We Love Microorganisms
People that work with microorganisms tend to develop a great appreciation for their contribution to the planet and their diverse beauty. They represent the largest mass of organisms on earth, providing us with the primary element of our food chain. They heat our homes; they provide us with the air we breathe.
Most scientists believe algae and cyanobacteria were the proto-organisms when the earth was devoid of oxygen. At that time, the atmosphere consisted mostly of carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide; it was bombarded with ultraviolet light. These microorganisms consumed the toxic gasses and expelled oxygen and hydrogen. Even today, microalgae and cyanobacteria are responsible for the majority of the organic carbon exchange in our atmosphere.
The ancestors of these organisms, accumulated over billions of years and were deposited or “locked” as carbon on river beds and ocean bottoms that we now mine as coal; take from the sea beds with oil rigs. When we burn these deposits the carbon binds with oxygen and becomes carbon dioxide.
There is irony, beauty and logic in the transition from away from the unlocking of carbon and the migration to the living, renewable energy that consumes carbon dioxide We are growing organic sources of fuel and food that allow the balance of carbon to provide we humans, as a delicate and vulnerable species, with a future.
