Equation & Reaction CO2 in Water
The Carbon Dioxide - Bicarbonate Equilibrium CO2 dissolves rapidly in water, and reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which rapidly ionizes to form bicarbonate and carbonate.
Dissolved CO2 causes water to become slightly acidic; the current atmospheric levels of CO2 are sufficient, in the absence of other factors, to bring the pH of pure water from a neutral pH of 7.0 to a pH of 5.7, which is roughly the same pH as normal rain.
However, the oceans contain many pH buffers, including borate, phosphate, and silicate, which tend to counteract this effect, while acid rain increases it. The pH of sea water today is typically between 7.36 and 8.4, which is slightly basic. Buffering by bicarbonate and other ions is important in maintaining the correct pH; depletion of CO2 in lakes by eutrophication can raise the pH as high as 9.0.
Living cells contain the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which greatly accelerates the reaction in both directions, helping cells to get rid of excess CO2. Bicarbonate is also sequestered by plants and animals to form calcium carbonate. The vast majority of the earth's carbon is locked in the form of limestone and other carbonate rocks.
We should revisit occasionally what the proper role of government is. As the constitution was a good sense of direction, we need a core set of principles to add in order to deal with the future.
So many want to engineer society, remove risk, assist certain groups, rather than let individuals thrive and raise communities. Why?
Is Democracy where we all "get it good and hard" or is it the best means to a free society?
Should we roll with the special interests, or make the government achieve its proper role, what is that role, and how to do this?
When do deficits and governments become too large?
Government is becoming more elitist while trying to sell corrections to problems it created, what makes this possible?
This could also be inserted into the field above, or erased
Currently as a society, we are having a most difficult time discussing political issues. What is driving this? And why a rebirth in political culture would be a good thing.
Are "markets" dead as some would conjecture? Or is free enterprise what got us here?
At the heart of economics there are several possible economic schools of thought, the essence of these schools of thought and how they relate to our lives.
