In Earth’s past, there wasn’t always oxygen in the atmosphere. Does that mean those conditions could happen again? Scientists are measuring changes in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. They are also measuring increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which comes from car exhaust, forest fires, and from certain ways we make electricity.

It takes two oxygen atoms (and a carbon atom) to make carbon dioxide (CO2). This means that all of these processes that make CO2 are taking oxygen out of the atmosphere. But the formation of oxygen happens at lower rates. Even when you breathe, you’re breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. So every year, as there are more and more people on the planet (over 7.5 billion right now) and as we cut down more forests, we’re consuming oxygen faster than it’s being replaced.

Now, this news is bad when we look at the carbon dioxide. We are also making more carbon dioxide than the Earth’s systems are used to. Increases in carbon dioxide warm up our atmosphere and contribute to climate change. But the good news is this: LOTS of oxygen is already in the atmosphere. Compared to the 20% oxygen that is already there, changes in oxygen every year are less than 0.001%. It would take over 1000 years to really notice a difference.

Additional images via Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay. Power Plant from Pixabay.