Environmental awareness
Stories and commentaries about environmental awareness and ideas for how to make the world a better place.
We often take breathing for granted, but our bodies process 8,300 liters of air every day to get the oxygen we need to survive. In this article, I show the math and compare this amount to how much a tree produces, and how much a car burns. This is part of my Global Oxygen Depletion series.
I think butterflies are one of the most amazing animals on Earth. And you can raise them right in your own backyard. Plant milkweed, watch tiny striped caterpillars grow, and witness the miraculous transformation from chrysalis to butterfly. Along the way, you’ll explore big questions about migration, instinct, and nature’s hidden mysteries. You might even find one in yourself.
Aquatic deoxygenation is accelerating worldwide, prompting scientists to propose it as a new planetary boundary. But the ocean’s 2% oxygen loss reveals an even bigger, overlooked threat: most of that oxygen outgasses into the atmosphere, masking the true rate of atmospheric decline. This article breaks down the science, the math, and why these hidden feedbacks may push Earth closer to an additional tipping point no one is talking about.
Like me, you may surprised to learn that there will never be more oxygen on the Earth (or in our solar system) than there is right now. And when it comes to the breathable kind, there will be less and less oxygen until it is gone, though, luckily, that could take billions of years.
This article is more for scientists and field researchers. A practical step forward in determining global oxygen depletion rates. A conclusion to decades of research.
Have you ever wondered how much breathable air is on Earth, and if we'll ever run out? Our atmosphere is paper-thin relative to a basketball, and we use its oxygen to power internal combustion engines, create electricity, and manufacture products (cement, chemicals, plastic). Worse, we are destroying the plants that make more breathable oxygen.
I calculate how much oxygen a tree breathes and how much excess oxygen a tree produces in three different ways. Spoiler alert: It's not a lot.
Ten reasons why we might be measuring oxygen in the atmosphere wrong. And how global oxygen depletion may be a hidden driver of climate change.
I demonstrate how to calculate the mass of oxygen in the atmosphere. And I talk about ten reasons why the accepted values may be wrong.
What happens when you turn a patch of grass into a tiny wild world? In this Backyard Adventure, a simple change invites butterflies, birds, and all kinds of surprising creatures to move in—and shows how even the smallest yard can become its own ecosystem.
What if the driver of climate change is NOT carbon dioxide but oxygen depletion? See the math to compare CO2 emissions to oxygen burned.
There are many ways oxygen is burned/consumed/oxidized. It is a very reactive element. We highlight the major natural causes, like: respiration, decomposition, forest fires, rust and more.