Category Archives: Environment

NASA image shows tree density in United States

April 5, 2012 – 12:43 pm

This impressive image, released a few months ago, shows the tree density in the United States (click to enlarge) According to the NASA Earth Observatory website, the map has been obtained from a variety of sources, from ground data collection to space-based radar, requiring 6 years of work. At the highest resolution, ten pixels correspond [...]

By Stefano Borini | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Offsetting carbon emissions with trees: a little math

November 10, 2011 – 2:16 am

I want to do a thought experiment, hoping not to make any mistake. The world produces 29,888,121,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. According to Wikipedia, one ton of dry wood sequestrates 1.8 tons of CO2. If you put these two together, you quickly realize that you need to produce 16,604,511,666 tons of wood per [...]

By Stefano Borini | Also posted in Gardening | Comments Off

Eight molecules that changed the rules of the game: CFC

April 15, 2011 – 2:00 pm

Rule changed: made safe and easy refrigeration possible. Raised environmental awareness. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) is a class of compounds, the simplest among them with a structure similar to the one of methane: a tetrahedron. A simple representative is the one pictured below, Dichlorodifluoromethane. It’s a molecule made of one carbon atom (in the center, black), two [...]

By Stefano Borini | Also posted in Chemistry | Comments Off