Global Oxygen Depletion

The report this week on the environmental health of the earth is not good. But there is still another factor that we do not seem to be taking into account. Modern technology is reducing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.

This is something that you probably have not thought about. Most fuels that we burn today, including gasoline, are hydrocarbons. That is, their chemical structure is made mostly of carbon and hydrogen atoms. All the attention today seems to be focused on the carbon. This carbon in fuels combines with oxygen during combustion to form carbon dioxide, which is responsible for global warming.

I would like to get you thinking about the hydrogen side of hydrocarbon fuels as well. When hydrogen burns, whether it is pure hydrogen or whether is is part of a larger molecule, two of the released hydrogen atoms combine with one oxygen atom in the air to form a molecule of water, which exits into the atmosphere. The long-term peril that I realized and that no one seems to be paying attention to is that by burning hydrogen or hydrocarbons, we are permanently creating more water at the expense of oxygen. This leaves us with more water and less oxygen in the global environment.

It is more irreversible than the creation of carbon dioxide in the same engine since that will eventually be broken down by plants and the oxygen released back into the atmosphere while the carbon atom goes into building the structure of the plant. But water lasts essentially forever. During the era of automobiles and aircraft, we have been steadily increasing the amount of water in the world at the expense of oxygen.

We do not notice this in our daily lives but if you want to see an example just look up at the contrail (vapor trail) of a plane high in the sky. This contrail appears behind the plane when it is high enough in the sky, meaning the air outside is cold enough, for the water vapor in the engines' exhaust to condense immediately.

This water vapor comes from the hydrogen in the burned fuel combining with oxygen in the air just as the CO2 comes from carbon in the fuel combining with oxygen in the air. The same thing happens at ground level but is not visible to us. This comes at a time when countries across the world are trying to cope with rising sea levels.

There is another peril to oxygen. This one concerns the ever-increasing use of iron to manufacture steel.

As you may know, Iron is mined as ore and then combined with carbon to form steel. The presence of carbon atoms breaks the regular structure of the atoms in iron, thus giving it more strength. Various steels are made by giving the iron a certain concentration of carbon, but the carbon is never more than a few percent of the finished steel. There has only been large-scale steel production for about 150 years, but the modern world would be unimaginable without it.

The iron in steel will react with oxygen in the air to form rust. Regardless of the protection used; paint, galvanizing or, other rustproofing methods, none will last forever. All iron that is taken out of the earth by human beings will eventually turn to rust. Iron pipes were used by the Romans, as were lead pipes, but all that remains of the iron pipes today are rust-colored streaks in the soil. Lead, which is softer but heavier than iron, came into use for pipes because it does not rust.

The iron in the ground does not rust because it exists as ores, and not as pure iron. It originated in iron asteroids which struck the earth. But when we make cars, structures, ships, appliances and, utensils of steel, we are exposing the chemically active iron to oxygen so that it will eventually rust.

When iron does rust, it combines with large quantities of oxygen. Life is actually dependent on this affinity between iron and oxygen because it is why the hemoglobin in blood carries oxygen in the body. If all of the cars in the world suddenly turned to rust, it would take up a significant amount of the oxygen in the atmosphere. So much of what we do in terms of transportation and manufacturing involves the use of oxygen. The air is about 21% oxygen and we act as if there is an unlimited supply.

The modern world is reducing the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere in three major ways. Even a slight decrease in concentration would have widespread ramifications for life on earth. We are permanently removing oxygen with the Hydrogen Peril and this Iron Peril. We are temporarily removing oxygen by creating carbon dioxide. Although this oxygen will eventually be liberated by plants, the increase in carbon dioxide decreases the oxygen available at any given time.

Iron is abundant on earth, indeed it is the most common element on earth by mass and one of the most abundant elements in the Solar System. With an exploding global population, there is ever-increasing demand for steel and only a low percentage of steel is recycled. Eventually, all of it will turn to rust and a vast amount of oxygen will go with it.