Mother Nature's Digestive System

     Noël Carroll(Beyond Aesthetics)said:

 "With visual metaphors, the image-maker proposes food for thought without stating any determinate proposition.  It is the task of the viewer to use the image for insight".

     In this instance, I am the viewer observing what I perceive to be the earth’s anatomical and physiological make-up. I have shared what I discern as Mother Nature’s lungs, arteries and heart and how they malfunction or become 'diseased' and decay, just like ours. Today I want to unpack what impacts her digestive system and ours.

     For efficient functioning the planet maintains equilibrium between its levels of acidity (expressed as pH –Potential Hydrogen) mainly of the oceans, and alkalinity which is provided by plant-life.
   
     When the water element becomes acidic and polluted, that contamination filters back to our shores, and into the soil. This depletes vegetables of alkalinity as well as trace minerals, both essential for healthy cell growth. 

    Our digestive system is our prime contact with the produce of the earth, and is simply a long twisting tube – the oesophagus – with a hole at each end, and runs from the mouth to the anus. (Sorry, sounds a bit gross but only telling it as it is)!

    On the way from one opening to the other, the oesophagus uses rhythmic, wave-like muscle movements (called peristalsis) to push the food along to its various destination points, until it arrives at journey’s end. On the way food is mixed with stomach acids to aid digestion.

     The billions of cells that make up the human body are alkaline by design, while the digestive and urinary tract are acidic for the purpose of breaking down and processing what we consume through the mouth. The stomach lining secretes hydrochloric acid which turns solid food into liquid for easy digestion; that acid also protects the body from any bacteria or microbes swallowed with food.

    But all acids burn; hence the stomach protects itself by secreting a sticky neutralizing mucous that attaches to the stomach walls[1].

    As our oceans become more acidic, their plant life is destroyed as warming occurs from the increased levels of CO2 they now absorb. This has had undesirable consequences for example on corals and marine organisms that build reefs, sometimes called the rainforests of the ocean because of their biodiversity.

     We live and die at the cellular level, and maintaining proper alkalinity is essential for life, health and vitality. Medical science recognises the importance of pH balance for the maintenance of cellular health; but we have not yet attached sufficient importance to maintaining the health of our arterial waterways.
  
     By the way the Planet has a backbone that functions just like ours; and a top hat and coat...use symbolic sight to work it out. Its all there, if you care to look.

[1] When the body is unable to rid itself of excess acid, this can result in renal failure; treatment range from simple intervention to invasive procedures such as dialysis and surgery.

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