Chasing clean air in remote areas means walking, public transportation, and observing how we're interconnected from world-wide traffic jams and melting glaciers, which includes the continent of Greenland unleashing carbon and methane. Author Curt Stager takes my casual observations to a scientific level with his fascinating new book, which I loved, Your Atomic Self: The Invisible Elements that Connect You to Everything Else in the Universe.
You'll tour your body, and see how connected you truly are to everything through space and time. (Geez, just thought of people and places I rather not be connected to.)
Mr. Stager is an ecologist and paleoclimatologist, who explains how an oxygen atom travels through fire and water and from the forests to our fingernails. Hydrogen? Wriggles into our hair exposing where we live and what we drink. Carbon in our breath becomes a
tree trunk. And what about that exhaust streaming out of vehicle tailgates and into our lungs? Carbon to be recycled again and again and as old as a billion year old exploding star.
To stretch your imagination with elemental facts, check out Your Atomic Self. Photo courtesy of NASA.
