Our interconnectedness through oxygen

It may sound cliché, but yes, we are all connected, somehow, someway. Humans, animals, plants, rocks, water, air, within the cosmos. But what we might not realize is that the interconnection is much more intimate than we might have imagined. We are even strongly connected to extinct creatures that have roamed the earth millions of years ago. To simply say it, a part of them might be living inside of us.

I am rephrasing this from a book that I read a long time ago (around 10 years long). The book was David Suzuki’s “sacred balance”, which as I can remember, talked about our relationship with nature and how we are affected with the natural phenomenon that occurs around us.  

In the book, he talks about how we are all connected through an act that we are constantly engaged in, breathing. We could fully understand what this means if we know the mechanism of breathing. And I think we should ought to at least be curious, as it is an act we do on average 20.000 times in one day. I don't quite remember his exact words in the book, so I’ll use another source to use as reference.

When we breathe, we take in air from the environment. The air that we breathe contains a lot of different things. It can contain dust, bacteria, and obviously gas. Within air, there are different gases. There’s nitrogen (70%), oxygen (20%), argon (1%), carbon dioxide (0.03%), and other gases. But our body uses only oxygen when we breathe.

Oxygen enters into the body through the respiration system and is diffused into the blood capillaries. Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Oxygen bonds to hemoglobin, one of the components of blood. The hemoglobin in our blood forms a complex with 8 oxygen molecules, and thus the oxygen we just inhaled becomes a part of our body. So you see, oxygen doesn't just come in and go out just like that. It becomes a part of us for a period of time. The oxygen is then transported to the cells where it is used in the process to create energy. In this process, oxygen is transformed into carbon dioxide and is eventually released from the body.

Carbon dioxide is then transformed again into oxygen through plant photosynthesis. And then the same oxygen molecule is used by other organisms for respiration, and becomes a part of them for a short period of time. So the oxygen molecule that bonded to us might have also been a part of a dinosaur, other people, plants, fish, bacteria, or any other organism. A part of them lived inside of us!

It’s amazing how we are so much connected with everything else. And so it is our duty as God's stewards/vicegerents/khalifah on earth to protect and maintain the balance (mizan). But ironically, we are doing the opposite with our consumption practices, pollution, exploitation of earth’s resources, etc. Animals go extinct, forests disappear, rivers being polluted, and it goes on and on. We need to at least start with ourselves. By realizing our interconnectedness with every other being on this earth, hopefully God will put into our hearts the wisdom to want to protect and preserve them, as in truth, that is our duty as His stewards on earth.