TABLE OF CONTENTS I believe that water will one day be used as a fuel, because the hydrogen and oxygen that constitute it, used separately or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light.
Jules Verne, Il 'Be Myst rieuse, 1874.
Oxygenic photosynthesis may well be the most significant development in the evolution of life on Earth. Ecologically, the process encompasses the turnover of carbon in the biosphere powered by a continuous supply of renewable energy. This energy is stored as reduced carbon compounds in plant cells and is coupled to the production of O 2 from water. Both result from the efficient conversion of harvested photons from solar energy. Oxygen availability in turn allows for effective recycling of the stored energy via cellular respiration. This is the perpetual and indispensable role of global photosynthesis in the biosphere. Moreover, geologically stored products of ancient photosynthesis, fossil fuels, remain the main energy resources in contemporary civilisation. These resources will, however, be depleted in the foreseeable future. Worldwide oil production, for example, is expected to peak somewhere in the period 2010 2020 (Kerr, 1998), and the world's energy economics will then require fundamental revision. Both the oil crises in the 1970s and present concern...
