One of the themes of religion is reconnecting. It encourages us to be more mindful of our relationships with the world around us, cultivating meaningfulness and gratitude. Studying sciences, while not conventionally regarded as an act of religious study, helped me engage in this reconnection by learning more about the world around me. I took an ethnobotany course at university that made me mindful of the depth of our dependency on plants. In this thread, I invite us to explore our relationships with plants, whether through science or song.
Oh sacred green ones,
Without you the very air I breathe would not be!
You are the clothes that I wear,
The food that I eat,
And the shelter that keeps me safe and warm.
While you are not here for my sake,
Without you here I would simply not be.
In gratitude, I sing.
Plants make the oxygen we breath. The current 21% oxygen level of the earth was due to plants. Plants have altered the surface of the earth making it an oxidizing atmosphere. This potential was needed for plant life. Solar energy drives photosynthesis using CO2 and H2O as the reactants to make oxygen and sugars, that plant use for energy and building materials. This becomes food for animals who use the oxygen to help drive metabolism.
Plants are not biased or political and will eat any source of CO2, since it is all the same molecule. Tests have been shown that the higher the CO2 levels, the better all plants will perform. I am not sure why better performing plants has been made taboo by one political party, seeing that the earth shows natural cycles of CO2, with enhanced plants vitality for evolution following the CO2 cycles. When CO2 goes down, plant vitality goes down, and the earth cools. It is all connected.
An interesting paradox is connected to the plant color, green. Plants are green because after they sort through all the wavelengths of light that the sun provides, green energy is given off as a waste product. Plants prefer red and blue light and will hardly use any green. They fart green out. Yet may worship the farts of plants.
Those who do not wish plants to do better with more CO2 food; the up cycle of plants, seem to worship their waste farts; waste or green energy. It is a bazaar anti-plant religion that appear to see upside down, when it comes to the natural cause and affect of plants. They do not do much better with animals thinking we can ignore their unique DNA, with lions able to become gazelles, since DNA does not matter when it comes to breeding and behavior. Science needs to speak up and not just cower due to fear of publication censorship and other forms of political retribution. The twitter files does show these clowns cheat and are mean but right is right.
If we assume CO2 will warm the earth, warming means more evaporation of ocean water and therefore more CO2 and H2O in the atmosphere. This is paradise cycle for plants. With their enhanced vitality, they can lead the next change in global evolution of plant and animal life. Why bet against the plants?