PHOTOSYNTHESIS:

THE ESSENCE OF THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH

Carbon is the element from which life, and ultimately the Earth's life support system, spiralled into existence. Without Carbon, life on Earth is unlikely to have advanced beyond the stage of micro-organisms - and without life the Earth would never have developed a sustainable life support system. The primary mechanism by which a lifeless Planet was transformed into a living Planet was Photosynthesis. Although the emergence of life on Earth was the first step in the direction of the Earth's life support system it was only a particular form of life, Photosynthesis, which created the Earth's life support system - what is more, without Photosynthesis life is unlikely to have survived on Earth for very long. The Earth's life support system consists of a multitude of interacting, interlocking, phenomena. Most of these phenomena have sprung into existence either because of Photosynthesis or, at the very least, because of the conditions created by Photosynthesis. Although Carbon can be regarded as the element of life, many planets contain substantial quantities of Carbon without ever producing life or coming to life. If Carbon is the element of life, Photosynthesis is the engine of life. It is the difference between a living, and a dead, planet.

The Formation of the Earth.

The Earth was formed some four and a half billion years ago (bya) at the same time as its neighbouring planets venus and mars. It was a fiery place where volcanic eruptions greeted continual showers of meteorites. As the Earth cooled, the surface was almost entirely covered with water. Volcanic eruptions created islands poking through a global ocean. "Brown seas reflected a pinkish-orange sky .." The atmosphere contained minute traces of oxygen but abundant quantities of Carbon. - nearly 30% of the atmosphere consisted of Carbon whether in the form of Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, or Methane.

The Creation of Photosynthesis 4bya.

It is believed the first types of life on Earth, Bacteria, were created by the forging together of Carbon molecules in the shallow parts of the oceans. Bacteria then acquired the ability to carry out Photosynthesis. One commentator believes that Photosynthesis started soon after the Earth became cool enough for life, "Some of the oldest rocks on Earth (were) laid down 3.8 billion years ago. Some chemical analyses suggest there is a 12C surplus in these rocks, and if this is true life must have put it there. As evidence of Photosynthesis it would be startling because it comes a mere 200 my at most after the Earth grew cool enough to live on."

Bacteria was the sole life form on the Earth during the archean period (4.6-2.5 bya), "For more than 1.5 billion years after the first bacteria appeared in the Earth's primeval seas, prokaryotes had a monopoly on Planetary life." The most pervasive Photosynthesizer was Cyanobacteria which created strange structures known as stromatolites in the shallow oceans. As new types of Bacteria began to emerge some of these may also have developed the ability to carry out Photosynthesis.

The Photosynthetic Release of Oxygen into the Atmosphere.

Bacterial Photosynthesizers like Cyanobacteria released oxygen into the oceans/atmosphere. The amount of oxygen released was small at first but increased as Bacterial Photosynthesizers spread around the oceans. There is no other source of atmospheric oxygen than Photosynthesis, "Photosynthesis is the source of all the oxygen in the atmosphere."

The Photosynthetic Preservation of Water.

In the Earth's early history, Photosynthesizers played a critical role in preventing hydrogen, one of the lightest elements on Earth, from floating through the atmosphere and escaping into space. They did this firstly, by extracting hydrogen from the atmosphere to form Carbohydrates and, secondly, by releasing oxygen into the environment which then reacted with hydrogen to form water. It was Photosynthesis which preserved water on Earth. If it wasn't for Photosynthesizers, the Earth would rapidly have lost most of its water. The Earth is not a blue Planet but a green one.

The Role of Photosynthesis in the Creation of Granite Continents.

The preservation of water on Earth, courtesy of Photosynthesis, was vital for enabling volcanic islands to grow into continents. Volcanic eruptions contain basalt which, when heated in water, forms granite - the basis of the Earth's continents.

The Photosynthetic Creation of Banded Iron Formations (bifs).

