nice to review some very basic concepts. i was a little confused about what homogenous means. how can coffee be homogenous if it is already a mix of coffee beans and water, plus whatever comes off the pan or pot when heated? is the homogenous "substance" just "coffee", including whatever is in it? i also wasn't clear if dissolving sugar in water was a chemical change or a physical change, but i do get it.
how do we find a balance between the needs of agriculture and the impact on our planet?:
organic farmers have been doing it quite nicely for a long time. backyard, front yard, rooftop, windowsill, sidewalk strip, vacant lot, community park, and probably lots of other creative space gardening can have a real impact on reducing our dependence on large scale agriculture (especially the chemical agri-business) and fossil fuels to ship and truck foods all over the world. not to mention the benefits of regular old organic, permaculture, and biodynamic farming for profit, providing healthy and eco-friendly foods for all of us.
cutting back on meat eating also hugely reduces our agricultural needs, in terms of animal feeds, and also greatly reduces pollution in terms of runoff into watersheds, rivers, and oceans, and methane gases produced by livestock. (go vegetarian! even going mostly vegetarian on a large scale could have a huge impact.)
organizing globally to support local, organic food production and processing could transform the planet. this would include helping solve water issues in areas of drought or flooding, compost and nutrient reclamation to heal depleted soils and increase the nutrient value and lifeforce in our foods, education about the toxicity of agrochemicals, and a return to the wisdom of local culinary and medicinal plants.
my friends used to spend their time planting fruit trees and gardens in low income neighborhoods, so people would have a free source of food to eat, and the birds and other animals also benefitted from the new harvest. (look at all the water and energy that goes to landscaping!) our precious planet can carry this great weight of human life if we all act in conscious awareness of the needs of all species.
impressions on periodic table articles:
there is a little tiny place in my brain where i still remember a very few things from high school chemistry. and what is up with the uu's? - unnamed elements 111, 112, 114, 116, 118. where are 113, 115, and 117?
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