Earth Is Designed to Clean Itself
Do these processes look like
the result of chance mistakes?
Scientists may often make discoveries by mistake (27 Jan 2025), but designers have to make systems that work. Earth’s biosphere, buffeted by threats inside and outside (sometimes man-caused), continues as a result of numerous repair processes—some physical and some biological—that give evidence of foresight for robustness. Its Creator told Noah after the judgment of the Flood, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). This instruction not only provides the regularity needed for science, but speaks of ongoing divine providence and care for the creatures God created. It has taken modern science a long time to understand the intricacies of the processes responsible for keeping this spinning globe not only habitable but flourishing.
Earth’s Atmosphere Gets Better at Cleaning Itself (Science News Today, 2 Feb 2025). A self-regulating process governs the abundance of hydroxyl radicals (OH–) that play a significant role in cleansing the atmosphere, scientists found at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand. Even human activities that alter the atmosphere, such as agriculture, industry and fossil fuel extraction, are compensated for by this natural process. The scientists warn that the regulation of the atmosphere may have limits, but they nevertheless were amazed by the atmosphere’s self-regulation that gives it an “intricate balance” for life.
This breakthrough research into the Earth’s atmosphere and its ability to remove pollutants provides crucial insights into the self-regulating nature of our planet’s climate system. By demonstrating that the hydroxyl radical has been playing an increasingly important role in removing methane and other pollutants, the study highlights the resilience of the atmosphere in the face of human-induced challenges.
The Study was published open access in Nature Communications, 2 Feb 2025.
While you sleep, these insects are working hard on the night shift to keep our environment healthy (The Conversation, 30 Jan 2025). Environmental scientist Tanya Latty (University of Sydney) lists some of the nocturnal insects that play clean-up roles in the environment. “These nighttime creatures play essential roles in ecosystems, providing services such as pollination, waste decomposition, and pest control,” she writes; “Here are some of the remarkable insects that come out after dark – and why they matter.” Her list includes moths, lacewings, and a variety of beetles, including fireflies (see Illustra Media video about fireflies).
Amazonian Mangrove Forests Provide Nutrients for the Ocean (GEOMAR, 29 Jan 2025). Many scientists have noted the protective service that mangroves provide against tsunamis, stabilizing coastlines against beach erosion. This article relates how they also provide a buffet for ocean life. The article calls them “nutrient pumps” that serve trace minerals needed by marine life. Scientists use neodymium as a tracer to observe the flow of bionutrients:
For example, mangrove systems along the Amazon coastline release about 8.4 million grams of dissolved neodymium into the ocean each year – 64 percent of the total neodymium input in this region. Similar processes are likely for other essential trace elements, such as iron or manganese, which are crucial for marine ecosystems.
“Our research shows that mangroves play a central role in the global cycle of trace elements,” explains Dr. Antao Xu, first author of the study and head of the research division Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics at GEOMAR. “They act as biochemical reactors, releasing nutrients and metals into coastal waters through processes such as sediment dissolution and pore water exchange.”

Living things survive thanks to automated mechanisms for delivering nutrients and cleansing environments. Grok/XI
Pairing old and new technologies could unlock advances in plankton science (University of Plymouth, 29 Jan 2025). Many people may not realize that the ocean has a living “carbon pump” that sends excess carbon down to the seafloor (see my ENST article from 22 Feb 2023). Scientists at Plymouth University are seeking to advance plankton science. Dr Matthew Holland says, “Plankton support the entire marine food web and generate much of the oxygen we breathe.”
No Waste Left Behind: Insect Frass Can Improve Soil Fertility (US Dept of Agriculture, 29 Jan 2025). Agricultural scientists at the USDA have done experiments to determine the benefits of insect frass (insect waste, a mixture of excreta, feed, and molted skins) on plants. While farmers are taking a new look at this biological resource, it should be noted that insects have been providing this nourishment to soils ever since they were created on the planet.
Insect droppings, commonly known as insect frass, may seem useless and downright disgusting, but scientists found that this waste can improve soil health when added as a fertilizer in farming.
Bacteria found to eat forever chemicals — and even some of their toxic byproducts (University of Buffalo, 23 Jan 2025). Forever chemicals are not forever. Scientists at the University of Buffalo found that bacteria—among the simplest of microbes—can break the seemingly indestructible bonds of PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) that environmentalists worry about. Not only that, they can metabolize the molecules and “eat” these “forever chemicals.” The bacteria are not fast, but they can do it. With a little genetic engineering, perhaps their superpower could be sped up.
“Many previous studies have only reported the degradation of PFAS, but not the formation of metabolites. We not only accounted for PFAS byproducts but found some of them continued to be further degraded by the bacteria,” says the study’s first author, Mindula Wijayahena, a PhD student in Aga’s lab.
The scientists claimed that the bacterial strain “evolved” the ability to do this, but actually the species already had the basic ability. The team gathered the bacteria from polluted soil samples that “previously demonstrated the ability to strip fluorine from pharmaceutical contaminants.” When exposed to PFAS, the bacteria succeeded in breaking it down within 100 days. That’s not evolution; it’s learning. The species was the same; there was no origin of species.
Recommended Resource: If you enjoy learning about the remarkable fitness of our planet for life, you will learn a great deal more from Michael Denton‘s Privileged Species books. Denton is not a creationist, but is awestruck by the many “coincidences” of nature that allow life to exist—not only simple life, but complex life and intelligent beings like us who are able to use fire and create technology. The narrow margins of physics and chemistry that make these things possible are truly astonishing.
Denton believes in deep time and has his own ideas about how these coincidences came to be, but Bible believers will rejoice at the actual scientific evidence he shares. If you only get one of the books, get his last one: The Miracle of Man. It encapsulates many of the evidences from the other books.
You can also watch the videos featuring Denton by the Discovery Institute: playlist here. Denton’s first book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985) was influential in promoting the intelligent design movement (watch short review by Michael Behe). I did not feel that his follow-up book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016) was as beneficial to readers, since he advocates his own “structuralist” view of evolution. Nevertheless, Denton is a remarkable voice from within the scientific establishment willing and able to point out the flaws in traditional Darwinism, and his ability to describe wonders of life approaches rhapsodic without becoming prosaic.