An American poet and soldier Joyce Kilmer wrote a poem entitled “Trees” sometime in 1914. It was his most popular poem which was included in his collection “Trees and other poems (1914)”. Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6, 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. When the United States declared war against Germany in the Second World War in 1917 Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment in New York National Guard. He died from a sniper bullet in France in July 30, 1918 at a young age of 31. Below is Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”.

                                           “I think that I shall never see

                                            A poem lovely as a tree.

                                            A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

                                            Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

                                            A tree that looks at God all day,

                                            And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

                                            A tree that may in Summer wear

                                            A nest of robins in her hair;

                                            Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

                                             Who intimately lives with rain.

                                             Poems are made by fools like me,

                                             But only God can make a tree.”

The tree is one of God’s most beautiful creations. The greens that we see in our surroundings are sign of life. Trees and other plants sustain life, and without them no life can exist on earth. Trees and plant need water, sunlight and carbon dioxide in order to survive. The plants harness the energy of the sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose, its food. That process is called photosynthesis on which a waste product called oxygen is created. The plants and trees play an important role for our survival by absorbing carbon dioxide, the waste gas, and giving us oxygen, the fresh air that we breathe.

The earth at present is experiencing a phenomenon called global warming.  It is caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone in the atmosphere. Solar radiation penetrates the earth. Some amount of the re-radiated heat escapes into space while remaining re-radiated heat is reflected back to earth. If there is too much accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, there is less re-radiated heat that escapes into the atmosphere and more amount of re-radiated heat is reflected back to earth which causes its surface temperature to rise. As a result there is a change in climate, and the weather pattern is altered which will result in coastal flooding and more frequent and severe storms.

Some of the significant causes of global warming are the excessive use of fossil fuel and deforestation. These activities added so much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Global warming or its effect could have been averted or minimized had man not destroyed much of the earth’s forest cover. Lesser trees and plants and too much dependence of fossil fuel means more carbon dioxide that will accumulate as greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

At present there is less remaining forest cover on earth. Areas devastated by typhoons and flashfloods are usually places where trees in the nearby forests and mountains are destroyed. Trees prevent flashflood by absorbing rain water into the soil and prevent soil erosion that causes siltation in the river. Deforestation also destroys the ecosystem and as a result of it some plants and animals die and others will eventually become extinct.                                                                                                              

People can make amazing inventions and make their city become economically prosperous. But if they do not take care for the environment and protect and preserve what God has given them like the trees in the forest, then they are bound to experience bad things to happen like climate change and other destructive phenomena.

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The occurrence of global warming brings about such phenomena as floods, rise of sea level, drought, extinction of some plants and animal species and the disappearance of coral reefs. Some people blame it on deforestation.  However, destruction of trees is not the only cause of global warming. There are other causes too such as too much use of fossil fuel to run vehicles and factories, methane emission from animals, and agricultural and other activities. These activities cause greenhouse gasses of being trapped in the atmosphere instead of going into space. This situation results in the heating of earth’s surface.         

We need to regulate activities that are harmful to the earth’s capability to sustain life. And we need to come up with solutions too. In this article I would like to limit my discussion to tree planting. Plants and trees are important to our existence. But over the past centuries man has destroyed so much forest covers so that this action has contributed to detrimental effects on the environment such as climate change. It is difficult to restore the world’s destroyed rainforests to their original state as a result of logging, urban, industrial and agricultural developments and construction of government infrastructure projects.  We can make up for the lost of our vast rainforest by reforestation or the planting of trees. By doing so, we can mitigate the ill effects of global warming.  Other lasting or long-term benefits of tree planting are as follows:

Trees absorb waste gasses and give us fresh air. To sustain their life, trees and plants undergo a process called photosynthesis on which they use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to produce glucose which is their food. In this food production process the plants release their waste product which is oxygen, the air that we breath. Without photosynthesis life in this earth will not exist. Through photosynthesis trees and plants maintain the ideal balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air. Too much or too little of either is harmful to us. Fewer trees mean that there will be excess carbon dioxide that will be emitted into the atmosphere which will contribute to global warming.

Trees enrich the ecosystems in our environment and promote biodiversity. When there are trees they become the habitat of birds, insects and other animals that feed on their leaves, flowers and fruits; and smaller plants co-exist with trees. Thus an ecosystem is developed. Plants, animals and humans need each other in order to survive. If the earth were to lose all of its forest covers, most plants and animals would become extinct.

Trees help prevent floods and soil erosion.  During rain some of the raindrops are collected on the leaves so that some amount of water does not fall on the ground. Later these raindrops are evaporated into the air. Leaves also serve as cushion to lighten the impact of water that is falling on the ground, and this prevents soil erosion. In addition, the roots of the trees absorb some water in the ground during rain thus reducing the amount of water on the ground surface.  Roots of trees also hold soil so that it is not easily eroded during rain and cause landslides. Lack of trees causes soil to be washed away into the water course causing sediments to be deposited in low lying channels which overflow during heavy rains.

