is the world growing because when a plant dies and returns to compost a new one grows….so is the world staying the

Question: is the world growing because when a plant dies and returns to compost a new one grows....so is the world staying the same size?
- Keywords:
  compost
Asked by joel123 to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 19 Jun 2011.
- Barbara Guinn answered on 17 Jun 2011:
  
  I think the world is shrinking. As it spins round there is centrifugal (spinning) force pulling everything in but extremely slowly….
- Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 18 Jun 2011:
  
  This is a lovely question.
  I have a garden with a compost, and I like the idea that one plant becoming compost provides another plant with the food and means to grow.
  
  I don’t think that the world is growing, the earth itself isn’t getting bigger – but we are – there are more of us than ever, and the earth is definitely more busy than it has been.
- James Jennings answered on 19 Jun 2011:
  
  I think that not all of the parts of the plant will appear in the new plant. We can tell this from fossil fuels. These are found under layers and layers of rock and beneath the sea, and were formed millions of years ago from old buried trees. The trees then decomposed into their elements- mostly carbon and hydrogen. So I would say that the layers made by years and years of dying plants is causing an increase in size. However, this may be balanced out by the spinning force that Barbara mentioned!

Question: is the world growing because when a plant dies and returns to compost a new one grows....so is the world staying the same size?