Explaing Carbon To Conservatives, or Trying To

CHEMISTRY IS A MARVELOUS SCIENCE. So precise, so exact, like physics and mathematics, so clean and elegant compared to those messy social sciences like history and sociology and political science, with all their uncertainty and speculation. That elegant periodic table of the elements, ninety two beautiful atoms of matter, all lined up in neat rows from upper left to lower right, from light to heavy, from common to rare. So beautifully simple and logically ordered. Given a little study time, you would think that anyone and everyone can understand basic chemistry, and derive from it knowledge of the world around us. And so it is, with the exception of members of the Republican party, and the American conservative community. They don't seem to understand basic chemistry. Either that, or they're pretending to not understand, perhaps believing that it looks cool to be ignorant. You start with hydrogen in the extreme upper left of the chart, nothing but a proton and an electron, lighter than air and oh so common, comprising ninety percent of all matter in the universe. Then, you move to the right, up there on the very top row, into helium, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, light gasses all, but heavier and less common than good ole H. The problem with understanding among conservatives begins with carbon, as you move a tad farther away from hydrogen. Two electrons in the first shell, isn't it, then six in the second one, which in any element can admit eight, and there you have it: an element, Carbon, to which oxygen, either one or two atoms at a time, can and does cling. Carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, abundant and easily manufactured by man and nature. Nitrogen and oxygen, which together make up ninety eight percent of "our" atmosphere, simply cannot absorb and hold as much heat as carbon. Pump a few billion tons of carbon into the air, leave it there twenty four seven, decade after decade, and you have enhanced atmospheric heat absorption, twenty four seven. Most, or at least some conseravtives can comprehend hydrogen, and maybe a little helium, but by the time they arrive at carbon, they become utterly lost. Maybe that explains why most high school chemistry teachers are liberals, and all of them understand and own up to the fact of climate change. If only they could explain it a bit better to our conservative American colleagues.