kind of radioactive decay the atom is undergoing, its nucleus is going to lose protons. Now, the number of protons -or its atomic number- is what makes an element THAT element. For example, if we have an atom that has 6 protons in its nucleus, we automatically know that it is a carbon atom because only carbon has 6 protons. So going back to Uranium, over millions of years it undergoes such a decay that it “transforms” into Helium (Uranium has an atomic number of 92; Helium has an atomic number of 2. So Uranium loses 90 protons. I did say “millions of years”).

Remember how it is found just like a fossil fuel? So oil companies are the ones who extract Helium from the underground chambers through a process called “fractional distillation”. They collect the natural gases and are able to separate each individual one by their physical properties, such as boiling point. So, they isolate the helium but it is almost impossible to store it without leaking and once it is out in the atmosphere, it is OUT in the atmosphere. Meaning, out of Earth. Universe is full of helium, Earth not so much, remember? It is such a light gas that it cannot exist above surface on Earth.

Now, this is not our first helium shortage. In the late 1900’s, we experienced something very similar to what is happening right now. The problem is not the high demand, it is the low supply! It literally takes MILLIONS of years for that radioactive decay to happen! Just like a fossil fuel (and many many other things found in the environment), we have a limited supply of helium, and this gas isn’t only used in balloons. Since it is nonreactive and nonflammable, it is used in fuel tanks on rockets; its liquid form can reach very low temperatures without freezing, so it is used as a cooling device for the superconducting magnets present in MRI machines; and it is also used on optical fibers to bring internet to our electronic devices. It is a VERY important gas, let me tell you that.

Scientist and researchers are trying to discover new ways to find helium underground, searching new areas and whatnot, and they (we) are very hopeful that our helium supply will go back up in the 2020’s. For now though, be conscious of your party balloons (and please don’t waste the helium by “eating” it just because your voice will sound funny afterwards. Thank you).

[earthtonathalia]

New phone, who dis

Have you seen the new iPhone 11? It really is an interesting little thing. I saw a meme that said that iPhone is going through mitosis and let me tell you, I laughed a lot! (In case you didn’t get it, mitosis = cell division. Now I hope you get the joke) I know a lot of people that ran to the Apple store nearest to them in order to be the first ones with the newest phone, even though the phone that they currently had was working perfectly fine!

Okay, this blog is to talk about Earth and whatnot so now you might be asking yourself “why is she talking about the new iPhone?” (if you weren’t, well… whatever, just keep reading). Let me answer your question. Because, my dear reader, we sometimes forget that electronics such as an iPhone require a bunch of natural/chemical elements in their fabrication and we do NOT have an unlimited resource of them.

My Green Chemistry professor showed us this periodic table and I LOVED it, but at the same time I HATED it. I hated it because of the sad truth it shows us. It’s scale is proportional to how much of the elements is left on the environment. Also, the little phone symbol shows all the elements that are needed in the fabrication of a mobile phone. If you look at it, 5 of those elements are in serious threat of “extinction” in the next 100 years! This is serious! We are yet again exhausting nature’s supplies and thinking nothing of it!

This was something else that she brought to my class, a study done by the Royal Society of Chemistry (she is British, I love her accent) that shows how we are treating these elements on our daily lives. We have to be aware of problems such as this and deal accordingly.

So here is what we can do: 1- If your phone is still working fine, don’t buy another one! Simple as that. You really don’t need the greatest camera, the biggest phone and/or the largest memory in order to survive. I promise. 2- If you still feel like you can’t breathe without having 3 different cameras on your phone, at least pass your old phone to someone else. Please don’t leave it just lying around unused. This is a WASTE of resources! 3- And last but the most important thing, RECYCLE! If your phone doesn’t work anymore, if you can’t communicate through it, please don’t throw it away as if it is just like any other trash or even regular recycle. It contains metals! Just like a battery, it has to be recycled in a proper way/place. Search the closest electronic recycling station to you and/or contact your phone provider to see if they don’t recycle old phones.

2 days ago we were marching for Earth, screaming that we wanted climate change and climate justice, but just walk and scream is not nearly enough. We have to actually ACT on what we want, we have to FOLLOW what we are demanding, we have to DO what we are preaching. Every little thing counts, even if it is just saving yourself some money when you don’t buy something you don’t actually need, because we ARE 7 billion people. That’s powerful.