The oxygen released by Photosynthesizers in the early part of the proterozoic period did not remain in the oceans/atmosphere for very long. Some of it, as has just been noted, reacted with atmospheric hydrogen to form water; some reacted with the sulphur released by Cyanobacteria, "Today the green and purple sulfur bacteria still use hydrogen sulphide as their electron donor in photosynthesis. In the early days photosynthesis was largely dependent on a steady source of hydrogen sulphide, and the gas was converted into yellow sulphur deposits on the ground or into globules in the water that were later oxidized to make ocean sulphate." ; the remainder reacted with the rocks and minerals ejected by volcanoes, "When volcanic upsurges brought raw iron and other unoxidized minerals or gases to the surface, these would react chemically to pull free oxygen out of the environment." Oxygen oxidized (rusted) the iron dissolved in the seas which then sank to the ocean floor. For some unknown reason, the layers of iron alternate with layers containing much less iron and are known as banded iron formations (bifs). It has been estimated that, "Most of our bifs were deposited between 2.5 and 1.8 billion years ago ..." What this suggests is that there couldn't have been any excess oxygen in the atmosphere until after 1.8 billion years ago. Over nearly a billion years marine Photosynthesizers released vast quantities of oxygen creating an estimated 600 trillion tons of iron oxides.

The Photosynthetic Creation of an Oxygen Atmosphere.

It was only after oxygen had contained vast quantities of hydrogen, sulphur and iron that it began to accumulate in the oceans/atmosphere, "Once the reduced iron ran out, there was no other chemical sink big enough to hold the continuing biological surge of oxygen and this gas built up, first dissolved in water and then escaping into the atmosphere."

Most of the above changes were brought about by prokaryotic Photosynthesizers, "Prokaryotic microbes (Cyanobacteria) were almost certainly responsible for the original transition to the oxygen-containing atmosphere about 2000 million years ago ..." ; "The increasing populations of cyanobacteria on the unlit bottoms of the new shallow seas relentlessly pumped out free oxygen, and the Earth rusted." Unfortunately, the precise rate at which oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere is not known.

The Photosynthetic Role in the Creation of Eukaryotic Life Forms.

It is believed that in the proterozoic period (2.5bya-570mya) the presence of free oxygen in the oceans/atmosphere led to a major genetic leap, the emergence of eukaryotic cells, "The world became oxygenated enough through the Photosynthesizing mats (created by Cyanobacteria) to be suitable for their development (nucleated cells) about 2,000 million years ago." Bacteria, prokaryotic life forms without nucleated cells, gave rise to a more complex form of life - Protista, eukaryotic life forms with nucleated cells. The early Protista were soft bodied marine invertebrates - some of which also acquired the ability to carry out Photosynthesis.

The Photosynthetic Burial of Carbon.

Cyanobacteria absorbed Carbon from the atmosphere but after a micro-organism died there was always the danger that its Carbon would end up back into the atmosphere. It is believed that about a billion years ago, some of the Photosynthesizing Protista, e.g. marine Algae, acquired the ability to use the Carbon acquired through Photosynthesis to grow shells, "Although 'merely' protoctists, foraminifera are one of the most diverse groups of fossil forming small organisms. An astounding variety of magnificent shells are made by these complex single-celled beings .." When the Algae died their shells sank to the ocean floor permanently removing Carbon from the atmosphere. This liberated equivalent quantities of oxygen allowing it to accumulate in the atmosphere.

The Photosynthetic Creation of Sedimentary Layers of Rock.

Over tens of millions of years, vast quantities of Algal shells accumulated on the ocean beds and were crushed, under their own weight, into layers of rock. Sedimentary rocks covered vast areas of the ocean floor. Over the course of time they have ended up in rather incongrous places. Some have been exposed by falling oceans, contributing to the landscape of many countries e.g. the white cliffs of dover. Others have been pushed up into mountains after collisions between tectonic plates e.g. the himalayas.

The Photosynthetic Role in the Creation of Animals, 1bya-600mya.

The oxygen generated by Photosynthesizers helped to bring about a second genetic change, the emergence of Animals .. "there are no documented cases of any metazoa (animals) that can complete their life cycles in the total absence of O2. All Animals are composed of cells that divide by mitosis. The mitotic cell division itself requires O2." All Animals need oxygen to breathe but, more fundamentally, Animal cell division would never have been possible without the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere.

