Page 144 - Photosynthesis: The Green Miracle

Adnan Oktar

Photosynthesis and side products

Wood is a very important material used not just as fuel but in many
fields, including construction. Paper, cotton and other natural fibers, for
instance, consist of cellulose produced almost entirely by photosynthesiz-
ing plants. Even wool depends on the energy sheep obtain from grass,
and photosynthesis. Solar energy, transformed by photosynthesis, is the
source of countless vegetable, animal and organic side products. 65

Photosynthesis and the environment

Living things constantly increase the carbon dioxide in the air and
the air temperature. Millions of tons of carbon dioxide are released into
the atmosphere every year as a result of the respiration of human beings,
animals and micro-organisms in the soil, not to mention burning of fossil
fuels. Moreover, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmos-
phere from fuels consumed for heating purposes in factories and homes
and used in transport also reaches billions of tons. According to one study,

an increase of 42 billion metric tons in the carbon dioxide has been seen in
the atmosphere in the last 22 years. One of the main causes of this rise is
the fuels consumed and deforestation. The rise in carbon dioxide caused
by fuels over the last 22 years is 78 billion metric tons. 66
Unless this rise is compensated, there will be terrible ecological im-
balances. In such an event, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere will
fall to very low levels, and the Earth’s temperature will rise, as a result of

which the ice caps will melt. Therefore, some low-lying regions will be
flooded, while others will turn into deserts, and all life on Earth will be
endangered. Yet that will not be the case, because carbon dioxide is con-
stantly consumed and oxygen released in the process of photosynthesis
carried out by plants and micro-organisms. Thus the equilibrium in na-
ture can persist. While there has been a rise of 78 billion tons in carbon di-
oxide caused by fuels, the level remaining in the atmosphere is 42 billion

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