“If all the stuff on earth that consumed oxygen disappeared then the levels would be stable for a long time” yea, buddy, that’s kinda just how that works.
That’s not what I meant, I meant if all organic life that produces oxygen disappeared.
Photosynthesis is generally so slow at it’s job that the current oxygen levels were only built up over hundreds of millions of years. Furthermore, Rubisco, a key enzyme in photosynthesis, surprisingly, is slow and not very good at distinguishing oxygen from carbon dioxide, because it evolved before there was much oxygen on Earth. Therefore a lot of oxygen was produced at the beginning, most of the oxygen we have today in fact, and then not very much thereafter.
Additionally, the Earth’s oxygen levels stay stable due to the release of oxygen trapped in minerals. Over those hundreds of millions of years, they absorbed it. This absorption and release has kept levels stable for well beyond our existence.
At least that’s what I got from the PBS video. If you don’t agree, go argue with them, I’m no expert. I’m just forwarding what I learned.
Yeah it was refreshing to read the detailed reply to you because the initial comment had the tone of “I just learned a sweet climate change hoax gotcha on talk radio / youtube” when I read it. It’s not necessarily their fault. That’s just how anti-science conservatives sometimes word their hot takes.
And honestly, I was giving them a little more than that but I’m still getting really frustrated at the abyssmal communication skills, both reading and writing, that I keep seeing on the internet these days. People will either make it your fault because they “meant something else” or take something absurdly clear like “I like the colour blue” and still somehow come to the conclusion that you actually hate all colour.
“If all the stuff on earth that consumed oxygen disappeared then the levels would be stable for a long time” yea, buddy, that’s kinda just how that works.
That’s not what I meant, I meant if all organic life that produces oxygen disappeared.
Photosynthesis is generally so slow at it’s job that the current oxygen levels were only built up over hundreds of millions of years. Furthermore, Rubisco, a key enzyme in photosynthesis, surprisingly, is slow and not very good at distinguishing oxygen from carbon dioxide, because it evolved before there was much oxygen on Earth. Therefore a lot of oxygen was produced at the beginning, most of the oxygen we have today in fact, and then not very much thereafter.
Additionally, the Earth’s oxygen levels stay stable due to the release of oxygen trapped in minerals. Over those hundreds of millions of years, they absorbed it. This absorption and release has kept levels stable for well beyond our existence.
At least that’s what I got from the PBS video. If you don’t agree, go argue with them, I’m no expert. I’m just forwarding what I learned.
It may behoove you to say what you mean, then, and to forward accurate information.
Sounds interesting, with this additional clarity, so I may check that video out in the future.
Yeah it was refreshing to read the detailed reply to you because the initial comment had the tone of “I just learned a sweet climate change hoax gotcha on talk radio / youtube” when I read it. It’s not necessarily their fault. That’s just how anti-science conservatives sometimes word their hot takes.
Exactly yea lol
And honestly, I was giving them a little more than that but I’m still getting really frustrated at the abyssmal communication skills, both reading and writing, that I keep seeing on the internet these days. People will either make it your fault because they “meant something else” or take something absurdly clear like “I like the colour blue” and still somehow come to the conclusion that you actually hate all colour.
It’s so tiring.