Destructive as fire is it has many
good uses as is obvious. The most obvious is that it is used in cooking food.
Man has been able to bring fire to many good uses. My late grandmother was a
baker. After the flour, the main ingredient for making bread, has been
processed and kneaded, the temperature of the earthenware oven is raised by
burning fuel in it. After my grandmother gets the right temperature in the oven
the burning stops. The kneaded flour is molded and placed in different sizes of
pan which are then carefully and orderly placed in the oven and closed to
maintain and sustain the desired temperature. The end product is the bread we
enjoyed with tea, milo, oats, koko (a porridge made from corn) etc. at
breakfast. Fire is also used by smiths to make jewelry which our ladies use in
adorning themselves. And men too, these days it easy to spot a man wearing ear
rings on both lobes of his ears!
Yet another benefit of fire is the nutrients it drops into soil
after it has burned vegetation. This may appear a dichotomy given the thrust of
my last post titled “Inflaming the Natural Environment”. Well, let me use this
post to give the last post a balance. If you still want to see it as a
dichotomy, fine. Fire, even wildfire, has, simultaneously its positives and
negatives. A fire takes away from the natural environment whiles giving
something to the natural environment. Fire takes nitrogen from the vegetation
it burns and releases it into the atmosphere and retains potassium and phosphorus
in ash which is recycled into the soil. The best fire is fire that is under
control. In the next two sections I am going to analyze the two nutrients to
project their usefulness in the environment.
POTASSIUM
Potassium is a chemical element. Its
chemical symbol is K. It was first separated from the ashes of plants. It is a
reactive element.
Potassium is a vitally necessary part of plant nutrition found
in soil.
Dietary sources of potassium:
Fruits
Vegetables
Meat
Fish
Foods with high potassium content:
Nuts
Yam
Coconut milk
Bran
Potatoes
Bananas
Chocolate
Avocado
Diets high in potassium can reduce
occurrence of high blood pressure, while diets low in potassium can cause high
blood pressure.
PHOSPHORUS
Phosphorus is a chemical element. The
symbol for phosphorus as a chemical element is P. It is a reactive element.
Phosphorus is required for the growth of living things. It is an
integral part of DNA and RNA. Phosphorus as a mineral helps in the development
of teeth and bones in the human body. Plants get phosphorus from the soil and
humans get it from plants.
Phosphorus can be found in foods like:
Beans
Lentils
Nuts
Milk
Milk products
Meat
Fruits
Garlic
Whole wheat
PARTING SHOT
Fire, even wildfire, leaves in its trail vitally important nutrients
like potassium and phosphorous. These vitally important nutrients are recycled
into the soil from the ash of burnt vegetation. Plants absorb these nutrients
into their systems to perform vitally important functions in them. Some of
these functions I have already mentioned. Plants grow to produce yields which
cannot be possible without potassium and phosphorus. Either directly or
indirectly you get your potassium and phosphorus from plants to sustain and
preserve your life.
Given that fire has good uses, vitally good uses, for the
natural environment and man, and given that fire, particularly wildfire, can be
harmful to the natural environment, it then becomes the responsibility of you
and I to subject fire to our control, individually and collectively, in
whatever form. In so doing we should be maintaining the push for a clean and
balanced natural environment.
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