That's quite a scattering of statements there, evidently all pointing to man-made global warming and the propagation of fear, uncertainty and doom. All of which are no basis for rational problem solving. I liken it to shoot first, aim second and hope third.
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This segues nicely into the other part of the equation,
The equation of...? What? This post was started by the story of the discovery of a vast amount of shale oil. Not MMGW, nor oxygen depletion. Why fork the thread with your fear & anxiety? What purpose does alarmism serve except to alarm? The propagation of fear is a political tool.
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...do we have enough O2 in the atmosphere?
For what? Respiration? Combustion? Oxidation? How much is enough and how much is too little? Your statement implies there is a finite source of oxygen, and once used up that's it. Nothing could be further from the Truth. It reflects a scarcity mentality. The Earth is about 4,500,000,000 years old. Modern man is about 35,000 yrs old. If oxygen depletion were real, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this. Mankind wouldn't never made it. Period. That's a lot of time between the two. There's a good reason why there is far more nitrogen in the atmosphere than oxygen: Mother Nature said so. There's also a reason why smoking isn't allowed near oxygen tents. Think about it...and relax.
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And how much of a burden can we place on Earth?
We? As in mankind? This is more of this ego-centric view that mankind is 'powerfull' enough to 'destroy' Earth. What a vain, narcissistic age we live in. Mankind has nowhere near that much power. Man is not some omnipotent God. That's not only fantasy but pure dellusion. How sad we have such confusion in our modern age discerning the difference. From a scientific view, about 70% of the Earth's surface is ocean. Of the remaining 30%, how much is habitable? Even less. And who is doing the vast majority of the crowing?
Politicians. Do you really believe a politician? Any politician?
You want to know who is REALLY LHAO? Mother Nature. At the vanity of these true believers. She's in charge. She has the power. Her timeframe is far, far longer than ours.
Lastly, all the nuclear weapons ever built are no match compared to the eruption of Krakatoa. Not even close. Billions and billions and billions of tons of ash, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, hydroflouric acid, carbon dioxide, water and heat rocketed straight up into the upper levels of the atmosphere. Beyond 100,000 feet. Talk about screwing with the ozone layer. That's what you call a climate-changing event. Not some guy driving his truck to work. Or having a BBQ with his friends & family in his backyard. Or discharging "CFC's" by painting his kids wagon. No telling how much oxygen was consumed in that event. Yet here we are, still breathing.
But there was another, even worse. Far worse: The eruption of Tambora. That one takes the cake as the largest eruption ever in recorded history. Much more oxygen consumed in this apocolyptic explosion. And plenty of CFC's were inserted into the upper levels of the atmosphere...for decades. So why wasn't the ozone layer destroyed? Why don't we all have skin-cancer now?
The Ring of Fire encircles the Earth. And don't forget all the big volcanos erupting under the ocean. Remember, the ocean covers about 70% of the surface area. And yes, there are numerous volcanic eruptions going on underwater. Why haven't the oceans been poisoned by it?
If you want something to fear. Fear Mother Nature. She has no regard what-so-ever for inflicting severe damage to and upon mankind. And she has a very long history of doing so.
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Imagine holding the Earth at arms' length, a globe 7 inches in diameter. The breathable atmosphere is only .002 inches (2 thousanths) thick, the total atmosphere is less than .100 thick, a limited resource.
Yea...more fear mongering, paranoia, anxiety, insecurity, etc. "Our fragile Earth", eh? Remember she's about 4.5 billion years old. That's quite a legacy. You can scale anything to make a point. But lets leave the fear propaganda behind and talk about reality.
The Earth isn't a ball 7" in diameter: It's roughly 7,961 miles (12,756Km) in diameter....at the equator. It isn't even round. It bulges in the equitorial region. Remember that water thing? And further, like any spinning object, it wobbles on its axis. 2,000 yrs ago the North Star wasn't the North Star. Because the North axis didn't point at Polaris. And let's not leave out the Moon, nor the effect its gravity has on our planets shape and our planets rotational stability, which greatly influenced Earths environment to be stable enough to support any life, including our own.
You can think gravity for our atmosphere and our molten, metallic core for our strong magnetic field. Because without it, we might not have one. After all, Mars doesn't have either.
Breathable atmosphere? Since most humans, reptiles, mammals, and birds live near the ground and we can travel to just about anywhere on the Earths surface, relatively close to the gound and still breathe enough oxygen to support life, even near volcano craters, whats the surface area of the Earth roughly? 510,000,000 square kM's or 196,912,101 sqr. miles. All containing breathable air for humans and animals, from the North pole to the equator to the South pole and across every sqr. in of ocean....surface.
Yeah...just surface. As in right-down-on-it. Not an inch up, nor a foot, nor a meter. There is plenty of oxygen right at the surface, plenty to support human and animal life. People who swim in pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans breath air right at the surface. Whales & dolphins & porpoises and other marine mammals also breathe air right at the surface. They can't stand up, above the surface to breathe, can they? No; they're right at the air/water boundry. And though marine mammals must live in water, they're incapable of extracting oxygen from it because they have lungs, like us, not gills.
Lets take another example. There is even breathable air
in the Earth! In the Earth of all places. Imagine that! Yep..man can go down in deep caves and breathe air. How else did he explore caves? Thousands of years ago? Lots of breathable air in lots of caves. The air even WHOOSHES out of the mouth of some. Where in the world would that come from.
OK so given the small size of an oxygen molecule and a rough surface area of 196,912,101
square miles, imagine how much oxygen there is. That's a phenomental amount! I'll leave you to work out a rough number. And remember, we're still only at the surface.
The highest elevation I've ever been at is 14,000 feet and yes, I could breathe there. No doubt it's a bit thin and I spend most of my time at around 650 feet above MSL, but I walked around up there for a few hours, hiking, and didn't pass out from lack of oxygen. Nor was I alone.
So what kind of
volume are we talking about, at a height of 14,000 feet above the
surface of the Earth? Dam big number? Dam straight.
Roughly: 1,852,250,000,000
cubic miles! Give or take a few......all full of breathable oxygen, all being pushed around by the jet stream and wind. Mother Natures vast mixer powered by solar energy!
I don't call that a "limited resource." Not by any means. Fortunately, Mother Nature rules not mankind, else we'd be extinct.
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I'm going to crawl under a chair now...
I think you ought to stand on top of it and take a really deep breath of air. There's no shortage of oxygen. You can travel all over the Earth and still breathe. In the mountains, in the deserts, even in caves. There is air everywhere.
So take a deep breath....and relax.
