Valuable down to the smallest detail
... because a world without plants is hard to imagine.
Why can a breath gratefully remind us of our last holiday by the sea? Why do we just feel good surrounded by plants? With Cotonea, we explore the importance of plants for life on our planet. What contribution do plants, and in particular the organic cotton plant, make to all of us?
We live on a planet of plants. In all their impressive numbers and diversity, they form the basis of life on our earth. However, the slow and quiet way of life of plants often makes us overlook their importance. Like silent companions, they accompany us through the year: in spring we look forward to the first green, which gives us soothing shade in summer, fascinates us in autumn with its warm blaze of colour and covers the floors in winter as natural frost protection. Considering that plants make up by far the largest share of global biomass, it is hard to imagine a world without plants. Their great productivity is reflected in an abundance of different forms of form and life that we humans try to grasp in systematics, well aware that a large number are still waiting to be discovered.
Plants are masters at conquering even inhospitable places for themselves and thus creating habitat for other living beings. An essential characteristic that distinguishes plants from other living organisms, such as animals or fungi, is their ability to photosynthesize. In this process, the plants succeed in forming their own nutrient supply from the light energy of the sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the earth. As a by-product for the plants, this also produces oxygen, which is so essential for the survival of humans and animals. Plants are specialists when it comes to extracting CO2 from the air, binding it and converting it into valuable biomass. And not only in the countryside...
At this point, you can take a deep breath and pause.
Did you know that half of the oxygen you just inhaled was formed by algae in the sea? These are marine organisms that can also photosynthesize in the water and thus form the basis for life in the sea. It is even believed that there are more algae in the sea than there are stars in the sky.
Back to the countryside, we as Cotonea are particularly interested in the organic cotton plant, which is also proving to be pleasingly efficient in terms of CO2. For every kilo of cotton fibres, the plant removes 2.5 kilos of CO2 from the air. In addition, there is the CO2 that binds the plant to itself for its leaves, flowers and roots and in the organically cultivated soil. Consistent organic cultivation is worthwhile. According to the ICAC (International Cotton Advisory Committee), conventional cotton cultivation, for example in the United States with intensive agriculture, the use of machinery and the use of artificial fertilizers leaves a net intake of only 100 g of CO2. In the case of synthetic fibres, this balance is completely different, they neither supply oxygen nor bind CO2 and are also not biodegradable.
The example of the cotton plant shows the benefits of plants as a material for textiles. They also serve humans as building materials, for energy generation and are the basis for their nutrition. The survival of life on our planet is closely interwoven with the life of plants. A world without plants would be a world without life.
Throughout human history, we have been familiar with the shape and color of plants and they have been proven to have a positive effect on our health. Organic shapes, as they occur in nature, immediately convey a feeling of freedom, lightness and creativity. They have something indefinable, fleeting, because in their variability they can express softness and strength as well as silence and dynamism. They also remind us of recurring cycles of nature such as ebb and flow, the rising and setting of the sun or the coming and going of the seasons. With organic shapes, we bring nature into our homes and with it its balancing calming effect. By connecting us with nature, organic forms also connect us with ourselves. This is because the human body is also made up of organic forms, so they are emotionally familiar to us. They convey a sense of calm and harmony and let us feel the flow of life and experience how we watch a raindrop in its shape, the movement of water or dancing leaves in the wind. Like nature, organic shapes speak to our soul.