Trees help provide us clean water. The roots of the trees absorb rain water thus storing supply of fresh and clean ground water. In addition the ability of the roots to hold soil prevents soil erosion which causes sediments to accumulate in the water channels.  Sediments carried by rainwater pollute rivers or creeks. Trees therefore help make the water in the rivers clear and clean.

Trees beautify our environment and boost our wellbeing. Garbage in our backyard and in the landfills is eyesore. On the other hand the view of plants and trees is aesthetically pleasant. The sight of green surrounding somehow protects us from the glare of sunlight. Green surrounding is associated with life. The sight of trees and other plants at our house together with the birds and insects that hang around them makes our surroundings lively and beautiful. Trees provide shade for us and moderate the heat of the sun in summer. 

We know the benefits that trees give us. The right time to plant them is now. We can do it in our own backyard or along the city streets or in wildlife conservation area. Planting trees in a wide area requires coordinated effort with non-government organization, government agencies and civic groups. We need trees and plant for our survival and for the protection of our mother earth.                                               

Have you ever wondered what will happen if the Sun suddenly vanishes? There will be a long, never-ending night with extremely cold weather. Such conditions are unfavorable for the existence of life on Earth.

 All plants and animals need light and heat of the Sun to survive. They also need water. The heat generated by the Sun melts the ice and turns it into water. The other planets in the Solar system do not have water; hence they are devoid of life.

Phenomenon of day and night

The Earth spins on its axis while traveling around the Sun. it turns once every 24 hours, causing day and night.

The part of Earth facing the Sun will be said to have day time. The other side being away from the Sun, will be dark. It will be night there. As the Earth spins, the part of Earth having day turns away from the Sun causing night time in that part.

Rotation of Earth on its axis causes day and night

My Other Articles

Radio Astronomy

Stars Are Getting Old And Die

The Life Of A Star

Constellations

The Night Sky

Sun at a Glance

The Closest Star

Light and Heat

Our Closest Neighbor

The Ever Changing Moon

How do Tides Occur?

Types Of An Eclipse

Going Round and Round

World Timings

The Starry Night

The Solar System

About Mercury Planet

About Venus Planet

About Earth Planet

About Mars Planet

About Jupiter Planet

About Saturn Planet

Image via Wikipedia

1) The Dutch father and son Hans and Zacharias Janssen were the inventors of the first microscope. It was made of two single glass lenses and was a stepping stone not only for the development of the modern day much more complex microscope but also for the understanding of living organisms.

2) In 1676, Anton van Leeuweenhoek was the first person to observe bacteria. He described it as small creatures but it was only in 1828 when they were given their present name.

3) Plant respiration and photosynthesis are a vital part of the cycle that keeps the life on our planet going. The first person to discover these processes was Jan Ingenhausz, who in 1779 described how all life on Earth depends on the production of oxygen by plants.

4) The Dutch introduced not only the microscope in order to help us explore matters as small as the organelles of a cell, but they also invented the telescope in order to explore big objects at a long distance. It was patented by Hans Lippershey and later on a crater on the Moon was named after him in honor of his contribution.

5) Saturn’s rings were first examined by Galileo Galilei in 1610 but his means for observation were not good enough for him to determine their shape or nature. It was only 45 years later that Christian Huygens actually distinguished two rings made of dust and ice.

6) The Dutch were the ones who also discovered Australia in 1606 when a ship called Duyfken with William Jansz as captain reached the shores of Gulf of Carpentaria. Other Dutch missions got to know different parts of the continent through continuous exploration.

7) Cornelius Drebbel was a Dutch inventor who created the first submarine that could actually be navigated. He kept building more submarines with each one being bigger than the previous one. Some could carry up to 16 people. Since he was working for the Royal Navy at the time, the submarine was tested first in UK.

The artificial kidney is the actual machine that performs dialysis on patients with acute or chronic kidney conditions. The machine fulfills the functions of the kidneys and despite the fact that it cannot treat the failed organs, it is considered a popular and very successful life support.

9) The compact disk (CD) was invented by the Dutch giant Philips and first presented to the public in 1979 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Philips is also credited for the invention of audio and video tapes.

10) In the 1950s, rally driver Maurice Gatsonides needed to track his speed on the race track during practice and this is why the company founded by him invented an early version of what is now known as road-rule enforcement camera. These speed cameras are also sometimes called ‘Gatsos’ in honor of their inventor.  

Here are a few notable inventions: the electrocardiogram, the sawmill and the pendulum clock.

1.Oubliette- of French origin, an oubliette is a dungeon without windows or doors. The only way in or out was usually through a hatch in the high ceiling. Not a nice meaning for such a pretty word.