It is believed the first eukaryotic Animal cells appeared a billion years ago but there is no fossil evidence of Animals until much later .. "Yet no metazoans - multicellular animals - appear in the rocks of the fossil record until about 600my ago, a silence of hundreds of millions of years ..." The first fossils are often referred to as the ediacaran fauna, "Animals evolved from their protoctist ancestors sometime in the late Proterozoic aeon, that is, the late Riphean or early Vendian era."

The Role of Photosynthesis in the Creation of Soils, 400mya.

As basaltic islands grew into granite continents they were invaded by micro-organisms and Plants. "The first plants moved on to land during the silurian period (439-409mya), with simple small forms like Cooksonia ..." The greening of the land wasn't completed until the next geological epoch, "There have been many changes since the greening of the Earth in the devonian (409-363mya)." The greening of the Earth was important not merely because it boosted the scale of Photosynthesis but because the decomposition of terrestrial Photosynthesizers led to the creation of soils. It is alleged that the invasion of the land by micro-organisms and Plants was followed shortly thereafter by Animals, "So the backboned animals followed shortly after the plants made their excursions on to land." Wildlife were also involved in soil creation.

The Creation of Coal and Oil, 360mya.

In the Carboniferous period (363-290mya) large Trees began to flourish extracting huge amounts of Carbon from the atmosphere. As the Trees died and sank into the swamps they were eventually crushed into coal seams. This boosted the level of atmospheric oxygen.

The Photosynthetic Role in the Creation of the Stratospheric Ozone Layer.

The accumulation of oxygen in the troposphere led to the emergence of a stratospheric ozone layer.

Photosynthesis Boosts Rock Weathering.

The roots of terrestrial Plants, especially Trees, pump Carbon into the soil. This forms Carbonic acid. Carbonic acid reacts chemically with rocks creating chemicals and minerals which are nutrients for Plants. The first Plants to colonize the land had virtually no roots, "The earliest land plants were confined to a rhizome, an underground stem that could put out shoots but did not sink a solid grip into the ground." When these Plants died they decayed and created soils. As soils became deeper, Plants grew bigger and more complex. The bigger the Photosynthesizers, the deeper their root systems, the greater the amount of Carbon pumped into the soil, the greater the extraction of nutrients. The process of rock weathering was beneficial not only to terrestrial Plants but to marine Photosynthesizers. Some of the Carbon nutrients unlocked through chemical dissolution leeched into waterways, and then into the oceans, where they were absorbed by marine Photosynthesizers further boosting the burial of Carbon on the sea floor.

Photosynthesis and the Earth's Ph.

The Earth's Photosynthesizers are also responsible for preserving the Earth's ph balance ensuring that it never becomes too alkaline or too acidic, "The breathable oxygen, the humid air, and mildly alkaline oceans result from the growth and metabolism of uncountable and always changing numbers of bacteria, plants, and algae, which produce oxygen using solar energy."

Photosynthesis and the Creation of the Climate.

It was Photosynthesis which created the Earth's climate. Without Photosynthesis there wouldn't be a climate on Earth - the Earth would be dead like venus and mars. Lovelock believes that gaia started with the arrival of life i.e. Bacteria, "The Archean saw early bacterial life forms and the birth of Gaia." But, more precisely, it began with the emergence of Photosynthesizing Bacteria. Without Photosynthesizers it is unlikely that Bacteria, and the more complex forms of life, would have survived on Earth for more than a few billion years. Gaia may have started with the first life forms on Earth but the climate and the life support system, whilst dependent on life, were created by Photosynthesizing Bacteria.

Photosynthesis and Climate Stabilization.

If these achievements weren't enough, Photosynthesizers have also played a crucial role in stabilizing the Earth's climate. The sun's luminosity has been increasing ever since it became a star. Over the Earth's lifetime, solar radiation has increased by roughly 30%. Given the vast quantities of Carbon in the Earth's early atmosphere, the increase in solar radiation should have led to global overheating. It was only because Photosynthesizers extracted Carbon from the atmosphere, and reduced the greenhouse effect, that the Earth remained cool. This has been the Earth's main climate stabilizing mechanism for the last four aeons. The albedo effect of terrestrial Plants has also contributes to the stabilization of the Earth's climate.

The Pleistocene Ice Age.

