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2. Lightning Cleans The Atmosphere

A 2021 study found that lightning cleans the atmosphere through an elegant oxidation process that results in a significant loss of harmful gases like carbon monoxide and methane. Scientists have identified those two greenhouse gases as key contributors to global warming and climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions have a significant impact on the environment and are the main driver behind climate change. 

In another study of the same year, researchers observed a significant drop in lightning storms across the world during the COVID-19 lockdown. Researchers say this is because most people were inside and weren't burning fossil fuels. This led to a significant drop in the levels of aerosol particles in the atmosphere and the frequency of lightning storms. It is like the earth has smart sensors to tell when harmful gases and nutrients need to be eliminated by electrical blasts. If this theory is correct, it further proves how lightning is a cleaning force for the atmosphere and how important it is for our environment and survival. 

3. Lightning maintains the electrical balance of the earth.

Lightning is a vital component of the global electrical circuit as it helps to maintain an electrical balance between the earth and the atmosphere. The earth's surface carries negative charges, but during a thunderstorm, the clouds carry positive ions that push the negative charges on the surface toward the clouds. As a result, all objects on Earth become positively charged.

Lightning then discharges negative charges back to the earth, which maintains the electrical balance. This process happens repeatedly during thunderstorms and helps regulate the electrical potential difference between the earth and the atmosphere. Without this process, the buildup of electrical charges could lead to dangerous and destructive lightning strikes that could cause harm to living creatures and damage to structures. Therefore, the discharge of lightning is an essential part of the Earth's electrical system, providing a necessary release of energy and maintaining a stable balance between the charges on the Earth's surface and in the atmosphere.

4. Lightning adds to the richness of our natural world. 

Humans love bright lights in the sky. That is why they invented fireworks. Lightning too is a natural display of striking light. It is one of the most amazing natural phenomena that we can observe. These breathtakingly beautiful sky flashes add to the richness of our natural world. Many people enjoy watching the lightning and listening to the thunder sounds that accompany it. And although this is a dangerous phenomenon, it has a unique calming effect on us.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF LIGHTNING DISAPPEARED?

If there were no more lightning, we do not know what our world would be like. Since we haven't experienced a world without it. But If lightning were to disappear, it would disrupt the process of atmospheric nitrogen fixation, alter weather patterns, increase the risk of wildfires from natural causes, impact atmospheric composition and air pollution, and change electrical activity in the atmosphere. 

This goes to prove how our entire natural world is like a delicate and interconnected web of phenomena, where each element plays a crucial role in maintaining balance and functionality. Lightning, with its awe-inspiring power and electrical discharge, serves as a vital force that contributes to numerous essential processes. Its absence would create a ripple effect, affecting various aspects of our environment and ecosystems, ultimately reshaping the intricate tapestry of life on Earth.

Lightning is an electrical discharge that results from the buildup of electrical energy between cloud formations or between the clouds and the Earth's surface. Typically, a lightning bolt has a negative charge and zig-zags its way from cloud to cloud or from cloud to ground. The Earth's surface, on the other hand, has a positive charge, and when these two opposite charges meet, a powerful electrical current is produced.

Is Lightning Good For The Earth?

Apart from being a spectacular display of nature's power, lightning also offers various benefits to the Earth and its inhabitants. In this post, we will look at the benefits of lightning and whether the earth and its ecosystem could survive without it. 

1. Lightning is vital in plant growth

Plants require nitrogen to perform vital operations like photosynthesis. Nitrogen is in the air, but in a form that is not directly usable by plants. To make nitrogen available to plants, a huge blast of energy must first break apart its bonds. When lightning strikes, the nitrogen atoms are separated and then combined with oxygen to form nitrogen oxides. It is then through rain and other water droplets that nitrates enter the soil and plant roots.

So without lightning, plants would be very limited in their growth and productivity. This would have a devastating effect on the environment. Plants give us food, clean air, and much more. Without plants, life on earth would not be possible. Only pulse plants are able to utilize nitrogen directly from the air. Pulses are legume plants that give us edible seeds like beans, lentils, chickpeas, mung beans, and split peas. 

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