One of the many components that make life on Earth possible is oxygen. But a new study says the extreme drop in oxygen could one day suffocate most life on our planet. Fortunately, this event is not expected to happen for at least another billion years.
The new study, published in Nature Geoscience in March 2021, says that the extreme drop in oxygen levels could return the Earth to its state before the so-called Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which is theorized to have occurred about 2.4 billion years ago.
If this theory becomes reality, oxygen levels on Earth will drop dramatically and more methane will fill the atmosphere. Predictably, this change will make life on Earth much less likely, leading to the extinction of any excess life on the planet through asphyxiation. Of course, this isn’t the first scenario we’ve heard about Earth’s dark future.
In fact, we know that the Sun will eventually die and explode outward, destroying many of the planets around it. When this explosion occurs a few billion years from now, it will destroy the remaining atmosphere on Earth, leaving it to be nothing more than a shell as it once was. The fact that all the oxygen on Earth could one day drop to extremes will be just another challenge we must face on the road to the inevitable, if humanity manages to survive by then.
Of course, considering that NASA and other space agencies are already planning to establish a permanent base on the Moon and are looking at ways to send humans to Mars and other planets, it is possible that we will be living on other planets when these events occur. Additionally, some life forms, such as microbial life, can survive on Earth even if there is no oxygen.
Fortunately, it will still be several billion years before we see the consequences of this theory.
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