The power of plants in managing our climate need not be underestimated. Whether a tree, grass or flower, every growing plant performs these five functions free of charge.

If we want to do our bit for managing the environment and stopping climate change, then growing a plant is a great place to start.

🌬 Solar-Powered Air Conditioners

All plants manage heat from the sun. During the day, plants evapotranspirate - releasing water from their leaves and transforming the sensible heat (the heat you feel) from the sun into latent heat (the heat used to transfer between states. I.e. from a liquid to a gas), which cools the surrounding landscape. And then, at night, the plants have that water return again as the gas condenses to a liquid to form dew using sensible heat, which warms the surrounding landscape.

This process is the small water cycle, which stabilises our local climate - making our days cooler and nights warmer.

🌳 Did you know that a single tree can cool our environment the same amount as around 5 standard house air conditioners?

🌧 Solar-Powered Rain Makers

Our forests operate the biotic pump, which is the process that runs the large water cycle. The forests have a large amount of evaporation due to all the plants powering the small water cycle. This creates a constant air current that attracts more moisture to the area, often from hundreds of kilometres away (the ocean), leading to more rain forming.

🌳 Learn more here - https://youtu.be/kKL40aBg-7E

⬆️ Solar-Powered Pumps

Plants are constantly working against gravity. Gravity is always trying to take everything away - our water, fertility and nutrients. Plants work against this, using their roots to bring all these things back to the surface again.

Without plants completing this process, all our water, fertility and nutrients would have been leached or washed away millions of years ago.

🏭 Solar-Powered Processing Factories

Plants are our builders and processors. Plants constantly balance soil nutrients, build soil, improve water holding capacity, and more. They do this through their processes or relationships with soil life.

🖤 Solar-Powered Soil Carbon Builders

Plants are crucial to managing carbon. All plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it either in themselves or in the soil as carbon through photosynthesis. At the same time, they are providing us with the oxygen we need to breathe.

As you can see, plants are the key to everything. They manage our climate, build our soil and create the environment we need to live in.