Oxygen level
 

On 03/08/2010 16:34, Mr.B1ack wrote:
wrote:

On Aug 2, 7:29 pm, wrote:
Why isn't the oxygen level being depleted with all the defoliation and
burning. All the petrolium being burned for everything and the wasteful
burning off of gas and oil slicks. Coal burning power plants. Waste to
energy burning, wild fires and underground coal mines on fire.
If oxygen is not being depleted, why didn't the levels go way up before
the industrial revolution?

Ø ROTFLMAO ?
Between 1820 and 1850 CO2 levels all
exceeded anything recorded since 1960

? 1946 CO2 = 550 ppm

FoS Preindustrial CO2

Actually, the CO2 level had been pretty
steady around 280 ppm for centuries -
at least until the 20th century came 'round.

The oxygen question is kind of interesting, but
the answer is that you don't have to use up much
oxygen to generate too much CO2. With O2 levels
at around 210,000 ppm you won't even notice if
100-odd ppm gets converted to CO2.

EVENTUALLY O2 levels might drop some, if 'GW'
and pollution put a big hurt on terrestrial and
oceanic photosynthetics. Frankly, I'd be more
concerned about 'pollution' than CO2 ... since
the bulk of O2 production is from the ocean.
Plankton levels are already in noticible decline.

And the decrease in atmospheric O2 has been monitored since instruments
capable of measuring the roughly 20% of it with 5 sig fig accuracy have
become available. Interestingly it is Ralph the son of Charles Keeling
who measured the CO2 curve that leads the field in these measurements.

See for example: http://scrippso2.ucsd.edu/

Regards,
Martin Brown