Carbon Mania

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­Finding sustainable alternatives to the traditional pencil is an admirable goal. Alternatively, it is important to focus our efforts on a greener world where it would have the greatest impact for change. As an example, just doing surface level research with the internet, which admittedly provides conflicting data – sometimes even in the same article, However the data I observed and that also appears on other blog posts of my peers claims over 15,000,000,000 trees are cut down each year. These 15 billion trees provide timber for construction of cities, residences, other construction, boats, furniture, materials, paper and also pencils.

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https://sproutworld.com/

According to the world atlas approximately 82,000 trees are cut down in order to produce 14 billion pencils. The percentage of deforestation impacted by pencil production is less than .0000055. This is certainly a critical distinction to make. Each year 2,000,000,000 trees are chopped down for paper production and in the United States alone 493 million trees are cut down each year to manufacture cardboard and boxes. In the end time, technology and lobbyists may decide the fate of the wooden pencil.

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“The Graphene Moment” article helps me to incorporate how biotechnology existed and was understood back to the 16th century through the 2004 discovery of graphene. The ability to seek out new agency from existing material is something remarkably inventive and human. What certainly resonated with me, was the sense of connection the article introduces between the human mind and body and an extension of it being the writing tool and paper essentially composed of similar elements. The ability to extend our characteristics thru the pencil via our own intention is paramount to creativity and knowledge. Additionally, the ability to make changes vis-à-vis, erase and revise, made it unique to the permanence of ink. 

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Similarly, the same purposeful intention extends to the technology of transformation when extracting graphene from graphite (or plumbago). Graphene as another allophone of carbon whose use opens up other innovative technologies. It’s incredible strength and lightweight allows it to be utilized in electronics, sports equipment, aeronautics and medicine. The video lecture of Dr. Gimzewski on nano, carbon & graphene provided intricate details on natural forming carbon atoms that create fullerenes (bucky-balls), diamonds, graphite, graphene, and nanotubes. Also, he shared the ways through endohedral doping by adding an extra atom, ion, or element, creating entire new materials!

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Gimzewski: NANO / Carbon / Graphene https://vimeo.com/442539551

Landge, A. A., and R. S. Pawar. "Impact of Deforestation on Environment." RESEARCH JOURNEY (2018): 58

https://www.packsize.com/blog/sustainability/how-many-boxes-can-you-get-out-of-one-tree/#:~:tex

https://sproutworld.com/

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-many-trees-are-cut-down-each-year-to-make-pencils.html