Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions is a series of podcasts describing some of the 21st Century’s most daunting problems, and how cutting-edge research in chemistry matters in the quest for solutions. This sweeping panorama of global challenges includes dilemmas such as providing a hungry, thirsty world with ample supplies of safe food and clean water; developing alternatives to petroleum to fuel society; preserving the environment and assuring a sustainable future for our children; and improving human health. An ongoing saga of chemistry for life — chemistry that truly matters— Global Challenges debuts in June and continues through December. Subscribe at iTunes or listen and access other resources here.

Your Challenge…

Global Challenges welcomes your ideas on new and exciting research to include in future podcasts, scientists to feature, and general comments on this project. Check the list of upcoming podcasts, and drop an email to m_woods@acs.org.

Our Sustainable Future

August 21, 2008

We humans are consumers. We consume food. We consume gasoline and electricity. We consume paper and plastics, cotton, and polyester. Faced with concerns about dwindling petroleum supplies and environmental pollution, we must begin to consume in a new and more sustainable way . More…

Highlights

Sustainability means meeting the needs of people today without depleting resources or harming natural cycles for future generations.
The principles of sustainability should be an integral part of future manufacturing processes.
Green chemistry is a key element in sustainability. It involves the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate use and generation of potentially hazardous substances.
This year, green chemistry techniques will eliminate the need for 193 million pounds of hazardous chemicals and solvents and save 21 billion gallons of water.
As we strive to become sustainable, more and more industries are embracing sustainable technology.

Previous Episodes

Confronting Climate Change – Part 2

As the quest for permanent solutions to global warming gains
urgency, scientists are working to harness the chemical magic
that plants use to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water.
Hydrogen fuel produced in artificial photosynthesis units could
replace some of the fossil fuels that now account for almost
70 percent of the carbon dioxide released in the United States
each year. Imagine if your car had an artificial photosynthesis
unit on the roof that converted water to non-polluting
hydrogen fuel? Believe it or not, scientists think they might
be able to transform this radical idea into reality. More…

Confronting Climate Change – Part 1

As wagon trains of pioneers headed West to settle the American
frontier, they encountered oceans of grass swaying in the wind in
the prairies. Much of that green ocean was of switch grass. Today switch grass is looking greener than ever to scientists who are searching for permanent solutions to the challenges of global warming. More…

Water Desalination: Freshwater from the Sea

Piles of salt decorate the shores of the Dead Sea between Jordon and Israel, where water is almost nine times as salty as the ocean. About 97 percent of Earth’s water is salt water in the oceans and salty inland sources like the Dead Sea. People cannot drink saline water, nor can it quench the thirst of agriculture or industry. However, a technology called desalination — literally de-salting —promises to tap this enormous resource as a source of freshwater.

More…

Supplying Safe Drinking Water

From San Diego to Santiago to Seville to Sydney, billions of people are facing shortages of clean water. More than one billion people have no access to clean drinking water. That lack of water to drink exacts a terrible toll in illness and death in developing countries. And things are getting worse. More…