Why is the Statue of Liberty Green?
The Statue of Liberty is green because its outer shell is made of copper. While Lady Liberty looks solid enough, she is actually hollow inside. When she was constructed over a century ago, a sheet of copper about a tenth of an inch thick was hammered out by hand and attached to a framework of steel supports. This thin sheet of copper is all that keeps Liberty looking like a lady, not a skeleton. The green covering on this copper skin helps to protect it, preventing the copper from eroding away. The green stuff is called a “patina.” You can think of this as a kind of rust that forms when copper is exposed to the air for a long time. Copper atoms combine with oxygen and carbon or sulfur from the air to form a thin, green protective coating that is not soluble in water. Thanks to her healthy, green patina, Lady Liberty’s skin has eroded only five percent in her first century. This green patina is so important to the Statue of Liberty’s health that when the statue was restored in 1986, wor
The Statue of Liberty is dubbed as a symbol of freedom to the shackled, a symbol of hope to the deprived, a symbol of refuge to the homeless and beyond all, a glorious symbol of human spirit and its undying faith in a better tomorrow. The planet today is at a delicate and vital turn where every move we make could make or break the future for the beautiful planet that we all call ‘Home’. This present and the consequential future largely depends on the way we treat our planet and how well we adapt to renewable and clean sources of energy by inviting the alternate power into our homes and lives. It then seems only an obvious matter that the ‘Statue of Liberty’ should also spread the ‘Green Light’ with her eternal golden torch.
