“4/13/2008, 3:37am EST”
Pollution impeding flower aroma, pollination. →
Pollinators and land plants have a symbiotic relationship. Each plays a key role in the survival and health of the other. Without plants, all animal life dies. Game over. Period.
That said, let us examine yet another example of the unforeseen catastrophic consequences of human pursuit of wealth, power, and convenience:
Researchers at the University of Virginia created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by the flowers readily bond with pollutants such as ozone, which destroys the aromas they produce.
So instead of wafting for long distances with the wind, the flowery scents are chemically altered. Essentially, the flowers no longer smell like flowers.
The finding could help explain why some pollinators, particularly bees, are declining in certain parts of the world.
It is morally criminal to whimsically kill other fauna and flora. But it’s even worse to attack or impede the modes and processes by which organisms might survive, were we to otherwise leave them alone.
Never leave home without it.