2.Tinsel – I love this word. I love the way it looks on the page, the way it sounds when spoken and I love the connotations it brings with it. You’d probably have to be writing about Christmas to use this word.

3.Glitter – ooh, sparkly! I love sparkly things and I have fond memories of using glitter profusely when I was a child, much to the annoyance of parents and teachers! This is a word which probably owes more to its associations than its actual sound for its inclusion in the list.

4.Celestial – and again, all things twinkly! The word “celestial” though, always looks like such an elegant word when I see it written down. It comes from the Latin “caelestis” or “caelum”, meaning heaven and is often used to refer to angels and other heavenly beings. I always think of shining angels and twinkling stars in the heavens when I hear the word celestial, anyway. Oh, and apparently there is a race of heavenly beings called Celestials in the Star Wars universe, Dungeons and Dragons and the Marvel Comics (Wikipedia). I didn’t know that…

5. Jewel – Just seeing and hearing this word makes me thing of bright colours, and of crystals catching the light. I even like the names of precious stones – beautiful words like diamond, sapphire, emerald and ruby.

I suppose this article shows that the beauty of a word is mainly in its associations, as well as the sound of it, and how it looks written down. I like things that sparkle, therefore the words that I find pretty are the ones associated with sparkly things. Maybe the words a chef would find pretty are words like ganache or julien and a scientist would like the words astrophysics or photosynthesis. It would be interesting to find out…

CO2 or Carbon Dioxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is lethal in high concentrations. CO2 is heavier then air and is often found very close to the ground. It is finally being noticed as a greenhouse gas.

Natural sources of CO2 include volcanic out gassing, the combustion of organic matter, and the breathing processes of living aerobic organisms. Human made sources of CO2 come from the burning of fossil fuels for heating, power generation and transportation. Only about 10% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is from natural sources. One form of reducing CO2 is through Photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, bacteria and even some protests do to convert sunlight to sugar. The chemical equation for this is: 6H2O + 6CO2 – C6H12O6+ 6O2 (This stands for six molecules of water plus six molecules of carbon dioxide produce one molecule of sugar plus six molecules of oxygen.)

A greenhouse gas absorbs infrared radiation and is heating our world. When the greenhouse gases reach our ozone layer and cannot rise any higher, (greenhouse effect) they absorb the infrared rays and begin to heat and slightly raise the heat of our planet. Over the past 200 years we have had a huge climate change because of greenhouse gases. This is one of the main reasons that Antarctica is melting and polar bears are becoming endangered.

So if I plant some different kinds of plants, I can help to lower the amount of CO2 that I produce every day. After getting permission from my parents I decided on planting the plants on my grandparents farm. Finally we decided that we wanted 44 Red Huckleberries, 1 Red Oak and 5 Washington Hawthorns.

The Red Huckleberry is a deciduous tree growing a max height of 4 meters and is green. They also have a simple leaf that is oblong. The leaves are 9-30 millimeters long and 4-16 millimeters wide. The flowers are yellowish-white to pinkish-white and are bell-shaped. As the name suggests , the Huckleberry produces some sour berries that are red and 6-10 millimeters in diameter.

The Red Oak is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 75 feet tall and can have a trunk that is 6 feet thick. They also have a simple leaf that are 12-25 centimeters in length and always has at least 7 lobes(where the leaf comes to a point). The Red Oak produces Acorns which are eaten by squirrels and deer. The Red Oak is named after it’s leaves that turn red during the fall. The Red oak will grow an average of 2 feet a year for 10 years. The Red Oak can live in almost any state.

The Washington Hawthorn can grow to be about 30 feet tall and is commonly used as a hedge plant. Its leaves are reddish-purple then dark green and finally orange, purple or red in fall. The Hawthorn has a snowy white flower and produces a red fruit that is a fourth of an inch in diameter. The fruit is very attractive to songbirds and are common in Europe for it. The Hawthorn also produces thorns that are very effective for a barrier. It can grow in almost the exact same places that the Red Oak can live in.

Each of these trees will help to lower the pollution that my family and I produce every year. By planting these 50 trees I have helped to lower a harmful air pollutant and a greenhouse gas.

The pictures that I have supplied for evidence were taken a few days after we planted the trees because we forgot our camera when we planted them. I took pictures with the Red Oak and the Huckleberry trees because the Hawthorns were very very wet that day.

We get all our energy from the sun. However, we cannot sit in the sun and get all the glucose/glycogen which we need for our metabolic processes. So we are fortunate in that all the green plants you see with your eyes are working for you and me. Read on for more details.

Figure A. Diagrammatic representation of photosynthesis

All green plants contain a substance called chlorophyll. Plants containing chlorophyll in their leaves and elsewhere can photosynthesize in the presence of sunlight and the following equation will take place at a molecular level.

