Intaglio with handcoloring, mounted on archival foamcore with fibreoptic filaments, 68 x 46 x 8 cm, 2010

 

Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert the light-energy captured from the sun into chemical energy that can be used to fuel the organism’s activities (Wikipedia).

“Vladimir Vernadsky made a thermodynamic view central to his idea of the biosphere… Vernadsky’s biosphere was a planet-sized engine of change powered by the sun. The earth is an open system – it can absorb energy from the sun, and radiate waste heat out into the universe.

…And that is where photosynthesis comes in. Without photosynthesis, the sun’s light would simply serve to warm the earth; it’s energy would be transformed straight into heat. All activity requires energy, and all but a tiny fraction of energy required by life on earth comes ultimately from the sun.”

 

Freely quoted from: Morton, Oliver.  Eating the Sun. How plants power the planet. Harper Perennial, 2007 (pp. 55, 56, 92)