The Most Important Discovery in the Field of Chemistry

The most important discovery in chemistry in the past 100 years is the realization that human beings can change the composition of the atmosphere of planet Earth. While we have known that human activity releases greenhouse and other gases into the atmosphere for centuries, it is only quite recently-in terms of world history-that we have begun to understand the profound effect that the gases human beings release through their activities can effect the chemical make-up of the atmosphere. This has been a game changer in terms of our understanding of biochemistry. It is likely chemistry's most important contribution to the joint subject of biochemistry.

It is during my lifetime that we started to understand that human beings can change the composition of our common atmosphere to the extent that it can actually extinguish life on the planet Earth. I worked at Oak Ridge for a time, the laboratory were the atomic bomb was discovered, but not directly on the bomb. For some people the realization abou how we can change our atmosphere may have come when the United States used an atomic bomb for the first time in World War II. An atomic explosion changed both the planet's surface and the atmosphere in such significant degrees that it should have given us pause to consider the intervention in our ecosystems of which human beings are capable.

In the 1970's, I was fortunate enough to participate in the celebrations of one of the first Earth Days in the United States on 22 April. I was the scientist, speaking on the stage that included the late singer and ecologist Pete Seeger. Earth Day was inspired as much by Rachel Carson's 1962 best-seller, Silent Spring, as it was by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson's call for concern for our planet. It was the latter whose call for demonstrations against pollution led to the first Earth Day in 1970. It maybe a little ironic that I attended one of the first Earth Days in the USA as a representative of science and industry—not a very clean industry at that. It might also be of interest that we probably had more common concern for our planet's ecosystem in those early days of alarm and hippy antics than we seem to have in the United States today. In the time American President Barak Obama was concsidering and ultimately nixing the Keystone pipeline, American buil twenty times as many oil pipelines to continue to feed its fossil fuel bring penchant.

Source: Panampost.com

The Earth Day logo to the above right is for International Earth Day that came about 20 years (1990) after the first USA Earth Day in 1970. It was the first USA Earth Day that served as the encouragement to start the United States' Environmental Protection Agency a few years later. I was not able to find a picture of me on stage with Pete Seeger, but just below to the right is a photo of a huge Earth demonstration on 22 April 1970 from National Geographics. We didn't have as big crowd at the university at which we spoke, but they were as enthusiastic about saving our planet as that milion-plus crowd. Where has that enthusiasm gone today?

The photo to the right is of the very first Earth Day on 22 April 1970 in New York City. Pete Seeger came to the Tarrytown celebration of Earth Day sailing on the Hudson on the 106-foot ship of the Clearwater organization that he had founded to show children the dangers of pollution on the Hudson River. I think he came from New York City or from Patterson New York, USA. This photo's sources is the famous Magnum photographers company that repreented and continues to represent the work of many fanmous photograpers. Have a look at there website at http://www.magnumphotos.com.

Here's another black and white photo of celebration of the first Earth Day in Philadephia, Pennsylvania, USA. Here mainly politicians spoke in support of effort to protect our common environment.

More people turned out for this first Earth Day in Philly than did for Pope's Francis' visit a few weeks ago.

Thinking back about these past Earth days I wonder about how I or others can generate the same interest and enthusiasm for acting to protect the planet among my children and grandchildren and future generations as we did back then.