> MC: We think there is a dangerous situation developing, because oxygen levels have gotten higher every year and they might now be at 35 percent.
> Mr. R&D: So?
> MC: With indigestible lignin, there is nothing to keep it from continuing to go up.
This part is misleading. Evolution has no capacity to look ahead to future disasters (as the mass extinction later demonstrates). I understand that lignin digestion was evolved for the same reason we burn coal - a hitherto untapped source of engergy.
> MC: We think there is a dangerous situation developing, because oxygen levels have gotten higher every year and they might now be at 35 percent.
> Mr. R&D: So?
> MC: With indigestible lignin, there is nothing to keep it from continuing to go up.
This part is misleading. Evolution has no capacity to look ahead to future disasters (as the mass extinction later demonstrates). I understand that lignin digestion was evolved for the same reason we burn coal - a hitherto untapped source of engergy.