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Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

scrippso2.ucsd.edu

21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, the point of that study is that the oxygen levels are not 95%. The pulse oxymeter is wrong, and that study is about determining how wrong it is. The abstract basically says you can subtract the blood carbon monoxide level from the pulse oxymeter's reported blood oxygen level to find the actual blood oxygen level. (They were a bit more precise than that, but it was very nearly one-to-one.) A pulse oxymeter me…

Yes this is correct. Heme binds to CO in the same way it binds to O2–the iron is oxidized and has the same color. This is also the source of carbon monoxide toxicity, as it binds to CO tighter than O2.

Yup. Same reason cyanide is deadly. Ain't chemistry grand? Good for a smoker to know since we're carrying quite a bit more than your average jogger... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboxyhemoglobin#Affinity_of_...

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#22
post #3

Losing O2 isn't a huge deal as humans - it's the outsized effect of replacing O2 with CO2. O2 is 20% of the air, N2 is 78%. CO2 lives in that last little bit and, given its miniscule contribution to composition, has a far outsized effect.

Losing O2 has an effect on cognition.

But in practical circumstances (indoor air) you will suffocate through co2 poisoning long before you would notice less o2.

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#23
This is interesting because it may allow to track how much of co2 in atmosphere is due to burning stuff and how much through natural release (volcanoes, ice caps melting and so on).

Man-initiated processes usually eat up o2, natural processes don’t.

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#25
While the decline in O2 doesn't present any immediate danger, it does bring up an interesting scientific question: why has the Earth's atmosphere's O2 concentration remained within a certain range during the Phanerozoic era (since the Pre-Cambrian)?

Oxygen is produced by photosynthesis, but build up of O2 in the atmosphere is governed by the balance between net O2 production due to burial of organic matter (organic matter left at the surface gets consumed and re-oxidized, causing no net increase in atmospheric O2), and exposure/oxidation of reduced materials in eroded rocks and of reduced gases from volcanoes.

There is no a priori reason why these two processes have to be in balance, and both are expected to be quite variable, affected by climate, tectonics, changes in species, and amount of erosion. Absent photosynthesis, the time scale for the latter processes to deplete the atmosphere of oxygen is only 10 million years or so. Oxidizing reduced materials (organics, but also ferrous iron, other transition elements, and sulfides) in the top 200 meters (IIRC) of the Earth's continents would consume all the atmosphere's oxygen. So, why has O2 not gone to zero (or close to it) at some point in the last 600 million years?

One might argue there's some negative feedback effect, but none has been identified. You might think fire would do it. The idea would be that at high O2 levels, fires would burn even wet wood, turning the world into a blazing inferno with less photosynthesis (never mind that this would not affect phytoplankton, which causes much of the net burial of organic matter). But during the Carboniferous, atmospheric O2 levels reached nearly twice what they are now. That was when 90% of world coal deposits were produced. And fires might even make organic burial worse -- a positive feedback -- by producing charcoal that's highly resistant to decomposition. A significant fraction of coal in Carboniferous coal deposits is in fact charcoal, thought to be from wild fires sweeping across swampy forests.

The explanation for the stability may be anthropic selection. Had O2 crashed to near zero, higher life (including vertebrates) would have been wiped out, and we would not be here. If our descendants explore the galaxy and its Earth-like planets, they might find that this long run of luck is extremely uncommon. If this is the case, then humanity is going to have to take control of O2 levels in the future, as past luck is no guarantee of future luck.

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#26
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 * 0.0019% = 0.00095 1000 * 0.0019% = 1.9%

Previous commenter said if the loss accelerates. Larger and larger changes each year would be more than worrisome.

To play devil's advocate: Nothing suggests the trend will accelerate. It is just as likely to decelerate.

Re: Scripps O2 Global Oxygen Measurements

#27
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a 0.0019% decrease, not very significant is it?

Not today, but the trend is worrying, especially if the rate increases. What will this look like in 50 years? 1,000?

It's not worrying at all because the rate is low, linear and predictable.

Can you elaborate on why would the rate increase?

Or are you saying that simply was the most alarming thing you could come up with in the context of this discussion, and the rate is just as likely to remain the same or decrease?

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