death of a tree

AntonioLao · **death of a tree -** 09-15-2007, 01:21 PM

Evergreens have the ability of continuous photosynthesis to the end of their lives. On the other hand, deciduous trees have to shed once a year suspending photosynthesis at least for the winter season. Obviously, leafless trees are not dead. The catalyst is decreasing temperature more so than lack of sunlight. Nonetheless, freezing temperature, lack of light, and deprive of water would be enough to cause the death of a tree, except a plastic tree. But what is plastic if not made mostly from raw materials of fossilized primeval dead trees. These are the organic compounds of hydrocarbons and found mostly in natural oil reserves of petroleum or carbonaceous deposits of coal or natural gas deposits in porous sedimentary rocks.
Hydrocarbons have 4 main series: alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and arenes. All these are chemical compounds that contain mostly carbon and hydrogen atoms. The first member of the alkanes is methane (CH4), the simplest hydrocarbon. It is a colorless odorless gas. Being 85% of natural gas, the rest comprise of 10% ethane, 3% propane, 1% butane, and traces of CO2, N2, O2, He, and H2S. The last is hydrogen sulphide, a gas with the odor of rotten eggs and is considered more poisonous than hydrogen cyanide. Methane is an important raw material for the productions of many organic compounds. It can be the product of a reaction of 1 part CO2 and 4 parts hydrogen gas (4H2). If all CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere completely react with proportional amount of H2 then the result is a flaming sky. This hell on earth sparks widespread forest fires. The perpetual reaction of CO2 and H2 would forever transform the atmosphere into intermittent balls of fire causing total death of all trees. The irreversible end product is pure carbon black powder and no further burning is possible except at fusion temperature billions of kelvins in nucleosynthesis.