• Question: how would we breathe if there was no trees?

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      Asked by Pandas are soft to Angus, Catherine, Jenni, Melissa, Waqar on 16 Jun 2016.
      • Photo: Angus Cook

        Angus Cook answered on 16 Jun 2016:

        It’d certainly be difficult. We need to breathe oxygen for our bodies to work. We take in oxygen and create carbon dioxide as a waste product. Usefully trees (and plants in general) can breathe carbon dioxide, and produce oxygen as a waste product.

        If there were SUDDENLY no trees then we’d have to find a way to produce oxygen ourselves. The way that comes to mind is probably by splitting water up into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen. The problem with this is that it would take a lot of power to do, certainly to provide enough oxygen for the whole world.
        We might also be able to grow some microbes or algae that we could use to generate oxygen from carbon dioxide, basically doing the same thing that the trees and plants were doing.

        The trees currently do it for free though, which is far more preferable than having to buy a tank of air for your house, like you have to buy petrol or electricity.

      • Photo: Jenni Rodd

        Jenni Rodd answered on 16 Jun 2016:

        I agree with Angus. We’d probably have to use breathing equipment like deep sea divers or astronauts use to give us air. It would be expensive and uncomfortable.

      • Photo: Melissa Ladyman

        Melissa Ladyman answered on 16 Jun 2016:

        Great answer from Angus!

        In one of my lessons I talk about all the ‘free’ things the environment does for us like trees producing oxygen, and how tiny microbes help to make soil for us to grow food. The water in the oceans helps to get rid of carbon dioxide, and animals and insects pollinate our plants to help them grow! Without the environment it would be much harder to live the way we do.

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