Essay Green Chemistry

The Green Revolution a period of time that genetically modified crops were engineered, pesticides and fertilizer were created starting in the 1940s ending in the 1960s. This period caused a lot of debate on the Green Revolution some stating it positively affected the world and some stating that it negatively affected the world. The positives of the Green Revolution include increasing yields, increasing profit for farmers, lowering prices for foods which then allows the poor afford the food, and crops can be genetically modified to contain specific vitamin. The Green revolution is negative because it caused an increase in global pollution, chemical pollution, and health risks due to the exposure to the chemical produced during the Green Revolution.

The Green Revolution had a positive, negative, or possibly both consequences on the way human beings have evolutionized through out the years. Each of these documents specifically proves that whether good or bad the different societies have been able to incorporate a little from what the Green Revolution has left them into their daily lives. The Green Revolution on one-side has ignited the revolution for new ideas and traditions. On the other side the Green Revolution has become a form of destructing the true and only roots for most farmers.

Since the beginning of the Human Race, gathering a sufficient amount of food has always proved to be a challenge. The Green Revolution attempted to solve this problem by creating and applying new techniques and technologies. The Green Revolution was created out of necessity and caused social changes, discontent with some of the effects, and the overall quality of living to be improved but the improvement of living quality had the greatest effect because this led to higher overall populations which in turn created the need to feed an even greater population.

The green revolution led to increases in crop production and human population. However, it also created a number of environmental concerns including the overuse of fertilizers and irrigation. *

Is your cup half empty or half full when you think about all of the disposable Tim Horton cups you've put in the landfills? Yearly, Tim Hortons sells billions of disposable cups filled with coffee. The amount of coffee we drink out of paper cups, is quickly filling up our landfills and harming the earth. If we all put our minds together, we can come up with innovative ways to solve this problem. Although they may be convenient, the excessive use of disposable cups if harming our environment.

How do CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons affect Canada’s Ozone layer. To answer this question we first have to understand chlorofluorocarbons and the earth's ozone layer. Chlorofluorocarbons are chemical compounds made up of three chlorine atoms. One fluorine atom and 1 carbon atom. There were many uses for CFCs ranging from, being used as coolants in refrigerants to propellants for aerosols to being used as solvents for dry cleaning. As CFCs are non- flammable and not very toxic we thought they were a revolutionary compound, but unfortunately CFCs were one of the leading causes for the depletion of our ozone layer. ozone is a type of oxygen, an ozone molecule consists of three oxygen atoms whereas a regular oxygen molecule only consists of two.

These features support Weeks’ claim that green chemists are working to develop a field of chemistry that can replace polluting technologies. Weeks described how green chemists identify chemical products or processes that are toxic and wasteful, change chemical processes so they are less energy-consuming, and swap out harmful ingredients for nontoxic alternatives. Weeks uses evidence, such as facts or examples, reasoning, and stylistic elements, such as word choice, to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of her argument. For that reason, Jennifer Weeks was able to successfully, adequately, and understandably communicate her claim to

Chapter 11 focuses on ammonia. Ammonia was first discovered in 1909. It ended up being very helpful in the growth of plants and food. Not only did ammonia

Humans have always exploited their natural environment for all their needs including food, clothing and shelter. As the cultural development of humans continued, they looked for a greater variety of materials to cater for their needs. The 20th century saw an explosion in both the use of traditional materials and in the research and development of a wider range of materials to satisfy technological requirements. Developments added to this was a reduction in availability of the traditional resources to supply the increasing world population. Chemists and chemical engineer continue to play a pivotal role in the search for new sources of traditional materials such as those from the

Filled with shiny, colorful pictures of elements in their many applications, the book was my first in-depth introduction to chemistry. Two pages were dedicated to each element and explained the most common uses. I started to spend time pondering what was in some of the objects around me. I viewed objects more in their elemental sense rather than “plate material” or “cardboard material”. Since then, I’ve only tried to expand my knowledge of the chemical makeup of my world.

Additionally, a disposable cup is often served with a styrene lid and a holder, both of which may be small but quickly add to a greater carbon footprint. (Borg) Buying a daily cup of coffee in a disposable cup creates 23 pounds of waste a year that could easily be avoided by having customers bring their own cup (Borg). Furthermore, disposable cups vary in environmental impact. According to the Environmental Protection agency, Styrofoam has no biodegradable properties and will never decompose. (Spitzer) This means a cup in the landfill will exist in 500 years much as it does today. Most paper cups are lined with a plastic resin to keep beverages warm, however this prevents the ability to recycle them. Although Starbucks’ cups are 10% recyclable, the FDA has strict guidelines around used material in conjunction with hot liquids resulting in most cups requiring virgin paper, (i.e. trees), for manufacturing, that are bleached and chemically treated. Based on research by the Environmental Defense Fund regarding the production and shipping of coffee cups, 7 trillion BTU’s of energy are used, that which could power 77 thousand homes, 6 billion gallons of water are used which could fill 9000 Olympic sized pools, and 4 billion pounds of C02 released into the

In “Chemistry: Green and Clean, the author builds an argument that Chemists are finding ways to save energy, cut waste and boost safety. Author Jennifer Weeks uses Green chemists working to identify chemical products and processes that are wasteful, Green chemists working to swap out harmful ingredients for safer alternatives, Green chemists working to modify processes to use less energy and cut waste to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of her argument.

Green chemistry is a concept that allows chemist to do experiments that are more environmentally friendly. In the formation of bromotoluene the solvents were not regenerated, as seen in process mass intensity (PMI) calculated was 314.27 indicating high waste due to low theoretical yield. The reaction did not follow principle 2, which is the regeneration of solvent indicates maximization the materials. In this experiment the waste product produced was N- succinimide, which is not a super toxic product indicating clean up is not harsh to the environment stated in principle 4. A catalyst was used in this experiment, which follows principle 9 of green chemistry stating a catalyst removes the use of large quantities of reagents to generate the reaction.

Although organic reactions have been conducted by man since the discovery of fire, the science of Organic chemistry did not develop until the turn of the eighteenth century, mainly in France at first, then in Germany, later on in England. By far the largest variety of materials that bombard us are made up of organic elements. The beginning of the Ninetieth century was also the dawn of chemistry, all organic substances were understood

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s): CFC’s are lowering the average concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. “Since 1978 the use of CFC’s in aerosol cans has been banned in the United States, Canada and most Scandinavian countries. Aerosols are still used around the world and accounts for 25% of global CFC’s use”. (Miller 448). Spray cans discarded or leaking refrigerator and air conditioning equipment and the burning plastic foam products release the CFC’s into the atmosphere. Depending on the type, CFC’s stay in the atmosphere from 22 to 111 years.” Chlorofluorocarbons move up to the stratosphere gradually over several decades. Under high energy ultra violet (UV) radiation break them down and release chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen (O2). Chlorofluorocarbons, also known as Freons, are green house gas that contributes to global warming. Photochemical air pollution is commonly referred to as “smog”. Smog is the contraction of the words smoke and fog, smog has been caused by water condensing on smoke particles, usually from burning coal. With the introduction of petroleum to replace coal economies in countries, photochemical smog has become predominant in many cities, which are located in sunny warm and dry climates with many motor vehicles. The worst episodes of