Explain the importance of plants to people and animals?

Answer 1

This is not all inclusive but just a small part that plants do for the planet.


The big hype today is global warming and what is going to be done about it. Many folks say that modern humans have fully populated the planet and are spilling green house gasses into the air faster than the planet can eliminate them. Others say that volcanoes do more harm. It is a big political hot potato. The Earth does go through cycles of warming and cooling that are far wider than the twelve month seasons and most scientists and politicians agree on that, more or less. There is one fact that is becoming much clearer every day. The Earth is in fact getting warmer and only a fool would say otherwise. With temperatures on the rise what will happen to life?

Life as we know it on planet Earth was created to be the way we see it today. The Bible keeps it very simple for us to understand, God created it. Science has opened a little of it up and is exploring a number of aspect of it. Now, with the help of scientific research, we know there is a lot to divine creativity. The first thing to understand is that God made time for us and His scale of time has nothing to do with human kind’s scale of time. All I know is that if anyone has a problem with the difference they had better start keeping the Sabbath instead of going to Church on Sunday. God used the forces of nature to test life every step of the way. He did this to eliminate the weaker life so that their genes would not contaminate the future of life. So, if you look at the way God does things, you can see that after a span of time, let’s just say about eternity, life would be perfected and therefore holy and worthy to be in God’s presents. There are probably as many ways to test life as there are numbers of life forms. First there were plants on the planet which nature took care of to ensure they continued to increase in numbers. Later as the light that shown on the planet set to a rhythm of night and day and the seasons began to cycle the first of the critters were born. As each creature lived on Earth, the environment changed to kill the weaker critters and cause the stronger ones to continue to be fruitful and multiply as God had commanded them to do. Along came land animals and then eventually man, all with the same command from God and a whole battery of tests. There is no way I can list all of the tests that life had to go through and some of the tests happen over such a span of time we would not even recognize it as a test. Some of the tests include ice age, hot climate, earth quakes, volcanoes, not enough oxygen, too much oxygen, meteorites, flood, famine, starvation, disease, and war. Some tests may take generations for the results to come about and may be the explanation of some of the mystery illnesses we see today. Life has gone through a lot. If something in ancient history were just a little different, the looks of life today would be a whole world different. For example, if a meteorite had not hit the planet when it did, humans would not be here to chop down all the trees to plant low crops.

The planet does an awesome job maintaining its climate. The tropical regions of the world without plants would be the hottest deserts on the planet due to no winters as they receive the most direct sunlight year round. By the same token, with no plants the poles would have more extreme cold in the winter thus even in the summer the ice would not melt and the temperature would still be extremely cold. Because of the greater difference of temperature there would be a much more violent energy release in the form of weather. I will not go into detail other than to say that what weather you know today would be a lot more severe under those circumstances. Earth uses plants to maintain a stable environment. In the tropical regions, there are high trees along with the most diverse natural vegetation on the planet. The vegetation is so thick that very little of the sun’s rays can get all the way to the ground. The leaves, of the vegetation, absorb the sun’s energy and store it in the form of sugar, starch and fat. Because of this the rain forests are much cooler than the region would be as plain land. Unfortunately, for everyone living on the planet, the people in these tropical regions are chopping down the forests to make room to grow crops. They are a poor people and are reliant upon farming for survival, again one of the tests of life. Because cocaine is illegal in many parts of the world, the price for those crops is at a premium and they will get the most return for their effort growing the coca plants. (Do not lecture me on the farmer not getting much and most of the money is made by the drug lords. They are simple people who find it still easier to exist without the floggings and killings for those political gains. Now let us get back on the subject.) In order to save the planet, we must forget about trying to control drug abuse. The fight is costing too much money from tax payers and drug abusers (They still have to support families and they will appropriate from others to support their habit.) and it is costing too much in lives of innocent farm families in the tropics as well as police and innocent people in cocaine laden neighborhoods and it is costing too much to the environment in the fuel expended in enforcement at all levels and the enormous toll taken on the rain forests which will take generations to recover. There is a bid to fix global warming that is going to go down in history as one of the biggest debacles and fabrications of the twenty first century.

Alcohol to replace gasoline is probably the worst idea anyone could have come up with as a solution to fix global warming and to solve the energy crises. Alcohol, like money, does not grow on trees. It is very hard to get. It occurs in nature, but not on the scale that is needed to replace or even supplement gasoline. To make enough alcohol, several things must happen. The most productive way to get alcohol is from corn. Corn must be planted; therefore, environmentally friendly trees must be removed. Have you ever stood in the middle of a corn field and then go stand in the woods? You can tell the difference with your eyes closed. The corn must be harvested with machines that burn fuels. The corn is then processed to make the corn squeezings that is going to replace the gasoline. All of these processes require large land use, more factories, and more energy. Wouldn’t it make more since to use the oil that is already here in the ground for energy? And, in the mean time, look for real alternative energy solutions rather than jumping on the first thing any quack politician says is a good idea. We should look up for our energy solutions.

