Are humans and other life forms able to survive without solar radiation?

by Dovie Spinney, June 2014

300 words

1 page

essay

As far as the scientific research goes, it is impossible to suppose that humans are able to survive on Earth without solar radiation. Solar radiation drives thousands of natural processes, from global to the smalest ones. Some of those, perhaps, are not so critical, but an overwhelming majority of these processes are essential for humans and other living beings on the planet.

Solar radiation heats the Earth and the athmosphere around it; without solar radiation the Earth would be just a cold piece of rock. It's inner source of heating is not hot enough to warm up its coat. The radiation drives such global processes as season change, flow of water and air currents which bring weather, generates clouds and thunderstorms that act like regulators and, in their turn, launch hundreds of smaller processes.

Solar radiation gives life to one of the most important type of creatures on our planet – plants. Plants cannot live without solar radiation, because through the process of photosynthesis they transform it into simple surags – their source of energy. Plants are essential for life on Earth. They absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, they cleanse the water, they serve as food for people and most animals, they serve as material for building and other purposes, and they are a source of coal which is an important resource. Life on Earth is virtually impossible without plants, and plants cannot exist without solar radiation.

Furthermore, solar radiation directly influences human body. Some vitamins and elements are produced by the body only in the sunlight; and their shortages worsen human health. The same should be said about other forms of organisms; some scientists suppose that there are microbes that can live deep in caves or on the seabed without being exposed to the sun; but their lives still depend on numerous processes, launched and controled by solar radiation. Thus, we can assume that life on Earth is impossible without solar radiation.

References:

Solar Radiation at Earth. From HYPERLINK "http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/sun_radiation_at_earth.ht ml" http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/sun_radiation_at_earth.htm l

Sunlight and the Earth. From

HYPERLINK "http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sun1lite.htm" http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sun1lite.htm

Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment. From HYPERLINK "http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SORCE/" http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SORCE/

Solar Radiation: Sunlight and More. From HYPERLINK "http://www.solarradiation.net/" …

Download will start in 20 seconds

Disclaimer

Note that all papers are meant for inspiration and reference purposes only! Do not copy papers in full or in part. Papers are provided by other students, who hold the copyright for the content of those papers. All papers were submitted to TurnItIn and will show up as plagiarism if you try to submit any part of them as your own work. Assignment Lab can not guarantee the quality of the user generated content such as sample papers above.