Three Reasons the World Will Soon End: Reason 1

There are three things that will lead to the deaths of millions of people, the potential war over food, a mass extinction of several hundred species, and a complete change of the layout of the world's ecological structure. These catastrophes are predicted to occur within fifty years and two degrees Celsius.

Rubisco. Rubisco is the most abundant enzyme found on earth. It is the functioning enzyme behind the magical process of photosynthesis in plants. It is used most heavily in what is called the C3 pathway for photosynthesis, which occurs in plants not specially adapted to extreme heat or arid conditions. It is a large enzyme which you can safely picture as a fuzzy pac-man looking thing, but green. Inside, for all those who do not understand the complex mechanisms of enzymatic mechanism, CO2 from the atmosphere is converted into a complex of carbon molecules. Energy from ATP and NADPH makes the compound into a chemical called G3P which in turn helps to build glucose and other important organic molecules. The molecules are not the only product of the photosynthesis however, oxygen is also released from the plant into the atmosphere as O2 gas. It is known by most who have completed the first grade that plants and trees and similar green things use photosynthesis to release oxygen into the air and make it possible for everything else that is unable to photosynthesize able to breathe. Also important in photosynthesis is the fact that CO2 is taken in by the plant, something we are unable to breathe, and transformed into precious oxygen.

Now, the reason the world shall soon crumble is the scientific fact that the enzyme making this very important process possible is finicky. Rubisco, at elevated temperatures, switches from taking in CO2 from the atmosphere to taking O2 from the atmosphere and instead of nice clean oxygen as a product, it is a reactant where the final substance achieved is CO2. Can we imagine plants releasing CO2 instead of oxygen into the air while simultaneously sucking our oxygen out of it? The most concerning part however is the fact that Rubisco switches to this photorespiratory process with a temperature change of only two or three degrees Celsius.

Hello Global Warming

You may be asking, what about desert plants? Or what about plants in extreme climates? Are cities like Palm Springs or Atlanta suffocating because of their plants? No. Plants in hot climates are adapted to their conditions and use a different pathway for photosynthesis. The pathways are called CAM and C4. These pathways use different mechanisms to keep their Rubisco happy by surrounding the enzyme with more CO2 to take in and completing their processes at night when it is cooler. Your next question may be, well then why won't all plants just adapt to the higher temperatures caused by global warming and become C4 and CAM plants? The answer is that these processes are highly costly energetically and are only beneficial at high temperatures, thus the plants have evolved the process over time as a part of their species. A plant that is C3 does not jump over to being a plant that is C4 or CAM overnight or when the day is hotter than normal. Plant evolution does not happen in one day. Thus, the plants that are C3, many of them being what we grow in our gardens, eat, and purchase as fruit from the store, shall no longer be able to survive.

In fact, places that are already in a food and agricultural crisis, such as Africa, will suffer the most while places like Upper North America and Canada shall prosper. This is not a proven statement, but rather an extrapolation from the climates of the North American region versus that of Africa based on many environmental factors. However, anyone can see that If the dwindling food supply of Africa is completely depleted within fifty years and North America suddenly becomes a required benefactor, there are obvious political implications. It is not extreme to imagine wars over food, land, and the smuggling of edible items to only the privileged while many starve. China may happily poke its financially sound head into Africa once more to mediate while sticking its hand in the cookie jar when everyone looks the other way. It polluted soils will not be arable for long and in fifty years, it is plausible to predict their heavy handed role in the distribution of food to their own people. Since China has already procured many of Africa's agriculturally sustainable lands to feed their own population, is it so far off to see them wading into the US' giganto-normous debt in exchange for food since Africa shall no longer be producing food? Would we not give them all the produce they desired in exchange for a small portion of the 3.1 trillion dollars we owe them to be forgiven? The starvation in Africa would hardly stand up to the moral standards of renewing the US economy by the return of 3.1 trillion dollars. In other words, Africa does not stand a chance. Why? It's all about Rubisco.