Has anybody thought about looking at the plentiful vegetation of the rainforest for some of the solutions we are looking for? Remember how the sun light is absorbed by the leaves of the vegetation? Have you ever seen a magnolia tree catch fire? It burns like it is gasoline. And that is without refinement. Imagine if we could harvest parts of trees that are hundreds of years old without cutting them down for our energy needs. Several things can happen. Farmers will be able to live and work in the rain forests again and they will be the suppliers of the new alternative fuels. The rainforest would grow back giving Earth the tools she needs in the tropics to regulate her environment. The forests of other parts of the world can grow back or continue to grow to give our overall environment what is needed to support life in these trying times of tests.

Answer 2

umm, are you really asking this? Plants are the reason any organism on this planet is alive right now. They create air for everything to breath, they are food sources to more than half the creatures on this planet, they hold the land together so that its not all oceans. What don't plants do for people or animals?!

Answer 3

Photosynthesis produces glucose for plants which is then converted into energy during cellular respiration. The byproducts of photosynthesis are 6 oxygen gas molecules, which animals use to breath and for cellular respiration to produce energy. Animals and humans cannot make their own food like plants can during photosythensis. Without photosynthesis, life as we know it stops.

Answer 4

plants produce oxygen, which are the most important substance for us humans, and animals to live. Plants also serve as food for animals and humans. the oxygen that plants produce, contribute to the earth's atmosphere that serves as protection against harmful agents outside the earth.

Answer 5

i have been surfing the internet more than two hours today seeking the answers to the same question, yet I haven't found a more interesting debate like this. It's pretty worth enough for me.

Answer 6

The Importance of Plants

Plants are essential to the balance of nature and in people's lives. Green plants, i.e., those possessing chlorophyll, manufacture their own food and give off oxygen in the process called photosynthesis, in which water and carbon dioxide are combined by the energy of light. Plants are the ultimate source of food and metabolic energy for nearly all animals, which cannot manufacture their own food. Besides foods (e.g., grains, fruits, and vegetables), plant products vital to humans include wood and wood products, fibers, drugs, oils, latex, pigments, and resins. Coal and petroleum are fossil substances of plant origin. Thus plants provide people not only sustenance but shelter, clothing, medicines, fuels, and the raw materials from which innumerable other products are made.

Close to 2.5 billion years ago, the earth's surface and atmosphere were stable enough to support primitive life. Single-cell organisms began to develop in the seas that covered the planet. A simple organism known as blue-green algae appeared and spread across the seas. Blue-green algae used sunlight and water to make food, and in the process, created oxygen. As the blue-green algae grew in the earth's seas, they began to fill the atmosphere with oxygen. The oxygen that blue-green algae produced made it possible for other types of organisms to develop.

Plants play the most important part in the cycle of nature. Without plants, there could be no life on Earth. They are the primary producers that sustain all other life forms. This is so because plants are the only organisms that can make their own food. Animals, incapable of making their own food, depend directly or indirectly on plants for their supply of food. All animals and the foods they eat can be traced back to plants.

The oxygen we breathe comes from plants. Through photosynthesis, plants take energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and minerals from the soil. They then give off water and oxygen. Animals and other non-producers take part in this cycle through respiration. Respiration is the process where oxygen is used by organisms to release energy from food, and carbon dioxide is given off. The cycles of photosynthesis and respiration help maintain the earth's natural balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water.

Leaves are the main food-making part of most plants. They capture energy from sunlight, and turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar and starch. This sugar and starch becomes the food that provides plants with energy to grow, to produce flowers and seeds, and carry on their other life processes.
Certain characteristics of plants set them apart from other living things. Both plants and animals are complex organisms that are made up of many types of cells, but plant cells have thick, rigid walls that consist of a material called cellulose. Animal cells do not have this material. The cellulose enables plants to stand upright without the aid of an internal or external skeleton.

Plants and Their Environment

Plants require a reasonable level of heat to grow. The most favorable temperature at which photosynthesis takes place ranges from near freezing to 20 to 25° C (70 to 80° F). The rates of photosynthesis and respiration increase with rising temperatures. Any temperatures above or below these levels limit plant growth. The climate of a region determines what types of plants can survive in that region.

A plant's environment is made up of many factors. One of the most important is the weather--sunlight, temperature, and precipitation (rain, melted snow, and other moisture). Soil and other plants and animals that live in the same area are also included in the environment of a plant. All these factors form what is called a natural community.

No two natural communities are exactly alike, but many resemble one another more than they differ. Botanists divide the world into biomes--natural communities of plants, animals, and other organisms.

Medicine

Plants provide many useful drugs. Some of these plants have been used as medicines for hundreds of years. The bark of the cinchona tree was used 400 years ago to reduce fever. It is still used to make quinine, a drug used to treat malaria and other diseases. Another drug, called digitalis, is used in treating heart disease. It is made from the dried leaves of the purple foxglove plant. The roots of the Mexican yam are used in producing cortisone, a drug useful in treating arthritis and a number of other diseases.

Answer 7

They provide food, medicine and oxygen to people and animals.

Answer 8

I was curious about this too

Answer 9

Well, it depends..