“An annual consideration
With Earth Day’s April inspiration:
The theme of year’s telling
Is algae, excelling:
Green chemistry’s spring celebration!”
The next Twitter limerick was posted on Earth Day (22 April) 2023 and finally shifted away from the relatively dry subject of reaction arrow notation!
“An annual consideration /
With Earth Day’s April inspiration…”
Earth Day began as a celebration in 1970; it is held annually on April 22. In parallel with this global celebration, the American Chemical Society highlights “Earth Week,” devoting the week including April 22 to a theme related in some way to environmental science.
“The theme of year’s telling /
Is algae, excelling…”
Themes for this chemistry-adjacent celebration of Earth Week vary from year to year. In 2020, for the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, the theme was sustainability; in 2021, reducing the carbon footprint; in 2022, insect chemistry.
In 2023, as highlighted in this poem, the focus was “the curious chemistry of amazing algae,” noting the role algae can play in biofuel development and other environmental-chemistry-adjacent topics. Given the rhythm inherent in the limerick, “algae, excelling” became a better metric fit.
“Green chemistry’s spring celebration!”
The last line summarized algae’s potential role for sustainability… and acknowledged its particularly fitting green color for such an annual celebration.
The title of this post came, somewhat randomly, from a piece that E. B. White wrote within his book Trumpet of the Swan. The song, “Ever in the Greening Spring,” came to mind when I saw “green” and “spring” adjacent in this final line. Here in the midst of February, that season still seems a bit distant; it’s helpful to remember it is on the horizon.
Chemphasis 