I read an interesting article the other day about the level of oxygen in our atmosphere.
Its not something you really hear anybody focus on.
Here we are in the 21st century. About 70,000 years ago we started out on a journey that has seen humankind cover the plant in a mass of people, oxygen breathing people, and we have this terrible habit of exploiting everything we find to exhaustion.
As we increase in population every day, we also remove and use more of the forests and plant life that gives us air to breathe.
As drinking water becomes more scarce, we have begun to use the oceans for our drinking water – and no doubt one day we will exhaust that resource.
And whilst we worry about causing rising sea levels, a minor inconvenience for some, nobody seems to pay any attention to the levels of oxygen in our atmosphere.
Did you know that our atmosphere is only 12kms thick? This precious envelope that gives us life is like the thin skin on an apple.
Not only is the atmosphere thin but it is made up of only 21% oxygen, and the oxygen in our atmosphere wasnt always there. It has only been there for the last billion years or so.
So we know that it is finite, very finite, and we know that we use it up every day. We also know that we use more of the oxygen in the atmosphere than is put back by natural processes.
Studies have shown that amount of oxygen in the atmosphere over the last 10 years has been declining. Its a slow and very small decline, but its happening.
Scientists will tell you that there is no problem with the level of oxygen in our atmosphere.But consider these issues…
1) the numbers suggest a small decline in oxygen in our atmosphere.
2) the number of people using oxygen is not reducing, it is increasing every year.
3) the amount of pollutants going into our atmosphere increases every year.
4) the number of trees and plants that would put oxygen back into the atmosphere decreases each year.
I have seen an estimate that indicates we have about 60,000 years of oxygen left in our atmosphere.
But that is not the important figure because we can not survive on 1 or 2% of oxygen.
The important figure is 15 %, because at that level of oxygen the effect is similar to living at 10,000 feet and at this level most humans suffer from lack of oxygen. Comprehension is reduced, coordination is reduced.
Today we have 21% oxygen in atmosphere. We will be in trouble if that number reduces to 15%.
We know that the percentage is declining, slowly, and we know all the activities that humans undertake are going to increase the rate of oxygen depletion.
I imagine that we will the 15% oxygen mark in the atmosphere somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years from now. That is not much time left for humankind to figure out what it is doing and how it can have a future.
