Subject: Re: What if plants......

From: [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
Date: 23 Mar 1995 10:53:20 -0000

Josh Harman ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi, I am conducting a bio survey.
: 	What are your thoughts on the following situation

: It is sometime in the future and humans can now produce their own food 
: and oxygen and plants are no longer nessasary, what do you think the 
: world would be like.  Any comments would be helpful.

Ever seen the film "Silent Running" ??

.... the last remnants of earth's plant life have been taken into orbit
aboard the 'Valley Forge' away from terrible pollution on the planet in
the hope that it can be preseved and used to reclaim earth's devastated
ecosystem but vested (ie. industrial) interests plot to destroy it ...

Other thoughts:

If, as I do, you subscribe to the 'Gaia' Philosophy then the planet
would by dying.  Indeed, apart from human life, the planet would revert
to it's primordial state before the evolution of photosynthetic (ie.
oxygen producing) microorganisms.

I don't believe human life would be sustainable under those conditions
and, as the human population declined, I believe the planet would
evolve as it has before into a stable ecosystem.  The primordial
atmosphere would make the worst pollution we can imagine seem harmless
and yet the emergence of green plants changed all that.  I'm quite sure
that Gaia would survive, but I'm not certain we would ...

Even if we did, there are aspects of human psycology that depend upon
existing in a 'natural' world.  Human colour perception is attuned to
the change of light at sunrise and sunset, and to the seasonal
variation in the colours of leaves.  Colours are seldom what they seem
because, as Land discovered, we have evolved to perceive colour in the
context of natural changes in the quality of light during the day and
throughout the year.

I imagine that very few humans are insensitive to the beauty of a
forest as the leaves change colour in the Autumn, or to the new life
that emerges in spring.  Understanding how all that happens is what
botany is all about to me ... observing the beauty of nature.

	Tony.
--
Dr. A.J.Travis,                       |  JANET: <[email-masked]>
Rowett Research Institute,            |  other: <[email-masked]>
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,            |  phone: +44 (0)224 712751
Aberdeen, AB2 9SB. UK.                |    fax: +44 (0)224 716687

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
Date: 23 Mar 1995 10:53:20 -0000

Other thoughts:

	Tony.

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From: [email-masked] (B.J. de la Cruz)
Date: 24 Mar 95 16:54:26 GMT

>Ever seen the film "Silent Running" ??
{stuff deleted}

This may be a tangent, but here is the listing for a book I read
last year which I enjoyed and found helpful.  Although it describes
changes more at an astronomical level (as the title suggests B-)
perhaps another book of a similar theme may help.

Following is the University of California MELVYL listing:
Comins, Neil F., 1951-
What if the moon didn't exist : voyages to earths that might have been /
Neil F. Comins.  1st ed.  New York, NY : HarperCollins, c1993.
        UCLA  College   QB 502 C77 1993
        UCSC  Science   QB502.C77 1993
        UCSD  Undergrad QB502 .C77 1993
        CAS   M.P.      QB502 .C77 1993

Bernard J. de la Cruz              All opinions are my own and do not
UCSD Graduate Biology, 0348	   necessarily represent those of UCSD
La Jolla, CA 92093-0348            or UCSD Dept of Biology.
Email: [email-masked]    ----------------------------------