Readers': This is why we can have nice things--Water is a Polar Molecule

In honor of Earth Day, I've been thinking about the drought. Having been away from California for the better part of seven years, coming back to a place where rain in the summertime is impossible was not much of a surprise. It was coming back to little or no rain in the winter that shocked me.

Whether you lean left or right politically, you can't deny that not having enough water in the most populous state is a problem. It doesn't help that California leads the nation in the agricultural profits, a position which requires a great deal of water. This year, we are left without a snow pack and without any solution that we can all agree on.

I don't want to make a big political statement here. I don't want to bewail the drying streams and rivers and not be able to offer a workable solution. What I want to do is remind myself and everyone else of the most basic reasons why we need water.

Now, here I am forced to recall vague memories of high school biology. Very vague memories, with some confusion and distaste, because science wasn't my subject and who cares about molecules anyway? Luckily, I'm related to someone who does care about very small things and their impact on everyday life. My sister has informed me that chemistry is vital to understanding life because, as she said, it is life. And one of the things that makes our world possible is the fact that water is a polar molecule. H2O, means water of course, but it also stands for two hydrogen molecules that sit on top of a big oxygen molecule in such a way so as to look very much like Mickey Mouse.

Maybe this doesn't seem important. And maybe you think that this has nothing to do with the impending California desert; that Mickey Mouse shaped molecules--molecules you can't even see--aren't rocking your boat.

But the reason that boats can rock at all is because water is a polar molecule. Boiled down to my general understanding, it is the angle of those hydrogens sitting atop the oxygen molecule and the corresponding transiency of those bonds that allows water to do such interesting things. Like create surface tension. Like changing form so often within normal ranges of temperature--ice to liquid to gas in a range of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. On a basic molecular level, water is pretty awesome.

Whenever I try to do my part to save water--changing how I hand wash dishes; taking shorter showers; helping my family rethink our front lawn--I like to remember the individual brilliance of the molecules. It's a little thing, but something we can all agree is  important.

Crossposted on Readers' Books Facebook