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Environment

Liquid Nitrogen And Rising Temperatures

October 19, 2015 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 93, Issue 41

Two items in your Aug. 31 issue deserve a comment. First, the unexploded bomb in BASF’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany (C&EN, Aug. 31, page 14), can be made inert in place by simply bathing it in liquid nitrogen for a few hours. Based on the old rule of thumb for reaction rates—doubling or halving for each 10 °C—the “explosion” time would change from milliseconds to weeks.

Second, under “Earth’s Temperature Keeps Rising” (C&EN, Aug. 31, page 20), you state that the rate of increase for July is 0.65 °C per century. Assuming July as a proxy for the whole year, the goal of less than 2 °C by 2100 is safe until sometime in 2300. Is it worth the cost of a major conference to worry about this?

Dave Griffiths
Greenwood, S.C.

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