Rob Louw: Photosynthesis | Tom Nelson Pod #355

Rob Louw discusses the process of photosynthesis, explaining how plants convert CO2 and water into glucose using sunlight and how this process has evolved over 600 million years. He delves into the importance of CO2 for plant growth, its historical levels, and how plants adapt to varying environmental conditions. The presentation also highlights the significant role of photosynthesis in supporting the Earth's food chain and the impact of rising CO2 levels on global greening and crop yields. 00:00 Introduction to Photosynthesis 08:25 Evolution of Photosynthesis 23:29 Factors Influencing Photosynthesis 40:54 Evolution of Photosynthetic Pathways https://co2coalition.org/teammember/rob-louw/ Sunlight, the Bond Albedo, CO2, and Earth’s Temperature: Rob’s paper with van Wijngaarden and Happer: https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2025/11/ArxivSunlightAlbedoCO2Paper.pdf?x45936 ======== Slides, summaries, references, and transcripts of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1