Google is celebrating the 287th birthday of Jan Ingenhousz, a pioneering scientist and doctor. He is, obviously, long
dead - but the ideas he helped find are about the very beginning of life, and how we might be able to keep things
flourishing.
Among a variety of other discoveries, Ingenhousz recognised that plants did somethings special; he noticed that leaves
produced oxygen when they were in sunlight, and carbon dioxide when they were in darkness. Today we know that
as photosynthesis, and it is one of the most fundamental, profound processes that power lif on Earth.
His work was long before humanity became imperilled as a result of climate change. It came long before the processes
he recognised were even fully understood, or were named photosynthesis.
Both his discoveries helped bring about an understanding that could bring the two together. His work was part of a
human fascination with the way that plants keep us alive - and how they might save us in the future.
As humans turn more and more fossil fuels to live, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Plants, however, do the opposite and draw down carbon from the atmosphere to keep them alive. One might save
us from the other.
A study published last year found that more and more plants seemed to be spreading across the earth as climate
change raised temperatures. Places that previously were too cold to support greenery have warmed up - and as a
consequence plants have grown where they wouldn't have been able to before.
These new plants, could be helping address the very reasons that they got there in the first place. More plants means
more photosynthesis - which in turn means that despite increased carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere
less of it is sticking around.
The process is only going to be temporary, the authors warned at that time .
Other effects of climate change, like drought and flooding, pose an existential threat to those new plants, and while
plants benefit from increased carbon dioxide in the short term, once there gets to be too much it will become a
problem.
All of that work is an early stage at the moment, and activists are careful to caution that plants can't save us from us
from the damage we're doing to the planet. But they could help slow the effects, as well as helping deal with the
problem of food shortage and growing populations that are coming at the same time.
Photosynthesis & Global Warming
Photosynthesis & Global Warming
Last edited by hope on 06 Jan 2018 16:52, edited 4 times in total.
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