While waiting at an airport, Neil Campbell once overheard this claim: "It's paranoid and ignorant to worry about industry or agr
iculture contaminating the environment with their chemical wastes. After all, this stuff is just made of the same atoms that were already present in our environment." Drawing on your knowledge of electron distribution, bonding and emergent properties, write a short essay (50-100 words) countering this argument.
The atoms of each element have a characteristic number of electrons arranged in electron shells. The number of valence electrons determines what types of bonds or ions the atoms may form, so the chemical reactivity of an atom arises from its electron distribution. The properties of compounds emerge from the arrangement of their constituent atoms and of the bonds between them.
Thus, a wide variety of molecules with very different chemical properties can be made from the same basic atoms. Each molecule has a distinctive size, shape, and charge distribution, which determine its highly specific ability to interact with other molecules.
Compounds in chemical wastes may contaminate the environment if their atoms are combined in new arrangements that harm living organisms.
