Lightning is Vital to our Living World

Lightning is Vital to our Living World  

Mysterious are nature's ways, the sun's energy 

transforming into electrical energy through lightning,

henceforth building proteins, the building blocks 

of all living things, great and small, as they grow and die,

and into the next cycle the process is the same -

ad infinitum. ~ 

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Lightning is Nature's quick-fix agent converting inert atmospheric Nitrogen into soluble Nitrate compounds that fertilize soil and water, and nourish plants, other autotrophs, and saprophytes principally the mushrooms such as these specimens shown in the following photographs.  

Shelf mushroom; Auricularia (tainga ng daga) 

Dung mushroom

Oyster mushroom; stinkhorn 

All over the globe lightning strikes at one point or another
incessantly night and day, in good or bad weather.

The atmosphere and earth meet in deafening thunder
that accompanies a spark of a thousand atomic bombs
enough to light a city for days if captured and stored. 
  
In the process chemistry combines nitrogen with oxygen, 
one-to-three in proportion to form nitrates in tons 
and tons in a single bolt, becoming negatively charge 
and soluble, riding on the rain to descend to earth.

Nitrate the free radical ion joins a positive ion and forms
combinations of compounds that nourish plants and all
all photosynthetic organisms, and the saprophytes, too
- the mushrooms and their kin of Kingdom Mycophyta.

Wonder the hills and mountains turn green soon after
the first rain in May or even only a shower in April;  
afterward the whole landscape builds into a realm 
of emerald green as the sky sends boundless energy.

Electrical energy transforms into chemical energy
passing from  the inorganic to the organic world, thence
through the living world - the food chain and web,
food pyramid, there into the ecosystems and biomes,
finally to the biosphere that make the earth full of life. 

Mysterious are nature's ways, the sun's energy 
transforming into electrical energy through lightning,
henceforth building proteins, the building blocks 
of all living things, great or small, as they grow and die,
and into the next cycle the process is the same -

ad infinitum. ~  

Lesson, former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 

738 DZRB AM Band