Pollution and progress are not synonymous! "Green" chemistry aims to solve environmental ills BEFORE they develop, with the use of chemical processes that are safer for the environment, use less energy, and produce less waste.

Modern chemistry has contributed to environmental degradation and the ill health of living beings through chemical processes and products, particularly since the 1950's with the rise in the development and use of chemicals for manufacturing and agriculture. 

The following excerpt is from the article  "Green Success: Presidential awards honor chemists for developing cleaner and economically viable technologies," from the June 27, 2005 edition of Chemical & Engineering News.

We have a very long way to go in cleaning and greening our environment, yet this news that the chemical industry is slowly turning itself around is a good start:

" 'We have changed innumerable things in the practice of chemistry, but the most important thing we have changed is our minds,' commented American Chemical Society President William F. Carroll, speaking last week at a ceremony honoring the winners of the 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. A few moments earlier, Carroll had recounted a story about how, during a recent discussion in China, one student's pronouncement that 'pollution is inevitable with growth and progress' had stopped him cold.

'From the perspective of the chemical industry, pollution and progress are not synonymous,' Carroll recalled telling the student. 'Pollution is waste, and waste means cost.' Carroll followed up by telling the student that the job of chemists is not to find a singular solution to a technical problem, but to challenge themselves to constantly find better solutions. 'That understanding is fundamental to what we call green chemistry,' Carroll said.

Green chemistry is all about more efficient production of industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. That is to say, the purpose of green chemistry is to find ways to develop ever-better chemical products and processes that require fewer reagents, less solvent, and less energy to produce, while being safer, generating less waste, and increasing profitability.

The concept of green chemistry was formally established at the Environmental Protection Agency 15 years ago in response to the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. The principles that guide green chemistry may seem intuitive or be viewed simple as common sense, but over the years they have become an intangible framework for the chemical community. Today, these principles are ingrained in the day-to-day operations of companies and increasingly are being incorporated into empirical research carried out at universities and national labs.

The Pollution Prevention Act 'formally recognized what we had learned--that laws and regulations alone are not enough to solve our toughest environmental problems,' noted Margaret N. Schneider, acting deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides & Toxic Substances. 'What we needed was the creation of scientific and technical innovations that eliminate pollution before it's created, which we see reflected in the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.'

The results of the awards program 'are pretty impressive' Schnieder added. Since it began, EPA's tracking of the impact of the winning technologies shows them to have prevented on average 140 million pounds of hazardous substances from being produced each year, saved more than 55 million gallons of process water per year, and prevented 57 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year, she noted. 'In total, by our current conservative estimates, green chemistry technologies are preventing more than 3 billion pounds of hazardous materials or waste per year.' "

Read the companion piece to this article, "Plastics" from Corn and Soy!

Submitted by Lori Leah Zack

A gentle......almost magical.....puff of smoke rises up toward the clouds and heavens, floating, suspended in space, lifting then gradually disappearing, being consumed by the earth surrounding it and the breath of the wind that carries it.

An ancient skill of communication and survival, one that is simplistic in design, yet, universal versatility.   A skill of the Native American Indians, also of the ancient Chinese and presently used by the Boy Scouts of America.

The " sending station" was a high location that would be visible from another high location.  The individual sender laid flammable material ( logs etc. ) on a fire bed that was of controlled size and design.   Many of these were referred to as " fire bowls in earth Mother".

For the most part the signals or code was pre-arranged between the sender and the receiver.  There was no universal code for shapes, frequency or multiples of puffs. 

To have established a "set" series of signals equating to consistent meaning would have allowed enemies to " read" the communication as well.

" Fire bowls"  have been located and studied on distinct hill tops and are saucer shaped depressions, round or square, five to eight feet across and lined with field stones. 

The size, shape and depth of the " fire bowl" was in direct relation to the amount and type of " fuel" to burn to produce the needed smoke.

The stone lining aided in controlling the fire from escape and also provided " props" or  "braces" which poles could be laid across with either skins or blankets attached, allowing for control and manipulation of the smoke to produce "puffs" of visible shape and size.

Some of these " fire bowls"  or pits have been mapped and studied as they lay in close proximity to the " Warrior Path" that ran between encampments of Shawnee near the Scioto River and Ohio River near Richmondale.  This ridge and " path" of location ranges from elevations of six hundred and nine hundred feet.

