3 ms·
> Mr. R&D: Hello, what I can do for you? > MC: We think there is a dangerous situation developing, because oxygen levels have gotten higher every year and they
by BorisTheBrave 6y ago
> Mr. R&D: Hello, what I can do for you?
> MC: We think there is a dangerous situation developing, because oxygen levels have gotten higher every year and they might now be at 35 percent.
> Mr. R&D: So?
> MC: With indigestible lignin, there is nothing to keep it from continuing to go up.
This part is misleading. Evolution has no capacity to look ahead to future disasters (as the mass extinction later demonstrates). I understand that lignin digestion was evolved for the same reason we burn coal - a hitherto untapped source of engergy.
- samstave 6y agoIm not sure if this is an accurate correlation, but i recall hearing; The reason for mega flora and fauna (really large animals and plants) was due to a much higher % of oxygen in the atmosphere.... However, on the conspiracy spectrum, there was this russian kid who supposedly channeled living previously on mars who states that they had really really long life spans, but it is the fact that life on earth consumes much more oxygen, and it is oxygen that reduces overall life span - which is interesting when rated to vedic ancient books which talk of lives being ~900 years plus.... Only idiots downvote without comment... —- So the documentary i linked to states that hummingbirds have developed a hemoglobin that absorbs oxygen at even 6% which is the same as 40,000 feet - as compared to 21% at sea level.... https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/super-hummingbirds-full-episode/14586/ https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/super-hummingbirds-full-epis...
- lawlessone 6y agoWe don't have megafauna today because our ancestors ate them. Mammoths, Giant Australian birds, giant groundsloths, all disappeared when we showed up.
- koheripbal 6y agoYes - but there were larger animals (including huge insects) millions of years prior to that - and many scientists suspect it's due to higher amounts of O2.
- phonypc 6y agoIIRC, oxygen concentration is theorized to be a factor in the large size of carboniferous insects only. Not relevant to e.g. large reptiles in later periods.
- metacritic12 6y agoAlso evolution probably didn't involve any conversation or human language at all. I think the author admits that this is tongue-in-cheek style like the short fables on how camels got their hump.
- BinRoo 6y agoThat dialogue would be quite boring if it were more precisely tuned to science.
- xeromal 6y agolol, leave it to engineers to be a buzzkill. I thought the story was cute and it informed me on a few things too!
- xeromal 6y agoOh jeez loueez, it's a story.
- emiliobumachar 6y ago+1. Besides being a good story, the piece is also informative, and that part, unfortunately, is misinformation. On the other hand, let me introduce a wild hypothesis: There are millions of planets out there just like Earth, except that microorganisms there never got around to digesting lignin. Deadwood and oxygen piled up on the ground and in the atmosphere respectively, until an epic fire decimated the biosphere, and only microscopic ocean life remained, if as much. The oldest such planets light up every billion years or so. The cycle is too short for complex life to get intelligent. This process is The Great Filter [1]. Earth is the only exception. If that's true, than Mr. R&D did care a lot about future disasters. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- kremlin 6y agoI had this thought while I was reading this. when he said the bit about there being so much oxygen in the atmosphere that the whole thing could light on fire, I thought, "maybe there's some planet that that happened on. maybe most planets with live have that happen eventually".