Life’s Amazing Carbon Cycle

Dear Friends,

Carbon is an amazing atom! It spends millions of years moving through the earth in a complex cycle. It is the atom of life—organic chemistry is carbon chemistry. Living organisms depend on the carbon cycle, and a healthy carbon cycle depends on living organisms. As I stated last week, the massive loss of species in the last four decades has caused a serious disruption in the carbon cycle. This must be corrected now because we are already starting to cycle towards the world’s sixth mass existion.

The carbon cycle can be thought of as the flow of the energy of life. The flow of energy is synonymous with the flow of food—life is one big feeding cycle. The Sun is the first food for life, and the first life to consume the Sun’s energy is the cyanobacteria, protists, algie and the terrestrial plants. These life forms make up the base of the food chain—the primary producers.

The Greek word trophic (defined as referring to food or feeding) is used to describe the feeding process of life. Autotrophs are the organisms that support all other trophic levels, either directly or indirectly, by synthesizing sugars and other organic molecules, using light energy and inorganic minerals derived from the air, land, or sea. They form the base or the beginning of the food chain. The number of steps an organism is from the base of the chain is the measure of its tropic level.

The autotrophs are the primary producers. The primary consumers are the herbivores that consume primary producers. Terrestrial insects, snails, grazing mammals, seed-eating birds, aquatic zooplankton, and certain kinds of fish are examples of herbivores. Secondary consumers are the carnivores that eat herbivores such as lions, sea stars, many species of fish, and insect eating birds. Tertiary consumers are the carnivores that eat other carnivores. Finally, we have the detritivores. These are the consumers that derive energy from organic wastes and dead organisms, converting organic molecules of carbon and other minerals back into inorganic mineral forms. The detritivores are life forms such as bacteria, fungi, and also scavengers such as cockroaches and bald eagles.

Carbon is the basic buiding block of life. Carbon atoms are found everywhere on earth. They make up the earth plants and animals, stored in the ocean (the carbon sink), the atmosphere, and the crust of the earth. As Fritjof Capra says in his book, The Web of Life,

We tend to believe that plants grow out of the soil, but in fact most of their substance comes from the air. The bulk of the cellulose and the other organic compounds produced through photosynthesis consists of heavy carbon and oxygen atoms, which plants take directly from the air in the form of CO2. Thus the weight of a wooden log comes almost entirely from the air. When we burn a log in a fireplace, oxygen and carbon combine once more into CO2, and in the light and heat of the fire we recover part of the solar energy that went into making the wood. (page 178)

A multiplicity of life forms is manditory to keep the carbon cycle healthy for life. All life forms depend on all other life forms. Because of the rapid loss of species to extinction over the last several hundred years, our systematic destruction of forests, and the burning of fossil fuels, the carbon cycle is out of balance as CO2 levels have climbed by over 30% in the atmosphere. The earth has not experienced CO2 levels this high for several million years.

In our Forward Thinking, February 3rd, 2010, I introduced you to Dr. Peter Ward, PhD Astrobiologist and Paleoentologist, whose thesis is that when the CO2 levels reach 1000 ppm there will be no ice left on the planet, sea levels will rise by two-hundred and fifty feet, toxic bacteria will dominate, ensuing a mass extinction of most of all higher species—the earth’s sixth mass extinction. The CO2 levels are now at 350 ppm and rising. Unless we do something to restore the carbon cycle to function in our favor, we will reach the 1000ppm level in about a 100 years. We have our work cut out for us!

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Increasingly, it is recognized by mainstream medicine that what we eat is extremely relevant as to our possibility of developing cancer in our life. If a diet is highly skewed towards the consumption of cancer promoters then one is at a higher risk. The beauty of the Therapeutic Foods Line is the power of life it embodies—a live anti-promoter. The Wild Blueberry Daily and Wild Blueberry Extract block the initiation, promotion, and progression stages of cancer. The Cruciferous Sprouts Complex augments the body’s Antioxidant Defense System—a crucial defense system against cancer developing. The Organic Chlorella alkalinizes our tissues, highly important for cancer prevention. And, all of our seven Synbiotic Formulas work towards the prevention of cancer by detoxifying carcinogens and creating metabolites such as butyric acid—well established for its anti-promoter activity.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This beautiful, skilled female lion is zeroing in on her family’s next meal. All of the pride’s lionesses are related, and female cubs typically stay with the group as they age. Females are the pride’s primary hunters, working together to prey upon antelopes, zebras, wildebessts, and large grassland animals. Lions love warthogs for dinner but they are far from an easy meal. A full grown male warthog can easily kill a lion. Here in this clip you will see lion versus warthog.

The Food Revolution lands in LA. Have you tuned into Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution? If not you are in for an important treat. If so, you know what I am talking about. As Jamie says, This food revolution is about saving America’s health by changing the way you eat. It’s not just a TV show, it’s a movement for you, your family and your community. Take a second, click on the link and watch the video.