Plant life affects our own life in many different ways – from the cotton clothes we wear,
to the fruit we eat, the air we breathe, to the flowers we give as romantic gifts to our
significant others.
Green life matters from the very bottom of the food-chain to the very top.
Plants also dictate Earth’s climate and the habitats we live in.
Can you imagine a life without plants?
Is such a thing possible?
And what kind of disaster could turn the world into a barren dark desert void of plant life?
Would the world still keep turning without plants?
Can we live without them?
Join us in this plant life apocalypse as we consider what might happen if all plant-life
suddenly disappeared, in today’s Infographics Show- What if all the plants in the world
Died?
First, what could cause such an event?
Well, let’s say the sun plunged away from earth and the planet was shrouded in darkness.
In this case plants would not be able to live.
Being starved of their light energy source they would no longer grow and reproduce.
On the other hand - if the Earth suddenly heated up dramatically plants would also suffer
being unable to function and grow under intense heat.
So in cases of lack of light or intense heat plant life would quickly go extinct.
And what would that mean - a world without plants.
What would happen?
Well, the earth would become a much quieter place as all living creatures need plants
for food and most living things would become extinct without plants existing at the bottom
of the food chain.
Would everything on earth die if plants disappeared?
Experts have some different views on just what would happen, but the general consensus
is that we’d all die eventually.
Let’s look at oxygen.
We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
The air around us contains around 21 percent oxygen and .04% carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide becomes dangerous at around 1 percent of the air mass.
As we all know, plants produce oxygen via a process called photosynthesis.
Most of us remember learning at school that photosynthesis converts light energy to chemical
energy and it is this process that plants use to grow.
Once this process stops most plants would die swiftly, although some plant matter might
hold out longer depending on how much sugar they had stored.
Larger trees, for example, would be able to last longer than a smaller shrub.
But once the process of photosynthesis stops - plant life will ultimately die.
And here’s the kicker.
Once photosynthesis stops the population of animals would face a serious problem – a
fast depleting food source would occur almost overnight.
Lack of oxygen would at first glance seem to pose a serious threat but in reality it
isn’t the lack of oxygen from plants that would cause the initial threat to all life
if plants were to kick the bucket.
According to NASA calculations the average human being requires 840 grams of oxygen per
day.
The Earth’s atmosphere holds around 1000 billion tonnes of oxygen and the total world
population is 7.5 billion meaning that we would last another 370 years based on current
reserves.
Animal life would also require oxygen, but with plant life dying animal life would be
swift to follow.
Death by lack of oxygen is not what will actually kill us in this worldwide plant death as the
atmosphere alone holds enough oxygen to sustain life on the planet for years.
But there’s also oxygen in the ground and inside ice.
Scientists estimate that the oxygen atmospheric content would be exhausted after 52,535 years
if the population of animals remained constant.
So the lack of oxygen would not be the major problem.
Instead the main concern will be the devastation of all our food webs.
Once the green plants are gone each and every animal that feeds on the green stuff will
also die.
Herbivores would die from starvation in a few weeks.
That would mean most of our domestic farm animals reared for human consumption would
disappear if we humans didn’t have adequate supplies of food to feed them.
We would have to make a decision to either feed our live-stock or feed ourselves.
If some seeds and fruits remained in the trees birds would last a little longer but they
would be fair game to the humans looking for an easy meal.
Carrion eaters such as vultures, crows, and hyenas would have one almighty feast before
also slipping out of the eco-system.
Carnivores would have to eat each other as they naturally do and again we’d have a
feeding frenzy on our hands.
By the calculations of Nick Canning of Coraline, the time for the animal population to die
out would be 13.75 years, meaning life on earth would collapse during most of our life-times.
Humans, being top of the food chain, will ultimately suffer too, but would probably
be the last of the Earth mammal species to expire.
People in developed nations would be likely the first to die as they don’t live off
the land and would have to rely on stored resources.
People in the developing nations will get to survive on their crop reserves for a limited
period of time.
But what would happen to the conditions on Earth?
For starters it would become a much hotter place to live, without plant life levels of
greenhouse gases would increase and temperatures would rise.
The water cycle would be affected.
Plants take in rain and snowfall, and release moisture back into the atmosphere.
Precipitation patterns would change dramatically.
Without plants to hold soil to the land, the soil would be washed away into the sea leaving
much of the planet resembling a hot barren muddy dessert.
Following a few months the only edible food left would be fungi living on dead vegetation.
It would become one giant mushroom hunt for those remaining survivors.
These fungi could provide humans with food but mushrooms lack essential vitamins such
as vitamin C and eventually fungi would also disappear as the dead matter from which they
feed erodes away.
Once at this stage humans would probably be the only mammals left on the planet owing
to our food storing habits.
Rodents may also co-exist if they have access to human food stores.
So we may have a world where humans become rodent eaters and perhaps even turn to cannibalism
in an attempt to survive.
But maybe things could be better at sea.
What about the ocean?
If only green plants disappeared there may exist in the ocean microscopic algae, bacteria
and phytoplankton.
These aquatic plants are right at the bottom of the food chain and may be our saviors.
So, in theory life could remain and evolve in the oceans.
But as a human food source, fish, crustaceans, and other aquatic sea-life would only support
a small fraction of the human population.
Humans killing each other in a fight for the resources that remain in the sea is a real
possibility.
But there could be chance for those hardy survivors to find a new way of life using
the resources of the ocean.
Water could be used as means to create oxygen using electrolysis to split water molecules
into oxygen and hydrogen with the oxygen released into the atmosphere to breath and hydrogen
used for the chemosynthesis of food.
That would mean the potential oxygen crisis and the food shortage epidemic could be solved
for those few who survive the plant death epidemic.
So what do you think will happen in a world without plants?
Could we survive?
Let us know in the comments section.
Also, be sure to watch our other video called.Vegans vs Meat Eaters, Who will live longer?
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