Corona or COVID-19 has played havoc in the whole world without sparing any country big or small, in Europe or Asia, in America or Africa, or any other part of the world. Each one of us has got affected in one way or the other. There’s nobody left who remains completely insulated from this pandemic. During the last nine months, we have heard about the importance of oxygen cylinders in the hospitals. How many times we had thought of the importance of oxygen which is freely available in the environment. How many of us displayed concern about the consistently deteriorating condition of the most fragile system of this nature which supports life on this earth. Let’s try to understand this.
All aerobic creatures need oxygen for cellular respiration. In this process, they use oxygen to breakdown foods for energy and produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. Breathing is like a ventilation process through which air is inhaled and exhaled. So, all humans need oxygen to live. For humans and many animals to sustain normal functions, the percentage of oxygen required falls between 19.5% to 23.5% in the air. Inhaled air is by volume 78% is Nitrogen, 20.95% is Oxygen, and small amounts of other miscellaneous gases including argon, carbon dioxide, helium, and hydrogen. The gas we exhale is 5 to 6.3% is water vapor, 13 to 16% is oxygen, 4 to 5.3% carbon dioxide, and 1% is argon along with small parts of hydrogen and some other miscellaneous gases.
The average adult while resting inhales and exhales 7 to 8 litres (one-fourth of cubic feet) of air per minute. That amounts to 11000 litres of air (388 cubic feet) per day. Out of this inhaled air, approximately 20% is oxygen. Exhaled air is about 15% of oxygen. So, a person requires 550 litres (19 cubic feet of pure oxygen) every day. A person who exercises uses a lot more oxygen in comparison to a normal person. On an average we inhale this oxygen through 20000 breathes per day. Breathing is the body’s most important function. Breathing in oxygen is crucial to helping defend the immune system. When we breathe oxygen in, our body creates what’s known as superoxide, helping to fight
against bacteria and viruses in the body. The cells in our brain are incredibly sensitive and rely on oxygen. Our brain uses 20% of the oxygen we breathe because it is processing everything that happens within the body. While the diaphragm is the main breathing muscle, the muscles surrounding the ribs, abdomen, neck, and shoulders support the whole process of breathing.
The right amount of oxygen starts at sea level. With the increase in altitude, the atmospheric pressure starts getting lower. The more the height, the lower is the atmospheric pressure. The reason is while the ratio of oxygen remains the same, but the percentage decreases, because of fewer molecules available in the same space. That’s why people experience nausea, headache, and fatigue at higher altitudes. We can call it ALTITUDE SICKNESS. The air we breathe normally contains 21% oxygen. Serious side effects start occurring if the oxygen level starts dropping outside the safe zone. When oxygen concentration drop between 19.5 to 16%, and you are engaged in physical
activities, your cells fail to receive the amount of oxygen needed to function correctly. At 12 to 16% oxygen level the breathing and pulse rate increases and muscular coordination is disturbed. Mental functions become impaired at this level. Humans will not survive if the oxygen level falls to 6% or lower.
Two major components in the environment play a crucial role in life to remain in existence. They are oxygen and carbon dioxide. Any slight change in their presence in the atmosphere will adversely affect the living organisms. So, the tree’s role becomes extremely important in the whole ecosystem. It is only the trees who plays a vital role in keeping the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in this atmosphere intact by absorbing CO2 and emitting oxygen in a continuous and constant process. Scientists believe that increasing carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid catastrophic climatic impacts and have also warned that technological solutions will not work on the vast scale needed for this. The most effective way of restoration is only tree plantation on a large scale. Effective tree plantation could take place across the globe. The world’s six biggest nations, Russia, Canada, China, the US, Brazil, and Australia contain half the potential restoration sites.
In daylight, plants take water, sunlight, and co2 from their atmosphere and generate oxygen in return. The whole process is called photosynthesis. Sunlight is an essential element for photosynthesis. With this process, almost all the trees produce oxygen and absorb CO2 in the daytime only. But there are some plants with exceptional merits. These are the plants that perform photosynthesis at night as well. This kind of photosynthesis is distinguished as Crassulacean Acid Metabolism or CAM. They open their stomata and use the CO2 and store them in the form of malate. Later they breakdown this malate to produce sugar in photosynthesis. But the oxygen theyproduce at the night is much less than the oxygen produced by photosynthesis in the daylight.
The amount of oxygen produced by a tree depends on several factors including its species, age, health, and surroundings. A tree produces a different amount of oxygen in summer compared to winters. So, there’s no definitive value we can establish. There are 60000 species of trees in the world. Beeman Bamboo is the most oxygen-producing plant. It can produce 62 tonnes of oxygen per acre per year and also absorbs 88 tonnes of co2 per acre per year. This is the only plant that survived the radiation of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. Then comes Peepal, Banyan or Bargad, Neem, Ashok, Arjan, Indian Bael, Curry Patta, etc.
A mature Peepal tree produces as much oxygen which can help 10 people to meet their
requirements of oxygen for a year. But it can’t be the benchmark for every tree. On average, one tree produces 260 pounds of oxygen each year. One acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people to adequately breathe for an year. Side by side one acre of trees consumes the amount of co2 equivalent to that produced by driving an average car for 26000 miles or 41834 km. Directly or indirectly, we all depend on trees to sustain our lives. Had there been no trees, human life would have been extinct by now. We can boast of our technological developments. But how many of us are concerned about trees who are so essential a part of our lives to exist on this planet earth. Let’s all thank and embrace TREES for keeping us alive.
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