About two million years ago, solar luminosity reached such a level of intensity that Photosynthesizers extracted virtually all of the Carbon left in the atmosphere. This decreased the greenhouse effect and triggered off an ice age. The remarkable aspect of this ice age was that, even though the rate of Photosynthesis increases when it is warmer (at least up to 18C) and decreases when it is colder, the drop in global temperatures did not lead to a decrease in global Photosynthesis. On the contrary. There was an increase in the scale of Photosynthesis because the growth of tropical Forests exceeded the loss of amero-euro-asian Forests under the advancing ice sheets. Photosynthesizers continued to extract out of the atmosphere the residual quantities of Carbon thereby driving down global temperatures and combating increasing solar radiation.

However, there are limits to Photosynthesizers' ability to sustain an ice age to combat increasing solar luminosity. The ice age was eventually superceded by a warmer period. This warmer period did not last, however, because Photosynthesizers managed to push the climate into another ice age. Over the last two million years the climate has oscillated between glacials and interglacials - one commentator reckons there have been twenty ice ages/interglacials during this period. The reason for this climatic instability is the near breakdown of the Earth's main climate stabilization mechanism. At its simplist, Photosynthesizers cannot stabilize the climate when there is no Carbon in the atmosphere. According to lovelock, if oomans didn't exist, then over the next hundred million years the Earth would have become hotter and hotter because Photosynthesizers would have found it increasingly difficult to counter increasing solar radiation. Given the current level of solar luminosity, lovelock believes the Earth's climate is at its most stable when there is an ice age i.e. when global temperatures are around 10C. He regards interglacials as a geophysiological fever induced by increasing solar radiation and the breakdown of the Earth's climate stabilization system.

Humans Boosting the Earth's underlying Climatic Crisis.

The Earth's current predicament was bad enough, but then along came humans. The industrial revolution has exacerbated the threat of increasing solar radiation by dumping huge quantities of Carbon into the atmosphere further boosting global temperatures. Global average temperatures have now risen to 15C. In other words, the Earth is 5C hotter than it should be to maintain climatic stability. If this trend continues and global temperatures rise to 18C then the Earth faces the prospect of a runaway global burning disaster. Under these conditions it will take far less than a hundred million years for the Earth to start burning up.

Forests are currently the Earth's Main Photosynthesizer.

Since Forests began spreading across the land, it is possible they gradually became the main Photosynthetic contributor to the stabilization of the Earth's climate. They not merely extract Carbon and water from the atmosphere and thus reduce the greenhouse effect, they produce clouds whose albedo effect cools the Earth. They also give a considerable boost to rock weathering - which boosts marine Photosynthesis, increasing the amount of Carbon buried on the ocean floor thereby reducing the greenhouse effect.

Consumers Destroying the Earth's Forests.

However, the over-industrialized world is devastating the Earth's Forests - not forgetting the rest of the Earth's Photosynthetic capacity. This is threatening to unravel the Earth's life support system and to destabilize the climate. Consumers are cutting down more and more Forests; they are turning more and more grasslands into deserts; they are suffocating more and more fertile soil with cement; they are dumping increasing quantities of poisons into the environment which are devastating Photosynthesis; they are burying more and more land under vast mountains of rubbish; they are dumping vast quantities of soils and manure into the oceans creating swarms of poisonous, smelly, asphyxiating Bacteria which are washing up on the coasts of the over-industrialized world; and they are vacuuming up all forms of life around the Earth in a banal mass slaughter which is virtually unimaginable in its sheer scale and barbarism thereby destroying the Plants dependent upon these life forms. In virtually everything they do, they are destroying the Earth's Photosynthetic capacity. Never in the Earth's history have so many packs of stupid, arrogant, callous, and cowardly, Animals roamed the Earth pillaging the Earth's Photosynthetic capacity without paying the slightest heed to the consequences - usually aided by glossy commercials produced by a leading film director, with music created by pop superstars, and voice overs provided by moronic comic relief comedians. All Animal species on Earth go through periods of boom and bust - and oomans ain't any different from any other species on Earth.

