When will life disappear from Earth? Scientists predict the future

Scientists have conducted new studies on the future of planet Earth and reported that in about a billion years our planet will experience a shortage of oxygen, which is essential for human life. This was reported by the British BBC Sky at Night, citing an article published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Kazumi Ozaki (Toho University, Japan) and Christopher Reinhard (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) studied the evolution of climate conditions and biochemical processes on Earth more than 400 thousand times using computer models. As a result of their calculations, it became clear that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere of our planet could decrease sharply within the next billion years.

“For many years, the duration of life on Earth was considered mainly in connection with the gradual increase in solar radiation and global carbonate-silicate geochemical processes. "From this theoretical perspective, it is inevitable that the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere will decrease and the temperature will continue to rise," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Kazumi Ozaki.

Scientists have long known that the Earth's biosphere could completely disappear in about two billion years due to extreme warming and a lack of CO2, which is needed for photosynthesis. However, the question of exactly when and how oxygen would disappear in this case remained unknown.

The results of this new study show that the process of deoxygenation will begin about a billion years later, and the Earth's atmosphere will be almost completely deprived of oxygen in a very short time. Scientists say that this situation will be similar to the period before the Great Oxidation Event (the enrichment of the atmosphere with oxygen), a major event in Earth's history.

“After the deoxygenation, the Earth’s atmosphere became saturated with methane, CO2 levels were very low, and the ozone layer was completely depleted. As a result, the Earth’s later periods were dominated by anaerobic organisms,” explains Dr. Ozaki.

The researchers note that the Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere was only present for a very short period of time in its history. It was only around 20-30 percent of its existence in the oxygen-rich atmosphere we see today.

This study provides an opportunity to reassess the sustainability of life on Earth. At the same time, scientists have once again emphasized the need for humans to protect the Earth’s environment and use the planet’s resources wisely. It is increasingly clear that the Earth’s habitable phase has a limited time. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!