HOW DO WE LIVE AND GROW? 15 



called chloroplasts. These contain the green chlorophyll if sunlight, 

 natural or artificial, reaches the cells. (In rare cases already existing 

 sugars may be substituted for direct sunlight). Interfere with the 

 energy supply and the chlorophyll decreases rapidly. Covered sprouts 

 are white. So are the hidden leaves of cabbages, the banked lower 

 stems of celery, the inside leaves of head lettuce no sunlight, no 

 chlorophyll. 



The chlorophyll acts as a catalyst, a promoter of chemical action. 

 It enables the cell to take carbon dioxide (C0 2 ) from the air, and 

 water (H 2 0) from the soil, split their molecules, and recombine the 

 atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen into sugar, (e.g., CcH^Oc). 1 

 Some oxygen is left over and this is returned to the air, fortunately 

 for us animals. In this process of photosynthesis, the chlorophyll is 

 not consumed. It continues to repeat the same job, as the sugars are 

 carried away to other parts of the plant and new supplies of air and 

 water are admitted to the green manufacturing cells. 



What is the significance of this operation ? According to Darling, 2 

 "Chlorophyll . . . plus sunshine has laid down all the topsoil, all the 

 coal, all the oil, and every organic living thing on which mankind has 

 subsisted and must subsist forever. . . Without countless centuries of 

 chlorophyll and sunshine cooperation we could have no food, 110 fire, 

 no crops, no life, nothing. When we inherited this continent we fell 

 heir to a hundred-million years of cumulative transformation of raw 

 volcanic rock to rich loam, grassy plains, primeval forests, a myriad 

 population of fur-bearing animals and waters teeming with fish and 

 other aquatic life all the product of the chlorophyll factory. Don't 

 forget that when this rich endowment is gone its only replenishment 

 must come through that same small bottleneck of chlorophyll plus sun- 

 shine. - "v~ '.'! 



"Can any thoughtful person say that with 80% of our forests al- 

 ready cut down, 75% of our grasslands grazed to a stubble, and mil- 

 lions of acres of underbrush cleared from our hillsides that we have 

 not constricted the bottleneck instead of enlarging it?" 3 



Anyone with a little practice can learn to judge the power poten- 

 tial of a landscape by evaluating the amount of photosynthesis going 

 on there. The more and richer green you can see, the more fuel is 

 being stored. It will be used by both plant and animal life, including 

 man. Of course, we must be familiar with a really fertile countryside 



iWhat happens is that six molecules of carbon dioxide (6C0 2 ) unite, through 

 the influence of active chlorophyll, with six molecules of water (6H 2 O). In these 

 12 molecules, there are 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms, and 18 oxygen atoms. 

 When the sugar is formed (C 6 H 15 ,O fi ), there are 12 oxygen atoms left over. 

 The chemical equation is expressed in this manner: 6C0 2 -)- 6H 2 O C r H 12 O fi 



4- 60 2 . 



2 Darling, J. N., Poverty or Conservation, National Wildlife Federation, Wash- 

 ington, D. C., 1944, p. 11. 



3 Of course it must be realized that Mr. Darling is an artist (as well as a 

 biologist) whose powerful editorial cartoon effects are found in his writings. He 

 uses a broad pen. and makes free use of artistic liberties. We cannot tie him down 

 to complete accuracy of detail, but his protest is basically sound. 



