Sustainable Wonders Happening Around Us Every Day

In the last decade or so, it's become increasingly important to understand and adopt more sustainable living practices - and for good reason. Sustainability is not only important to protect the environment, but also to preserve essential resources and create a safe and living planet for future generations. While it is important to recognize our responsibility as human beings to protect the environment, understanding the natural, sustainable processes already happening around us can help us appreciate why sustainable living is essential for the future of our planet. (This is Systems Thinking at work!)

These processes happen right in front of our eyes, and before now, you might have always wondered why they’re necessary. Sustainable processes have a critical purpose, and in this article, we will discuss exactly what that is. 

Here are the sustainable wonders that happen around us every day that you’re likely to have never heard about before.

Rotting apples on the ground - Image via Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rotting-apples-on-ground-in-autumn-orchard-33344317/

The Carbon Cycle

Even if you aren’t familiar with the carbon cycle, you certainly will be familiar with some of its processes. The carbon cycle is a natural process that recycles carbon atoms between Earth’s oceans, soil, atmosphere, and living organisms. But what’s so special about Carbon? Carbon is an element that is used in essential molecules like DNA, proteins and sugars. Without it, living organisms, along with our environment, would cease to exist. The carbon cycle is a sustainable process because it recycles carbon after its use or emission, so that no carbon is lost or wasted. 

The cycle allows this to happen because a number of the processes within it, such as photosynthesis and ocean exchange, use up the carbon in our atmosphere, whereas respiration and combustion do the opposite. 

Studying the carbon cycle has allowed scientists to recognize harmful activities that humans have carried out that have disrupted this natural balance of carbon. Essentially, human activities and unnatural processes are releasing carbon quicker than it’s being reabsorbed into the earth.

Decomposition & Bioprocessing

Decomposition is a process that breaks down organic matter, such as plants and food waste, and returns all the useful nutrients they release into the earth’s ecosystem. Although typically, you might consider bacteria and fungi harmful microorganisms, they’re actually responsible for this decomposition process.

It’s also sustainable, as it recycles nutrients like carbon and nitrogen from food waste that would otherwise be lost. Bioprocessing works similarly, but it's a human-controlled process designed to break down waste even further to recover useful nutrients.

Bioprocessing also uses microorganisms to break down organic material, but works with enzymes and microbes instead. Unlike decomposition, bioprocessing creates useful products such as compost, kefir and biofuels, rather than releasing useful minerals back into our ecosystem.

Seed Cycles and Pollination

Seed cycles and pollination are two processes that are responsible for allowing plants to reproduce and thrive across a number of different environments. Insects like bees and butterflies move pollen between plant species, which improves diversity and allows flowering plants to reproduce. 

Pollination in particular allows for plant regeneration to take place as it moves pollen inside the plant to the stigma, where it can then be taken by insects and birds to other plants. Seed dispersal happens a little after pollination, and is a sustainable process because it removes seeds from plants once their fruit is ripe. This process prevents overcrowding, where unused seeds would be wasted. Biodiversity is essential within our plant ecosystem so that plant species can withstand changing or extreme growth conditions, and the harvesting of fruit and vegetables isn’t damaged.

The Water Cycle

The water cycle, as you can probably guess, is the process that transports water around the Earth. There are six key stages involved in the water cycle, each of which has a very important role in recycling and purifying water. You might recognize some of the processes involved, like precipitation and condensation. Precipitation occurs when water droplets in the clouds become too heavy and are released from the sky as either rain, snow, sleet or hail - depending on the temperature of the surroundings. 

Condensation, however, is a process responsible for forming clouds. As water vapor rises from our oceans and rivers, it reaches cooler temperatures as it moves upwards and cools back into water droplets in the sky.

Many believe that being more sustainable is an unnatural and forced process. In fact, it’s completely the opposite. Our earth and all its natural processes are encompassed in sustainable practices, all of which protect the environment and life on planet Earth. What we can take away from these sustainable wonders is that even the smallest or simplest natural processes can create powerful change. 

Sustainable living could start with simple home changes like reducing food and water waste. Once you’ve mastered these, you could challenge yourself with bigger sustainability goals like choosing environmentally-friendly products and growing your own fruit and vegetables.

Thanks for reading!

Article generously provided by Darcy Fowler