In general Smoke Signals could signal danger, warning, call the people to a common meeting area, and transmitting  news.   Smoke could be made to curl in spirals, ascend in puffs or circles, even parallel lines.   Some signals resembled the letter V or Y and some were zigzag.  There were a few overall accepted meanings ..... as three puffs in rapid succession usually indicated danger.

Amongst the Apache, the sighting of one puff quickly losing its geometric shape indicated that a strange party had been spotted approaching.  If those " puffs" were frequent and rapidly repeated, it transmitted the message that  " the stranger approaching" was in fact many in number and armed.

The burning of wood has always been symbolic of transformation.  Changing one tangible form into another or others.  In this case usually wood being transformed to new elements, ash, lye, smoke, heat and water vapor.  Isn't it somewhat amazing that indigenous peoples utilized one aspect of this transformation of the smoke to communicate amongst the people even over long distance? 

When the sender " released" the message the receiver would then often times, become the new sender to another receiver,  often many times over. 

Therefore, in this fashion the information could be transmitted over vast geographic areas with accuracy.

Smoke Signals became Indian telegraphy. 

hugs

Gram Selma

A Short Biography   

Waynonaha Two Worlds, is born of the Bear Clan, Oglala Lakota and is a direct descendent of seven generations of traditional healers. Her mothers people are of the Southern Cherokee Nation of Texas of which she is a member of the Bird Clan.  Much of her youth was spent living in a isolated Western community.  After raising her family and working in the medical field for over 30 years she now travels worldwide.  Waynonaha is known as Grandmother Two Worlds by many people.  She is an ordained minister of the World Peace Elders Ministries and she has offered prayers of peace in all the corners of the earth.
 

Waynonaha Two Worlds  RN, BS, MS.  is a Doctor of Spiritual Healing, and private counselor as well as traditional healer. She currently makes her home in Cassadaga,  New York near Lake Erie. The vision that was given to her  over twenty years ago is coming into reality.

Grandmother Waynonaha says, "We must all reunite to pray for the peace of the Earth.  Wakan Tanka Kici Un"

 

In what has proved to be the discovery of the largest known crystals on earth, work is underway to document and preserve this historic find. While some minor damage has already occurred in the primary cave and a secondary cavern, called Cave of Dreams, iron doors have been installed by the Peñoles company to prevent damage to the giant, magnificent crystals. While investigations are underway the mine is closed, but with the newly installed lighting system, it is expected to open in the fall 2001.

Found deep in a mine in southern Chihuahua Mexico, these crystals were formed in a natural cave totally enclosed in bedrock. When I first stepped into the cavern it was like walking into the Land of the Giants. I have often admired crystal geodes held in my hand, but when photographing these unique natural structures it was almost impossible to get any sense of scale. This is a geode full of spectacular crystals as tall as pine trees, and in some cases greater in circumference. They have formed beautiful crystals that are a translucent gold and silver in color, and come in many incredible forms and shapes. Some of the largest are essentially columnar in shape and stand thirty to fifty feet high and three to four feet in diameter. Many of the smaller examples are four to six feet in circumference, have many incredible geometrical shapes, and probably weigh in excess of ten tons. The columnar pillars are at first the most striking shape, but later I noticed there were thousands of "sharks teeth" up to three feet high placed row upon row and dispersed at odd angles throughout the caverns. While some of the crystals are attached to the ceiling walls and floors of the cave as might be expected, some exist in great masses of spikes and almost float in air. These crystals seem to defy gravity, as they must weigh several tons.

The crystal cavern was discovered within the same limestone body that hosts the silver-zinc-lead ore bodies exploited by the mine. The cavern was probably dissolved by the same hydrothermal fluids that deposited the metals with the gypsum being crystallized during the waning stages of mineralization. The crystals probably grew relatively quickly to their immense size within a completely liquid-filled cavern.

As a professional photographer who specializes in environmentally difficult, narrow and wet canyons worldwide, it was almost impossible to obtain clear photographs even using every trick and technique I know, because of the extreme ambient environment. These crystals are probably stable, as the temperature in the cave is over 150 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. In other words, these structures are enveloped in steam. As a photographer used to working in dark and dangerous environments, this experience was unique. A human can only function in this environment for six to ten minutes before severe loss of mental functions occurs. I was so excited while photographing the crystals that I really had to focus and concentrate intensely on getting back out the door, which was perhaps only thirty to forty feet away.

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