During the course of its life, a hundred-year- old tree:
a) Has processed and fixed the amount of carbon-dioxide
contained in 18 million cubic metres of natural air in the form of about 2500
kg of pure carbon (C).
b) Has photo-chemically converted 9,100 kg of CO and 3,700 litres of
H2O.
c) Has stored up circa 23 million kilogram-calories (a calorific value
equivalent to 3,500 kg of hard pit coal).
d) Has made available for the respiration of human and beast 6,600 kg
of molecular oxygen (O2).
e) Against the forces of gravity, has drawn from its roots right up to
its crown and evaporated into the atmosphere at least 2,500 tonnes of water,
every tree is therefore a water-column and if such a column, which continually
supplies and recharges the atmosphere with water, is cut down, then this amount
of water is lost.
f) Thereby fixing a mechanical equivalent of heat equal to the
calorific value of 2,500 kg of coal.
g) Has supplied a member of the consumer society with oxygen sufficient
for 20 years, and its nature is such, that the larger it grows, the more oxygen
it produces.
In view of such achievements, who in the future could value this tree merely
for its timber?
The combustion of 100 litres of petrol consumes about 230 kg of oxygen. That
is, after a trip of barely 30,000 km (18,640 miles) (96 lit/1000 km), this
tree's entire 100 year production of oxygen has been squandered.
Driving an average size car 30,000 km (18,640 miles) = 100 years of oxygen
production.
If a person chooses to breathe for three years, to burn 400 lit of petrol or
heating oil, or 400 kg of coal, then the production through photosynthesis of 1
tonne of oxygen is required.
1 tonne of O2 = the O2 content of 3,620 m3 of air (+ 15°C at 1atm)
The photosynthetic production of 1 tonne of oxygen necessitates:
a) The building up of 0.935 tonnes C6H12O6 (carbohydrate) ,
b) which process requires 1.37 tonnes CO2 (carbon-dioxide) and 0.56 tonnes
H2O (water)
c) The transpiration of 230 to 930 tonnes H2O
d) Light energy equal to 527 x 106 quanta (v = 440 X 101Z) which represents
3.52 million kilocalories.
All this is no small achievement for a single organism!
[Source: Walter Schauberger, son of Viktor Schauberger]
[Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958) was a pioneer of the study of the subtle
energies in nature and the importance of living water in all natural processes.
Far ahead of his time and from his unusually detailed observations of the
natural world, Schauberger pioneered a completely new understanding of how
nature works. He foresaw, and tried to warn against, the global waste and
costly ecological destruction of our age.]
---------------------------------
Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car
Finder tool.
