If humans do not slow down the destruction of plant life, human civilization could be threatened with extinction. This was stated by Associate Professor at the University of Georgia John Schramski in his scientific article, which was published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“You can think of Earth as a battery that discharges very slowly over billions of years,” says the researcher. "Solar energy is stored in plants and fossil fuels, but people are depleting it much faster than it can be replenished."
According to him, the Earth was once a desert landscape devoid of life, and then billions of years ago, the simplest organisms evolved and developed the ability to transform sunlight into energy.
This ultimately led to a huge explosion in animal and plant biodiversity, resulting in the Earth being filled with lush forests and extremely diverse ecosystems.
The scientist's calculations were based on the fundamental principles of thermodynamics - a field of physics related to the relationship between heat and mechanical energy. Chemical energy is stored in plants and microorganisms, that is, in biomass, which is used for food and fuel, but is destroyed by people to make way for agriculture and rapidly expanding cities.
Scientists have calculated that the Earth contained approximately 1,000 billion tons of carbon in living biomass 2,000 years ago. Since then, people have cut this figure by almost half. It is believed that over 10% of this biomass has been destroyed over the past century.
“If we do not reverse this disastrous trend, we will eventually find ourselves at the point where the battery will be discharged to the point where the Earth can no longer support us,” said Shramsky.
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In the course of his work, the scientist collaborated with biologist James H. Brown from the University of New Mexico and David Gattie from the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia. Together, the researchers concluded that the vast majority of losses were the result of deforestation, which increased with the advent of large-scale mechanized agriculture.
The situation is exacerbated by the need to feed a constantly and rapidly growing population. The more biomass is destroyed, the less energy remains on the planet, which is spent on maintaining the Earth's complex food webs and biogeochemical balances.
If people do not die out, and the amount of biomass falls below a stable threshold, the human population will begin to decline sharply, and people will be forced to return to the life of hunter-gatherers or simple gardeners.
“The goal of my scientific work was not ardent protection of the environment, but the study of thermodynamics, - emphasizes Schramsky. - Its laws are absolute and irrefutable, and we have a limited amount of biomass energy on the planet. After this supply is depleted, absolutely nothing can replace it."
Shramsky and his colleagues hope that the recognition of the importance of biomass, efforts to conserve it, and the growing popularity of renewable energy will slow the fast track into an uncertain future, but the steps needed to stop this process must be radical.