An alternative perspective on the challenges facing science today
PART 3: THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS In part 2, I explored how our desire for foods or substances that are detrimental to our health in excess, is leading to extensive environmental damage due to large scale manufacturing and waste. In this part, I will examine factors that have been well known to damage our environment for some time and explore how these factors are also damaging our well-being more directly than we think. Save our trees
One of the first scientific concepts we learn in school is photosynthesis - the conversion of sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air into oxygen, by green chlorophyll contained in chloroplasts in the leaves of plants and trees. Oxygen is the very gas that is necessary for us to live. Combined with glucose it fuels every single cell in our bodies. Without it, we will die - it cannot be emphasised enough! And yet when housing is built, more land is needed for agriculture, or precious metals are mined, trees are swept aside as if they are a mere obstruction, often illegally. It is estimated we have lost more than half of the planet's tree cover since humans came into existence [1]. Currently in England, we are battling the prospect of the HS2 high speed railway line, which despite not yet having the official go-ahead, has already caused the clearance of green areas, with many more ancient woodlands under threat, some of which are hundreds of years old. Such ancient trees support rare wildlife species and ecosystems that are so complex, we still don't fully understand them. While this has so far had a negligible effect on atmospheric oxygen due to production from other sources such as oceanic plankton, it is only a matter time before the balance tips over the edge.
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AuthorDr. Anusha Seneviratne This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Categories
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March 2020
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