CHAPTER II 

 HOW DO WE LIVE AND GROW? 



The Powerhouse of Life. Most of the ancients were nature wor- 

 shipers. Very reasonably, many of them worshiped the sun as the 

 fountainhead of life. Not that it did them any good but they had a 

 sound idea, the same one that we examined back in high school science 

 courses. From the sun comes the power which activates the life pro- 

 cesses of plants, and indirectly of animals. This same powerline of 

 sunlight activates the water cycle, bringing back again and again the 

 moisture by which all living cells function. 



Since this sunlight does not reach us at all times because of night, 

 clouds, fog, smoke and rarer reasons, it is fortunate that nature pro- 

 vides means of storing it. Thus life can proceed for a time with the 

 powerline short-circuited, much as an auto can operate for a time on 

 the battery, even if the generator fails. Storage of sun power is found 

 in water, deposited at high points. Such water, on its way to lower 

 levels, releases sun power. Sun power also is stored in plants in the 

 form of carbohydrates, fats, and in proteins. It is released by oxida- 

 tion, as when it is burned as firewood, or eaten by an animal and 

 transformed into muscular energy. This energy may reappear, for 

 example, as sound produced by vocal apparatus. The screech of a 

 bob-cat is powered by sunlight. 



This sun power as stored in plants may be millions of years old. 

 When coal is burned this archaic sun energy is liberated as heat. You 

 may perhaps warm your shins with the regurgitated breakfast of a 

 dinosaur, embalmed in the earth by an overburden of silt and sand, 

 changed by pressure and its heat from carbohydrate into hydrocarbon. 



Natural gas and petroleum are hydrocarbons, and are stored sun- 

 light. Whether they are derived from prehistoric plants or from the 

 bodies of animals, or both, is irrelevant here. In either case, since 

 animals are made principally of plant substances, the sun's heat is the 

 thing which has been preserved and which we can use. 



These three mineral forms of sun energy are of course fixed in 

 amount. If any are now being formed, the process is so slow that it 

 can have no possible meaning to our present culture. There is con- 

 siderable controversy as to how long the oil and gas of the United 

 States will last. The most pessimistic estimates give liquid petroleum 

 a life of a decade or two. Then we must use oil-bearing surface sands 

 and shales, which must be mined and distilled. This will probably 

 boost the cost and reduce consumption. Natural gas can be changed 

 into gasoline and oil, but it too is limited. Coal is more plentiful, and 



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