Life makes Life

Awhile back I read a fascinating book called Becoming Earth. Conventional wisdom has it that our planet evolved through geological means until it was suitable for life. The theory presented in this book is that it was life itself that brought about the geological changes needed for life to thrive and evolve. For example before our atmosphere contained enough oxygen for air breathing life to evolve, more primitive life forms evolved to add oxygen to the atmosphere.

Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into the cosmic oasis we call home. Life breathed oxygen into the atmosphere, dyed the sky blue, concocted the modern oceans, and converted barren crust into fertile soil.

It's a fascinating book and I encourage everyone to read it.

Now comes news of a recent discovery that certain fungi, using DNA that they appropriated from bacteria, can seed clouds and create rain. Basically the soil itself influencing the sky to send it some rain.

Many years ago while walking through a Redwood forest in central California I had an illuminating experience I will never forget. It was drizzling rain. The ground was covered with moss and ferns and all the kinds of things that only grow and a cool wet environment. But then I came to a clearing and walked out into the dry sunshine. It was a clear day, not a cloud in the sky. Looking back at the forest I could see that it was holding in it's own fog like moisture layer. A few years later I moved to the Oregon Coast where I witnessed huge swaths of clearcuts. I could see the rain clouds coming in from the ocean would pass right over the clearcuts until they hit a standing forest which slowed them down so they could dump their rain. Years before climate change was a well understood phenomenon I could see how clearcut logging was upsetting the coastal environment.

Planet Earth is one big interconnected organism. Our survival as a species depends on our ability to understand and work with the natural systems that makes life possible.

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#Nature

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Leaflet

                         Bluesky