3 ms·

I had a nightmare where we bred some super plankton to capture CO2 and it quickly colonized and killed the entire ocean and we doomed the world. On the bright s

I had a nightmare where we bred some super plankton to capture CO2 and it quickly colonized and killed the entire ocean and we doomed the world. On the bright side, if this were possible, plankton would have already done it right?

card_zero 3mo ago
Yup. I'm sure they tried at some point and got beaten into equilibrium by other slimy things that were also trying to proliferate.
- yorwba 3mo ago
  Not without first filling the oceans and atmosphere with toxic amounts of oxygen, driving all slimy things that couldn't adapt fast enough into extinction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event On the plus side, since we descend from slimy things that survived the carnage, we have fairly good oxygen tolerance and completely removing all CO₂ might not even hurt all that much.
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  - wizzwizz4 3mo ago
    Provided that the things that used up all the CO₂ were close enough to eat, anyway. Otherwise we'd be left without any agriculture, which would be bad.
emmelaich 3mo ago
Phytoplankton produce about half the oxygen produced on the planet. So, unlikely.