Without Carbon Dioxide We’d All Be Dead

“Photosynthesis” by Cliff Ollier*

CO₂ and H₂O and sunlight


Are the reason we can eat our daily bread
;

CO₂ and H₂O and sunlight
:

Without the CO₂ we’d all be dead

For plants store energy by making sugars


And other foods that bring us great delight.

It’s the basis of all life upon the planet
,

CO₂ and H₂O and light.

Photosynthesis is what they call it,


Photo puts the emphasis on light,

Synthesis means putting it together:

CO₂ and H₂O and light.

The lion has an antelope for breakfast,


And the antelope, before his final fright,


Ate grass, which like all other vegetation,


Fixed CO₂ and H₂O and light.

The mighty whale eats krill to keep its weight up,


And the krill eat tiny plants, near out of sight,

And the tiny plants create the basic food store

From CO₂ and H₂O and light.

The food chain can be very complicated

With formulae to give a student fright,


But the basis of the chain is very simple –


It’s CO₂ and H₂O and light.

Now some say CO₂ is a pollutant,


A poison we must always try to fight

But remember if you want to go on living –


You need CO₂ and H₂O and light!

CO₂ and H₂O and sunlight


Are the reason we can eat our daily bread
;

CO₂ and H₂O and sunlight
:

Without the CO₂ we’d all be dead.

*  From Quadrant Online, March 29, 2011.