Word: carbonator
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...substance that is the basic building block of life as we know it - without it, our planet might be little more than a dull rock - carbon has gotten a bad rap lately. Bound to two atoms of oxygen, it creates carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas that has kept our planet warm for billions of years - and is now, thanks to human activity, making us too warm. When we think of carbon, the first word we associate with it is emissions, a concept that evokes a tinge of illegality, as if emitting a mere molecule of CO2 were a crime...
...senior associate at the Nicholas Institute in Washington, Roston says carbon began to pique his interest several years ago when he was a reporter at TIME magazine, focusing on energy-related business and technology. He found the word popping up everywhere - in stories about climate-change issues, of course, but also in those about low-carb diets or even the ultra-light carbon bike that Lance Armstrong rode when he won the Tour de France. "Everywhere you looked, you had these stories that dealt with carbon," Roston says. "I wanted to get context on it, to get some understanding...
...result is The Carbon Age, a kind of biography of the atomic element that is, as Roston points out, central to our world. "In anything bigger than an atom and smaller than a star, you're going to find carbon," he says. That includes all forms of life on the Earth, which is, as Mr. Spock used to say, carbon-based. That's because on a molecular level, carbon is a wonderful chemical joiner. Seemingly without prejudice, carbon atoms will combine with almost any other element to form the more complicated building blocks of life. "It's atomic Velcro," says...
These days, urban gardeners are waging lots of different wars--against global warming, foreign-oil dependence, processed food, obesity and neighborhood blight. Turning an old parking lot into a working farm not only helps reduce a city's carbon footprint but can also generate revenue for a down-and-out part of town. To demonstrate how much food can be grown in a small space, a 2006 pilot project on a sub-acre lot on the outskirts of Philadelphia hauled in $67,000 from crops like salad greens and baby vegetables. In Milwaukee, a 1-acre (0.4 hectare) farm filled...
...serious about reducing carbon emissions, we'll need a much larger renewable energy sector than the one we have - and that will mean bipartisan government action, in the form of carbon caps and subsidies that dwarf the miniscule tax credits now available. Our government's inability to cooperate and fund an invaluable energy program that costs less than a $1 billion a year is simply unreasonable - no matter what you think about global warming...