Our Entire Planet Is Slowing Leaking Oxygen And Scientists Don’t Know Why

Bad news, Earthlings: Our planet is leaking oxygen.

It’s nothing to hold your breath over, but scientists have discovered our atmosphere is losing oxygen at a rate of about .7 percent over the past 800,000 years. While it’s not happening at an alarming rate, the problem is scientists don’t know why it’s happening.

“We did this analysis more out of interest than any expectation,” Princeton University geologist Daniel Stolper said. “We didn’t know whether oxygen would be going up, down, or flat. It turns out there is a very clear trend.”

It’s really not that unusual for our atmospheric composition to change over time. In fact, atmospheric oxygen levels have changed quite drastically over our planet’s history. It’s a delicate balance of nature transforming O2 into water and back into water again, but each time that happens a little bit of our oxygen seems to be getting lost in the mix.

“Every thousand years or so, all of the O2 [in our atmosphere] is turned into water and then back into O2,” Stolper said. “But there’s an ever so slight leak over time, in terms of extra production or consumption.”

There are a few possible explanations as to why this is happening, but scientists can’t say for sure.

“As you cool the oceans, the solubility of oxygen goes up,” Stolper explained. “That means you oxidize more organic carbon [in the ocean] and you have less to put back in the atmosphere.”

Another reason that could be contributing to our oxygen loss is, well, us. The human population has exploded in the last several thousand years, and each new body means a higher overall consumption rate of oxygen.

“We are consuming O2 at a factor of a thousand times faster than before,” Stolper said. “Humankind has completely short-circuited the cycle by burning tons of carbon.”

Thankfully, Stolper says we won’t be running out of air … at least not today.

[ H/T Gizmodo ]