Chapter 71: Report to the Police First
Even though Mo Qingyan was a bit puzzled by Chen Xin’s question, she still answered him: "Plants? Photosynthesis? I do have a green plant box in my bedroom. Why are you suddenly asking about food?"
"The sky is covered by a dust cloud and has lost sunlight. How do plants perform photosynthesis? Without photosynthesis, where does the oxygen in the atmosphere come from?" Chen Xin’s voice was very calm, stating a fact, but it still made Mo Qingyan’s heart race: "Although 70% of the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from ocean ecosystems, even algae need sunlight to produce oxygen, and now there’s no sunlight."
"You mean the oxygen in the atmosphere could disappear?" Mo Qingyan asked Chen Xin, a bit panicked.
Although Mo Qingyan couldn’t see it, Chen Xin nodded: "If we lose the photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide by ecosystems, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will quickly rise, while the oxygen content will continue to decline. Moreover, we don’t have to wait for the oxygen to disappear; if the oxygen content in the atmosphere drops below 10%, humans will suffocate."
"Ah! What are we going to do?" Mo Qingyan quickly sought help from Chen Xin, her voice inevitably filled with panic.
In the face of such a planetary-scale disaster or environmental catastrophe, individual power is utterly unable to make any changes. After all, this book is just a slightly unserious science fiction novel, not some fantasy novel that disregards even basic physical laws.
"Planting grass is a solution to the problem." Chen Xin half-jokingly replied, and then explained: "Since you have a green plant box, this problem isn’t really hard to solve. The oxygen required for an adult’s normal breathing needs about ten thousand average-sized leaves for photosynthesis. Calculating with tomato plants with 250 leaves each, you would need more than 40 tomato plants, covering an area of about 50 square meters."
At this point, Chen Xin laughed as it was the first time he had seen Mo Qingyan so flustered. After laughing, he continued: "So as long as you make a big enough planting greenhouse in your basement, it will be enough to ensure the oxygen you need for daily life, and it can also provide you with enough vegetables and food."
"Ah! So that’s what it is! No wonder when A-Ning and I visited you last time, it didn’t feel stuffy at all! It wasn’t because of good ventilation; it was because you had plants producing oxygen!" Hearing Chen Xin say this, Mo Qingyan finally realized.