Here's my problem...

[TreasonousBastard]

A few billion years ago the earth didn't have a decent mechanism to utilize carbon, so we had very little CO2 or hydrocarbons in the air.

We did have a lot of oxygen, though, and everythig was frozen.

Gradually, nitrogen fixing and oxygen using bacteria evolved, and we ultimately had a temperate world, with oxygen being about a fifth of the atmosphere.

Now that we're seeing the planet frying and all the CO2 from burning things, howcum the oxygen level remains the same? All that carbon we're buning has to combine with oxygen, so where is the replacement oxygen coming from to maintain that 21 or 22%?

[RockRaven]

1. You realize that CO2 is hundreds of parts per million and O2 is hundreds of parts per thousand,

Last edited Wed Aug 10, 2022, 04:22 PM - Edit history (1)

right? Therein lies your answer...


Edited to correct typo

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Parts of what? If an O2 molecule is 21% of the atmosphere...

burning stuff and creating the heavier cO2 molecule is a question of replacement.

[RockRaven]

5. Forgive my typo, it was parts per million and has been corrected. But to answer your question

of parts per million what? it is "molecules in the atmosphere"

If the atmosphere is 21% O2, you could also call that 210,000 parts per million.
Alternatively you could say that CO2 is now 0.042%, up from 0.035%, or up from 0.028%, etc...

While the rise in CO2 is massive relative to the pre industrial CO2 concentration, the concurrent consumption of O2 in combustion is unnoticeable relative to O2 concentrations (i.e. when rounded to a couple of significant figures).

[Wounded Bear]

2. I think you misunderstand the science, and the history...

IIRC correctly, CO2 levels were much higher in the distant past. It took plant life, mostly in the oceans but on land too, millions of years to rebalance to close to current levels of O2 that supports animal life. In the battle between plants and animals (CO2 users vs O2 users) plants are way ahead, as evidenced by current levels where O2 is at 20% and CO2 is measured in parts per million, currently running around 400 ppm or so and rising at increasing rates.

Actually, O2 levels probably are dropping, just at levels that are difficult to measure accurately.

[IbogaProject]

4. The sun is brighter now than millions of years ago

That is a big issue, and we've never had such a dramatic change in even ten times as long a time frame. Here is a blog written by a professor under a pseudonym, due to fossil fuel advocates terrorizing out spoken scientists. Here it is, there a a set of feedback loops underway that will be difficult to slow down let alone stop. Big countries need to move their nuclear powered military ships to the Artic and Antartic with snow machines to get more snow cover sooner. http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/

[Bayard]

6. I read the article

But didn't see anything about nuclear ships with snow machines.

[IbogaProject]

7. Increasing snow cover is my scheme

Btw it's a blog w multiple posts.

I suggested snow machines as its a crisis already. We need to increase our albedo, our planet's reflectiveness.