Photo: light. Sun lighting the sky
                                         so we can see the birds.
Synthesis: combine. A green melding.
                                     Bring together the words:

Photosynthesis! Creating all food
                                           from rays of the sun.
Plant cells transform: water and
                                     carbon dioxide to oxygen

and sugar. Plants are the producers,
                                           with this amazing feat
give us air to breathe, wood to build with
                                                      and food to eat.

Animals, the consumers eat leaf, root,
                                                        fruit and seed.
In turn, the poo and bodies
                                   of all living creatures feed

the soil. Nutrients return, the nourishing
                                            earth is not depleted.
Waste broken down by decomposers,
                              the cycle of life is completed.

About the poem

Original poem by:

Dr Joanne Tippett

RoundView co-Founder

University of Manchester

Joanne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Environment, Education and Development at The University of Manchester. Her research and impact work since starting her PhD at The University of Manchester in 2000 has been driven by three questions:

How can we think about sustainability and the future in a way that inspires hope and action?
How can we work together effectively to achieve systemic change towards sustainable futures?
How can we learn from these efforts to achieve systemic change over time and across contexts?

Trying to answer these questions led to the creation of RoundView. She was granted a British Academy Innovation Fellowship with the UK National Commission for UNESCO to catalyse transformative sustainability learning and engagement with the RoundView.

She began working in community participation and ecological planning in the mid 90s in Southern Africa, and has won numerous awards for innovation and social impact, and is the Founder of the social business Ketso.

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