Elon Musk may be talking about sending humans to Mars, and Bill Gates may be talking about reversing climate change – but the air we breathe may soon run out.
/ our oxygen-rich atmosphere can only last a billion years, finds a new study. Published in journal in Natural Sciences, entitled ‘The Future Life of the Earth’s Oxygen-Like Atmosphere’, explains that even if it does not happen in the near future, it will happen fairly quickly when the change comes.
This shift will bring the planet back to something like the state it was in before the launch of the Great Oxidation Event, about 2.4 billion years ago. “The lifespan of oxygen-based biosignatures in the Earth’s atmosphere remains uncertain, especially in the distant future,” the scientists wrote in their paper.
They also explain what the oxygen shortage will look like, “with atmospheric O2 dropping sharply to levels reminiscent of the Archaic Earth, likely to be caused before humid greenhouse conditions in the Earth’s climate system and before the great loss of surface water. from the atmosphere. ”
They also elaborate that it may be unavoidable – “Future detoxification is an inevitable consequence of increasing solar currents, while its exact timing is modulated by the alternating current of reduced force between the mantle and the ocean-atmosphere crust system.”
Scientists had previously predicted that increased radiation from the sun would wipe the ocean water from our planet in about 2 billion years, but the new model – based on an average of just under 400,000 simulations – says the reduction in oxygen will kill. from life.
“The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme,” said Earth scientist Chris Reinhard of the Georgia Institute of Technology New scientist. “We’re talking about a million times less oxygen than today.”
Researchers have also stressed that it is possible that we need to hunt for other biosignatures besides oxygen to get the best chance of spotting life.