The overall equation is: 6H2O + 6CO2 ———-> C6H12O6+ 6O2

Equation 1 Photosynthetic equation – discussed in detail below.

Six molecules of water combine with six molecules of carbon dioxide to give one molecule of sugar (carbohydrate) and six molecules of oxygen.

This reaction, photosynthesis, takes place in the green part of the plant called the chloroplast. The chloroplast is located in the leaf. Please see a cross section of the leaf in a standard text book or you can review the diagram below which is obtained from www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty .

The practical relevance of this understanding is that green plants obtain water through their roots and carbon dioxide through their stomata from the immediate environment. Water and carbon dioxide are converted into glucose and oxygen both. Glucose and oxygen keep all the animals on the surface of this earth alive.

In plants, water enters the plant through the root cap of the root. From here it is transported up to the leaves by specialized cells known as xylem. All land plants must guard against drying out and often have specialized stomatal structures for this purpose. Carbon dioxide cannot enter the plant through the waxy leaf. It must enter the leaf through the stomata. Similarly, oxygen produced during photosynthesis must leave the leaf through the stomata.

We all know that chlorophyll is green, when we talk about chlorophyll we generally mean chlorophyll a. There are other types of chlorophylls which are not green. These are called accessory pigments and include chlorophyll b, c, d, and e, xanthophylls and carotenoids such a beta-carotene. Accessory pigments (chlorophylls) absorb energy which is not absorbed by chlorophyll a.

Chlorophyll a absorbs its energy from the intermediate (Green Yellow-Orange) wavelengths.

Figure B. Cross section of a leaf.

In equation 1, above we saw that 6 molecules of water combined with 6 molecules of carbon dioxide to give one molecule of sugar (carbohydrate) and six molecules of oxygen. This reaction takes place in the chloroplast. The chloroplast is a highly specialized cell. The structure of the cell is as given below.

Each chloroplast has a double layered outer envelope. Inside each chloroplast there are numerous thylakoids, this is where starch (carbohydrate) is produced. Few starch granules are seen floating in the chloroplast below.

Figure C. Cross section of a chloroplast.

Adenosine Triphospahate (ATP).

ATP the energy currency or coin of the cell, transfers energy from chemical bonds to energy absorbing reactions within the cell. Structurally,

ATP consists of the adenosine nucleotides, ribose, sugar, adenine base, and phosphate group, PO4-2) plus two other phosphate groups.

Energy is stored in the covalent bond between phosphates, with the greatest amount of energy (approximately 7 kcal/mole) in the bond between the second and third phosphate groups. This covalent bond is known as a pyrophosphate bond.

The chemical reaction for the formation of ATP as:

Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) + inorganic Phosphate + energy produces Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

The chemical formula for release of ATP energy is:

Adenosine Triphosphate produces Adenosine diphosphate + energy + inorganic Phosphate.

TYPES OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS:

Three different types, these are C3, C4, and CAM.

1. C3 photosynthesis is the usual photosynthesis that occurs in most plants.
2. C4 and CAM photosynthesis are both adaptations to dry conditions because these result in more efficient better water usage.
3. CAM plants can “idle,” saving precious energy and water during harsh weather conditions, and C4 plants can photosynthesize faster under the desert’s high heat and light conditions than C3 plants. This occurs because CAM plants use an extra biochemical pathway and special anatomy to reduce photorespiration.

The biochemical structure is as given below. Please not the three phosphate valencies. Adenosine exists as adenosine monophosphate, diphosphate, and trihosphate. ATP has the most amount of energy and is most easily usable. The structures of AMP and ADP can be seen at Cellular Respiration (Metaboism) for Nurses here.

Diagramatic representation of the Chemical Structure of Adenosine monophosphate.

Photophosphorylation is the chemical reaction of making ATP using a Proton gradient which is created by the Energy gathered from sunlight. This process of creating the Proton gradient resembles that of the electron transport chain of respiration. Since the production of this proton gradient is light dependent, hence the process is called photophosphorylation.

Diagram D. Diagrametic representation of Photophosphorylation. From www.whfreeman.com THE BASIC REACTION WHICH GIVES ALL ENERGY TO EVERYTHING ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH.

In photophosphorylation energy is trapped and stored in a form which is ultimately used by all plants and animals of this earth. The process of using up the energy occurs at cellular level and is called respiration.

Respiration: It is defined as the metabolic processes whereby living things obtain energy from organic molecules; processes that take place in the cells and tissues during which energy is released and carbon dioxide is produced and absorbed by the blood to be transported to the lungs.

Another definition of respiration is a single complete act of breathing in and out; often represented in terms of breaths per minute, “eighteen respirations per minute” for human beings. Respiration is covered in more detail in my other publication entitled, “Cellular Respiration (Metabolism) for Nurses” by Shergill here.