In effect, consumers are reversing the Earth's life spiral - they are regressing. Thankfully, they are not so much 'destroying the Earth' as destroying their own life support system on Earth. The chance that oomans will be able to reverse the Earth's Photosynthetic spiral until they have recreated the original planet, which had a global ocean (without polar ice caps) and an atmosphere composed predominantly of Carbon, is totally negligible. It is blatantly obvious that these banal eco-nazis are going to have to stop having more and more cars, kids, Cattle, capital and carnage, but it is impossible to imagine them doing so.

Conclusions.

The conventional viewpoint, promoted by corporate ecologists in universities funded by multi-national corporations, is that Photosynthesis is important for providing Animals with nourishment, "Without plants, animal life could not exist." With even greater reserves of profundity they argue, "This miracle of living alchemy is called Photosynthesis. Without it, virtually all life on this planet would cease." Whilst they credit Photosynthesis with preserving life they seem much more reluctant to acknowledge that it is the crucial element in the Earth's life support system and the key means of stabilizing the Earth's climate - which is not surprising given that the primary objective of their paymasters is ravaging the Earth's Photosynthetic capacity. Without Carbon, there would be no Photosynthesis, but without Photosynthesis there would be:-

no oxygen in the atmosphere, no stratospheric ozone layer,

no hydrogen,

no water,

no oceans,

no continents,

no Carbon burial,

no Carboniferous rock formations,

no layers of coal, nor oil deposits,

no Plants or Trees,

no food,

no soils,

no Wildlife habitats,

no Wildlife,

no climate, and,

no stable climate.

In sum, no life.

When the Earth, mars and venus were formed they all had huge quantities of Carbon in the atmosphere. Whilst this Carbon still remains in the atmospheres of mars and venus this is not the case with the Earth. Photosynthesizers have reduced the concentration of Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere from 10% to 0.04% i.e. 10,000,000,000,000,000 tons of Carbon. They have brought this Carbon down to Earth and transformed it into life forms, living soils, and landscapes, "Mars and venus, and the hypothetical dead Earth devoid of life, all have chemically stable atmospheres composed of over 95% Carbon dioxide. Earth as we live on it, however, has only 0.03% of this stable gas in its atmosphere. The anomaly is largely due to .. the process of photosynthesis. Bacteria, algae and plants continuously remove carbon dioxide from the air via photosynthesis and incorporate the Carbon from the gas into solid structures such as limestone reefs and eventually Animal shells." Photosynthesis has transformed the Earth from a few barren lifeless islands surrounded by a lifeless ocean, into seven granite continents, partially covered in Carboniferous rocks, topped by layers of rich fertile soil, supporting a vast diversity of Plants, providing sustenance for a vast array of Wildlife, all of which are able to enjoy a stable climate. Virtually everything around us today in what is left of the Earth has been created or shaped by Photosynthesis. The essence of the history of the Earth is the Photosynthetic extraction of Carbon from the atmosphere to create life and maintain a living Planet.

Postscript.

Towards the end of her life hannah arendt argued there was a need to abandon the idea of progress and its underlying linear perspective. But, she had no desire to return to the ancients' cyclical view of life. She speculated that a more fruitful image may be the spiral. What gives this image some credence is that most of the fundamental realities of life and the universe are spirals - dna, the Earth's Carbon spiral, the milky way. The Carbon spiral links together the Earth's life forms, Photosynthesizers, and climatic conditions. The spiral is much more of a flexible image than a straight line or a circle. A spiral can revolve back upon itself, renew itself, without ever returning to the same point. In many cases, this is just what has happened in a number of cases during the Earth's history. The emergence of Photosynthesis preserved water on Earth. Water made possible the formation of continents on which increased levels of Photosynthesis took place. To give a second example: Phytomass provided sustenance for life. As life forms got bigger this enabled the emergence of bigger and more complex types of Phytomass e.g. Trees because larger Animals could break down Trees and return their nutrients to the environment.

Everything that oomans do affects the climate. Therefore everything that oomans do can be measured and, more importantly, evaluated in terms of their impact on the climate. Given the influence of the global Carbon spiral in determining the climate then a Carbon spiral analysis could be used to chart a course for the creation of a sustainable planet. It is true that the Carbon spiral methodology represents a simplified view of the world in comparison to the complexities of lovelock's daisyworld but since the number of people who could understand the mathematical basis of daisyworld would be minimal its use in ensuring ooman survival on Earth would also be negligible.