Reaching Out

No Impact Man- http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

Colin Beavan had enough. He decided that he was tired of waiting for the government to make the change for a better environment, and he took it upon himself to start an experiment in Manhattan where he would do everything he could to prevent himself from impacting the environment. His family, Wife, 2-year-old daughter, dog, and him all would go on a year long journey of a no impact life. They successfully found alternative ways to do household chores, transportation, work, and even entertainment done with less of an impact than the average family.

Green as a Thistle- http://greenasathistle.com/

The Canadian writer, Vanessa Farquharson, started a daily project of doing something green everyday. Her intentions with this project is to show people that there is always a way to better the environment without a ginormous change in lifestyle. She has changed a total of 366 things in her life, and says she has no regrets. Her blog is about everything she changes and the outcome. \

Got 2 Be Green- http://www.got2begreen.com/
This blog is intended to give people who want to be more environmentally friendly a good start. It provides ways to slow down your carbon footprint without a major lifestyle change. The blog gives information on appliances that are Eco-friendly, and even small things, like water bottles. This blog is very informational if you want to figure out how to heat your home, charge your laptop, and even charge your phone without leaving an imprint on the environment.

The Green Guy- http://thegreenguy.typepad.com/thegreenguy/
This blog is great if you are looking for news about the environment and the world. Its talks about Eco-cars and how they are improving the ecosystem. The blog provides good news about international studies with slowing down carbon uses and how the countries are coming up with ways to meet the Kyoto Protocol. The blog is fun because it even has little posts just about small events like National Carbon Footprint Day. He backs all of his information with other articles and facts.

Carbon is in the atmosphere attached to oxygen as the form of carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide as a food source, so then the carbon becomes a part of that plant. When the plant dies, the stored carbon then releases back into the atmosphere. That's why when we cut down forests, we release mass amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. It's not just burning fossil fuels, its taking away carbon storage. The carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere is 400 parts per million, increasing 30% since before the industrial revolution. Carbon is the most abundant element on earth, and although without carbon the earth would be a frozen ice cap, maybe humans help of releasing it into the atmosphere is making it a little too warm. 

Senese, F. (2000, September 9). Who Discovered Carbon? General Chemistry Online!,

Carbon was discovered first as charcoal. It wasn't recognized as an element until the 17th century, when Robert Boyle found that carbon couldn't be broken down into simpler substances. Carbon is naturally found in things like diamond and graphite. Diamonds were discovered to have carbon when scientist Antoine Lavoisier weighed, and burned both diamond and carbon and discovered they both gave off no water vapor. Carbon was discovered so long ago that we don’t have a record of who actually found it. Article written as an informational reference.

Porter, E. (2013, December 24). Rethinking How to Split The Cost of Carbon. The New York Times,

Many companies think they may be emitting less carbon into the atmosphere, but they aren't taking into account of the imports and exports of their materials, and what it takes to make those materialize. They asked companies to inventory all the carbon emissions that they produce and then add on all the emissions of imports, exports, and what used for the materials made. Most companies were shocked at how much they emitted, and now many companies are creating more earth friendly ways to keep business. This was written as an informational article.

Volkov , D. S. (2014, August).Elemental analysis of nano-diamonds by inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Elsevier, 74, 1-13.

Article states a study on nano-diamonds from 20 different international manufacturers. The measurements were made using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy with limits for most elements below 1 ppm. Different methods of sample preparation were compared: direct introduction of suspensions, ashing with microwave-assisted acid digestion, and microwave-assisted acid extraction, and their advantages and disadvantages evaluated. Most of the samples had high amounts of  Fe, Na, Ca, Si, Cu, Al, S, and Ti, while there was low amounts of  Pb, Zn, K, Mn, B, Cr, Mg, Mo, Sn, W, Ba, Sb, Co, and Sr. In the different samples, there was an uncommonly high amount of Ag, Ce, Y, Hf, Zr, and Hg. This study gives a whole new analyzation for diamond purity. Written as an informational article.

Martin, H. (2014, August). Characterization of microporous activated carbons using molecular probe method. Elsevier, 74, 22-31.

Over the last decades many approaches have been established to assess porosity of adsorbent materials by analyzing their nitrogen uptake at 77 K with volumetric measuring devices. All approaches make assumptions on pore shape as well as on the interactions between adsorbent and absorptive molecules. Significant differences in pore sizes are observed depending on which models were used. The molecular probe method presented therefore restrains to a minimum of approximations by measuring isotherms of chemically similar substances of increasing molecular size. Differences in pore volume can be reduced in micro-pores below the size of absorptive, leading to a high-resolution pore size distribution below 0.7 nm where only few comparable methods exist. It is shown that differences in pore accessibility of tested absorption are specific for each adsorbent. Using molecular probe molecules hence appears to be a promising method for a complementary porosity analysis of activated carbons.

Crepso, M. (2014, August). Synergistic effect of magnetite nanoparticles and carbon nanofibres in electromagnetic absorbing composites. Elsevier, 74, 63-72.

A simple method for the magnetite CNF(carbon nanofibers) decoration was developed by adsorbing oleic acid capped-magnetite nanoparticles over the CNF surface. A synergism was found between the elements and caused an effect in the electromagnetic shielding of prepared materials. This effect has been analysed by their electrical conductivity in terms of percolation theory and complex permittivity at high frequencies. Electromagnetic shielding mechanisms (reflection, absorption and transmission) were individually studied in the 1–18 GHz range, results show that decoration of CNF with magnetite, significantly increases permittivity and high-frequency AC conductivity and enhances the electromagnetic shielding efficiency up to around 20 dB at high frequencies. It is suggested that interfacial polarization adds an additional mechanism that may be responsible for the observation of electromagnetic shielding enhancement. Written for information.

    

Carbon is a culprit behind many health problems in today's world. Carbon emits from a popular way of how we get energy; burning fossil fuels. We emit carbon when we drive our car, heat/cool our homes, burn wood, and even cut down trees. Humans have emitted mass amount of carbon into the atmosphere already, and now we have a reaction of global warming. Just like Newton said "every action has a reaction".
I think that carbon is important to know because you cant fix what you don't know. Global warming is a popular topic between many environmentalists, and becoming popular with today's society. Carbon is a major part of greenhouse gasses and just as big of a reason for global warming. Learning is the first step to knowing, which is the first step to fixing!