One botanist was shocked to hear a blatantly false claim about plants and dirty energy sources being peddled on social media — so she quickly debunked it.
Botanist and environmentalist Emma (@simpleenvironmentalist) posted a video in response to an "ex-climate activist," who had argued — falsely — that plants "need" fossil fuels to survive.
"Plants have been on the planet far longer than you or I," Emma said. "Far longer, therefore, than the burning of fossil fuels. That means plants can live perfectly fine without humans and without the burning of fossil fuels."
She continued, explaining that plants get plenty of atmospheric CO2 from animals — including humans — exhaling it. They then convert that carbon into sugars and phosphates for energy, releasing the remaining oxygen into the atmosphere.
This cycle has evolved over millennia, allowing a naturally balanced plant and animal population on Earth to thrive mutually. In fact, the danger to plants has arisen from the upsurge in carbon pollution, which is due to humans burning dirty energy sources at exponentially higher levels since the 19th century.
"In fact, fossil fuels are actively killing plants," Emma explained. "There is so much CO2 in the atmosphere plants cannot capture and sequester that there is extra, leading to warming, which is killing plants."
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