Nature’s Oxygen Factory

Imagine that you are taking a leisurely stroll through the woods. Sunlight filters down through its green canopy, splashing onto the forest floor below. You relish the sunshine, but also the coolness beneath leaf-laden branches—blissfully unaware that each leaf above your head is, in fact, a tiny oxygen factory!

While you stroll along, you take no thought of the fact that you are inhaling and exhaling. But with every breath, you release a wave of carbon dioxide, an essential ingredient in the amazing process of “making things with light,” commonly known as photosynthesis. Through this amazing process our planet is supplied with oxygen—something we can’t live without. Let’s take a look at how it happens.

As sunlight pours down in life-giving rays, the waiting foliage can do nothing but soak it up. This is the light-dependent stage, where green chlorophyll present in the leaf absorbs the