What If Earth’s Atmosphere Was Pure Oxygen?

WHAT IF

We require oxygen to live. So would an atmosphere composed of 100% oxygen be good thing?

Transcript

00:00 Imagine striking a match

00:02 and having everything around you catch on fire.

00:05 Even if you were standing in a wet forest.

00:08 And while that's happening,

00:10 imagine being chased by giant insects.

00:13 These are just a few of the things that would happen

00:16 if you lived in a world

00:17 where the atmosphere was pure oxygen.

00:21 What other things would happen on Earth?

00:24 Would you be able to survive this?

00:27 This is WHAT IF,

00:29 and here's what would happen

00:30 if Earth's atmosphere was pure oxygen.

00:34 Oxygen takes up just over 20% of our atmosphere.

00:38 The rest is mainly nitrogen.

00:40 It's no secret that you need oxygen.

00:43 It allows us to breathe,

00:44 and it's responsible for all forms of life.

00:47 If there were no oxygen in the atmosphere,

00:49 everything would die, including you.

00:53 But what would happen

00:55 if the atmosphere was nothing but oxygen?

00:59 At first, it may sound like a good thing.

01:01 Oxygen is what helps us live

01:03 and gives our bodies energy.

01:05 More of it has to be a good thing, right?

01:07 There are even oxygen bars all around the world

01:10 that offer hits of 95% oxygen.

01:13 These services claim a number of things,

01:15 from making you more productive at work,

01:18 to being able to cure your hangover.

01:21 If you were able to breathe 100% oxygen all the time,

01:25 would it make you an extremely energetic,

01:27 superhuman version of yourself?

01:29 Nope, not at all.

01:32 "Hey!"

01:34 Too much oxygen is actually a bad thing.

01:37 At a certain point,

01:38 it can be downright poisonous for humans.

01:41 If you breathe in too much oxygen too fast,

01:44 it creates free radicals.

01:46 Free radicals are unstable atoms

01:48 that damage cells,

01:49 and they're linked to a variety of diseases,

01:52 including cancer and Alzheimer's.

01:55 They're also thought to be linked to things like

01:57 wrinkles and gray hair.

01:58 So if we were able to survive an extended period of time

02:02 with pure oxygen in the atmosphere,

02:04 we'd most likely appear much older.

02:06 But that could only happen if we evolved

02:09 and adapted to live in an oxygen-only atmosphere.

02:13 If it happened instantly,

02:14 your chest would be hurting each time you took a deep breath.

02:17 Fluid would accumulate in your lungs,

02:19 and you'd start to become dizzy and lightheaded.

02:22 As you kept breathing,

02:23 your lungs would begin to get damaged,

02:25 and so would your brain,

02:27 until you lost consciousness and died.

02:30 For insects, it might be a different story.

02:33 Around 300 million years ago,

02:35 giant insects roamed the Earth.

02:37 At that time,

02:38 the Earth's atmosphere was 35% oxygen,

02:41 a lot more than the 20% we breathe today.

02:44 Researchers suspect that the increased oxygen

02:47 was responsible for those giant insects.

02:50 It had to do with the tracheal system,

02:52 a network of tubes that brings oxygen to the insect's cells

02:55 and takes away carbon dioxide.

02:57 If there was more oxygen in the atmosphere,

02:59 the insects' tracheas would expand,

03:02 and their bodies would get bigger.

03:04 But what about those crazy fires we mentioned before?

03:08 Well, if you happened to survive long enough to light a match,

03:11 you wouldn't last too long after that.

03:13 As soon as you brought your flame to something, anything,

03:16 it would instantly catch fire in a massive explosion.

03:20 You see, oxygen is a key ingredient

03:22 to what makes a fire spread and expand.

03:25 If we only had oxygen in our atmosphere,

03:27 our fires would become massive.

03:30 What was once a small campfire

03:32 would now be a fiery explosion.

03:35 So even if you could breathe in an atmosphere of pure oxygen,

03:39 the giant insects and the Earth burning all around you

03:42 would make life pretty tough, even impossible.

03:45 The only way to survive would be to adapt,

03:47 and to make sure fires never happened.

03:50 What would your life be like without fire?

03:53 Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.

03:57 (upbeat music)

04:00 (upbeat music)

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