What If The Oxygen On Earth Doubled?

What If Oxygen Doubled in Earth's Atmosphere?

now they often say that too much of a good thing is often bad but what if we applied that same idiom to the most essential component of our insured human survival oxygen the breath of life sweet sweet fresh air the best friend to our lungs our blood and our brains and the only reason that we can continue watching this video for the next nine or so minutes oxygen is awesome and it's safe to say that without it we wouldn't ever be around to posit ourselves upon this particular hypothetical notion now although we've covered the Earth's supply of oxygen cutting out in various experimental LV cues today let's see what life would be like with more of the stuff and believe me things would be much more interesting than you might first have expected.

now flowing voice Jack Finch as today we cure ask the question what if the oxygen on earth doubled pull the clip then volumes acidosis yeah for the curious amongst you that clip was from the 2000 sci-fi film red planet starring Val Kilmer and Simon Baker and although that scene, in particular, was perhaps the complete opposite as to the implications of this life's biggest question for those of you that have already seen the final events of Red Planet you'll know that putting oxygen in places that it doesn't belong more often than not is a pretty bad thing.

but let's forget all about Mars in this particular situation and instead focus on our own loveable pale blue dot of a planet Earth and to first address this hypothetical question we can actually turn our minds to the long-forgotten places of ancient history to get a better handle on how things would play out if the oxygen on earth doubled interestingly enough through all manners of geology we can turn the clock back to a time where the abundance of life-giving air was in fact exactly that double Wow nearly anyway over 300 million years ago Earth's atmosphere was around 31 to 35 percent oxygen nearly a third more than what it is now and the effects that had on the floor and fauna that populated our planet at the time were staggering as we mentioned previously oxygen is the most important element as humans and as far as life is concerned it is the fundamental building block for life to create energy and vice-versa.

so then you could easily imagine that with twice the amount of oxygen would come twice the amount of light for in this case twice the size of life yes stick with me during prehistoric times in an age where gigantic lizards roam the earth even insects were more than twice the size of what they are now over eons as these creatures breathed the densely oxidized environment filtering through their trachea and the spiracles which connect their tissues that need oxygen the enriched source of atmosphere caused their bodies to expand and rapidly kick-start their evolutionary growth rate in most cases dragonflies were the size of Hawks and even smaller species of spiders were the size of large pigeons there was even a six-foot centipede roaming around in North America and Scotland that's pretty terrifying right in fact if the oxygen on earth doubled right this second to the levels that they were at during the Pennsylvanian period of the Paleozoic era the effects that it would have on the human body would be immediately staggering compared to the hundreds of thousands of years that these giant insects had to adapt and thrive if we stepped outside and breathe in the fresh air of an oxygen doubled environment we'd more than likely be hit with such an immediate head rush that we'd straight up pass out our brains would be drunk off of the dizzying potency of the air itself and we very quickly understand just exactly how delicate a current ecosystem is however once we'd adapted to this oxygen doubled environment we'd potentially be able to reap a wide variety of anatomical benefits due to the brand-new abundance and availability of oxygen to your lungs with every breath you take and every move you make your physical stamina would increase tremendously in this new environment the blood that pumps through your veins would become.

so oxygen-rich and your muscles so energized that even an average ly healthy human would be able to perform on par with the most capable of professional athletes students across the globe would rejoice as the improved circulation of the human body made drastic changes in the effectiveness of human concentration and even the most astonishing of human minds currently thinking would be inundated with Eureka after Eureka as their brain gobbled up more oxygen this newfound productivity for the human race would be incredibly short-lived and it may quickly seem that too much of a good thing is indeed in this case a very bad thing because in reality although in the short term our bodies would reap the benefit of double the Earth's oxygen in the long run it would also slash our lives and pretty much in half you see oxygen is a free-radical and in the scientific world that pretty much means that it does what it wants at a cellular level often resulting in the detriment of a system in many ways oxygen is a double-edged sword for all its positives it's also a toxic element in this case more oxygen would mean more oxidative stress on our metabolism which would lead to rapid cellular damage and could even cause adverse effects on our central nervous system we'd age faster the cellular structure of our skin would diminish quicker and all in all we'd live much shorter lives than.

what we do now if the oxygen on earth doubled and if that didn't hammer home the duplicity nature of an oxygen abundant environment then we'd also need to address the fact that things tend to catch fire them all the oxygen is present yeah now although this isn't one of those instant global firestorm type of situations it could in fact very quickly and very easily lead to one again if we look back at prehistory where the atmosphere was nearly 35% oxygen the Paleozoic landscape was littered by continent-wide wildfires thanks to the oxygen density having a habit of spurring on even the smallest of combustion x' if you lit a campfire on our hypothetical earth in the middle of a dry forest it would instantly ignite everything with the presence of more oxygen as fuel continental wildfires would become the norm and humanity bare hope that the increased physical capabilities bestowed upon them were put to good use in order to ensure our survival on the upside though mountainous regions such as the Himalayas would quickly become much more human-friendly environment.

so if the worst came to worse we could always seek refuge under the shadow of Mount Everest where the atmospheric pressure would be much easier for us to stomach or breathe I guess if all of this has got you a little worried at the prospect of the earth suddenly bursting with an abundance of more oxygen then please don't panic because thankfully for us our wonderful planet called Earth has spent millennia cultivating the delicately crafted atmosphere to ensure that we're all comfortable and relatively healthy humans that can happily contribute to our planets continued success in a perfectly balanced 21% oxygen environment it took a while to get there but hey at least 6 foot centipedes aren't a thing anymore right.