Page 118 - The Error of the Evolution of Species

The Error of the Evolution
of Species

9) Environmental Services Provided by
Living Things

Have you ever realized how millions of countless living
things flawlessly perform tasks that you could never hope

to do? The fact is that if these various organisms, great and
small, were unable to perform their tasks, neither you nor
other living things could exist.
In recent years, studies have been carried out to meas-
ure the economic value of some environmental services
provided by living things, most of which are beyond price.
A team led by Robert Costanza of the University of Maryland
in the US, calculated that the Earth provides a minimum of
$16-54 trillion dollars worth of "services" to humans per

year. 145

Oxygen Production: Oxygen, one of the elements es-
sential to life, is emitted by green plants and bacteria known
as cyanobacteria. The O breathed in by human beings, an-
2
imals and micro-organisms is constantly replenished
through the process of photosynthesis carried out by these

organisms, and the balance is thus maintained. Every year,
green plants release some 500 billion tons of oxygen into
the atmosphere. 146 Green plants and some single-celled or-

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