Can Photosynthesis Save Us From Global Warming?
As defined by Colleen Belk and Virginia Borden Maier, authors of Biology: Science for Life 6th Edition, global warming is the “…progressive increase of Earth’s average temperature that has been occurring over the past century.” Scientists claim that the most recent activity of warming over the past one hundred years is a result of the human species (Belk & Maier, 2009, p. 87). Some people feel that taking advantage of photosynthesis to clean the air could be a possible solution to combat the issue of global warming because of how plants absorb the carbon dioxide from our air and convert it into carbohydrates.
During the process of photosynthesis, the energy that comes from the sunlight is trapped and then used to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, which is a chemical energy. A more scientific way to look at this would be with the following equation: 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + light energy = glucose + oxygen (Belk & Maier, 2009, pp. 93, 94). The issue with wanting to use photosynthesis to combat global warming is that we are producing carbon dioxide a lot quicker than plants take to naturally absorb the carbon dioxide. An important factor in this scenario is also that high temperatures in the environment could actually dampen the process of photosynthesis and make it even slower than it already is. This is due to a small part of the plant called the stomata.
The stomata open up to suck up water from the soil in a process called transpiration. When it quite hot outside, the water that would be in the soil evaporates quicker. So the plant closes their stomata (Belk & Maier, 2009, p. 97). Another crucial factor to photosynthesis is another process called photorespiration, in which the “…rubisco adds oxygen instead of carbon dioxide to RuBP in the first step of the light-independent reactions.” When the stomata are closed, glycolate is produced. Glycolate also needs to be destroyed by the plant because if the levels become too high, eventually the plant will starve itself. The breakdown process of the glycolate uses up energy which comes from cellular respiration, but instead of taking up the carbon dioxide, it is actually photorespiring and releasing it back into the atmosphere (Belk & Maier, 2009, p. 97). Sounds quite counter-productive, doesn’t it? An increase of photosynthesis sounds great and wonderful, but this actually wouldn’t apply to all plants as we might think. Most grasses are considered C4 plants, whereas most of the trees are considered C3 plants. The plants in the C3 category have a faster net rate of photosynthesis. While on the other hand, the plants in the C4 category have a slower net rate.
With this naturally occurring around us, human activities contribute even more to this such as with deforestation. When humans are removing large land areas of their forests, the net rate of photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide becomes slower (Belk & Maier, 2009, pp. 97, 98). Now, imagine if we were to put back all (or most) of the forests and built around them instead of where they once stood. I don’t think that rapid rates of photosynthesis will occur indefinitely because I don’t think the human species care about global warming as much as it is spoken about on media outlets and social media platforms. It’s one thing to talk about how bad deforestation is and the effects of global warming, but, what are we actually doing about it? Many small changes can lead to even bigger changes, but I don’t think enough small changes are happening nowadays. Especially with the mindset that we have evolved into where we want the easy convenience and affordability of disposable items. Everything is seen and treated as disposable and replaceable. Even the world leaders of today treat the planet this way. Earth is not disposable and replaceable; we only have one life on this planet. So why are we not making the best of it for all generations to come, instead of focusing on our own generation and accepting the fact that we more than likely won’t witness the end of times and being in the mindset of “you only live once, you may as well enjoy yourself.”
References
Belk, C., & Maier, V. B. (2009). Life in the greenhouse. In Biology: science for life (6th ed., pp. 87–123). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
