fredag 14 januari 2011

When CO2 increases, will all Oxygen be consumed?

The atmosphere contains of 21% oxygen and only 0.04% carbon dioxide (CO2). If we burn all fossil fuels, scientists have estimated that the amount of CO2 could rise to 0.1%. Which means that only a fraction of today's oxygen would be tied up in new CO2. Theoretically, the amount of oxygen would be reduced by almost 2% percentage to 19%.

In the sea there is about 0.001% oxygen so a large part of Earth's organisms have adapted to that level. Even with such a large organsim that Whale sharks get enough oxygen through their gills.

So the reduced amount of oxygen would not be a disaster as such, but many scientists believe that such a dramatic increase of the CO2 content in the athmosphere would.

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