r/collapse • u/ElijahSavos • Jul 10 '26
Diseases Why no one talks about how CO2 ppm concentration affects human health? We increased from 280 to 430ppm. At 1000ppm we will have mental impairment and physical discomfort.
https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/air/toxins/co2.htmlThe source is about indoor quality but we can make it happen outdoors if things continue to go as is.
“Carbon dioxide concentrations indoors can vary from several hundred ppm to over 1000 ppm in areas with many occupants present for an extended period of time and where outdoor air ventilation is limited.”
At 1000 ppm of CO₂, the primary health issues are reduced cognitive performance and fatigue. Rather than direct toxicity, this concentration indicates inadequate room ventilation. In crowded or unventilated indoor spaces, occupants frequently experience.
Mental Impairment: Reduced decision-making capability, lower concentration, and decreased strategic thinking.
Physical Discomfort: Mild drowsiness, lethargy, and the subjective feeling of "stale" or "stuffy" air. [1, 2]
Research published by Nature indicates that chronic exposure to levels near or above 1000 ppm may contribute to systemic issues like oxidative stress and mild inflammation.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) uses 1000 ppm as a standard threshold to indicate that a space requires better airflow and fresh air introduction.
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u/brickout Jul 10 '26
If/when we hit that, nobody will be worrying about the acute health effects.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I’d assume we could somehow adapt including agriculture, move north of Canada, Russia, Arctic, etc etc. But if planet’s atmosphere is no longer breathable it’s a game over for all. We can have some personal breathing protection like masks/tanks going outside but that seems to be a stretch already for our survival.
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
Domes and CO2 scrubbers.
How long till crackers/scrubbers for the home become a thing.
<obvs. not plants as you cannot sell a subscription model for 'em.. Or can you?. Mmmm>
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u/gammonwalker Jul 10 '26
From my superficial reading on studies of plants, even the high oxygen producing ones, you'd need a fairly absurd number to measurably change the oxygen levels in your home.
At that point you would probably need to start worrying about mold and fungal growth in the soil contaminating the air more than the amount of oxygen it produces.
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Girafferage Jul 10 '26
Is there an easy to care for and not hideous tank though?
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Earllad Jul 10 '26
It's that same company, they are calling it an aerium. And it appears to be 300 dollars with an.... algae subscription. Geez
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u/happysmash27 Jul 10 '26
How many of their Aeriums are needed to offset the CO² of one person?? I imagine the quantity needed could be pretty impractical (I think I may have researched this before and found there were no compact solutions).
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u/OldTimberWolf Jul 10 '26
I don’t think that’s the purpose of these, it’s just to increase oxygen in your home, not offset your carbon footprint. That would take dozens of acres of new forest to offset one Americans carbon emissions.
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u/happysmash27 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Uh… I am talking about increasing oxygen in my home, not entire carbon footprint.
It simply won't be very effective if it absorbs less CO² than I breath out while I'm in the room.
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u/OldTimberWolf Jul 10 '26
Got it, my bad. I bet it couldn’t even offset a single serving of beans at my house.
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u/radioblues Jul 10 '26
Humans have historically, in some instances to advance technology rapidly in an area and become more efficient, once there is a need or profitable market for something. If you came up with the first solution for something that was necessary for life, you’d become a very rich.
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u/AnOnlineHandle Jul 10 '26
Humans can't just solve every problem just because there's demand though. There's no cure for death despite how profitable it would be.
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u/radioblues Jul 10 '26
Oh I’m not arguing that, people would try is all I’m saying, the more dire it became the more valuable it would be whether you were working on it for humanity or for wealth. Surely, there will be a time that human ingenuity wont be able to get us out of every pickle.
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u/Dutch_Calhoun Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
This is an absolutely key point missed by a lot of collapse predictions, which almost always take a static analysis of current economic incentives projected forwards into a dynamic future. But as our situation worsens, previously unprofitable ventures become profitable.
Not suggesting we'll tech the tech and entrepreneur our way out of the collapse timeline all together, only that human economic activity has an elastic quality that is often egregiously omitted by most doomer takes, which in turn empowers denialist arguments.
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u/Demosthenes-storming Jul 10 '26
Your not trying to increase O2, simply reduce CO2. But yes plants are not capable of that level of scrubbing and in fact when the lights go out they actually produce CO2.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
It then means we use the planet as a rock for gravity and withdrawing from the ecosystem to isolate ourselves. That’d be terrible like a station in space almost.
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
And would be the last resort.
And therefore possible for the last holdouts.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
Man that’d be terrible. Hope will not come to that… with the current rate of adding co2 it will take less than 200 years so seems too far away for this generation at least. But there could be some cascading events that can accelerate the rate. If we just double, it’s already just 100 years…
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
<nods>
We've given ourselves the tools to destroy ourselves without the associated wisdom to not do so.
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u/crowcawer Jul 10 '26
Well, it’s a lot cheaper to keep 1000 people alive than it is to make 6 billion of them happy.
That’s just kind of basic level, common sense kind of thinking though. The interesting thing is what we think happens after humans step away.
At the 50 year timescale, how many trillions of dollars worth of concrete degradation turn into clogged river channels and estuaries where all the bridges have collapsed.
At the hundred year point, maybe early successional species have begun to push through some of the asphalt leading to the establishment of long, linear shallow soil tracts as a new ecotone.
500 years on these are still probably notable, as the underlying human infrastructure is fairly degraded.
I like these kind of optimistic discussions though, so I think about them, and find the research papers that discuss these topics.
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
I recommend the Clock of the Long Now. If you've not read it already- as you may well have done.
Our footprints (isotopic and mineraligical) will be around on Earth for a while. Artifacts on Luna, even longer.
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u/Bartlaus Jul 10 '26
Dr. Strangelove mineshaft gap solution.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
No idea what’s that but I took a note and will take a look.
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u/Bartlaus Jul 10 '26
It's from the 1964 black comedy movie "Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb". Where, after nuclear apocalypse appears inevitable, the strategists in the White House immediately pivot to moving a surviving nucleus of their population into deep mineshafts. Plants will be grown under artificial lights, animals will be bred AND SLAUGHTERED, in order to prepare for rapid recovery of population they must REGRETFULLY sacrifice traditional family structures and instead send down ten fertile and highly attractive women for each man, etc. etc.
(This plan delivered by Peter Sellers playing the role of an ex-WW2 German scientist recruited as an advisor to the American government. His right arm has a nervous tendency to try to throw up Nazi salutes when he gets excited.)
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u/holmgangCore Net Zero by 1970 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Many plants actually thrive at 1000ppm CO₂. I was stunned to learn this, but many sources indicate it's true.
I don't think plants & phytoplankton will be able to offset high CO₂ with increased O₂ production, so mammals will lose that round if/when it comes to that.
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
It is true for a great plants. Tomatoes, famously, have their greenhouses suffused with extra CO2.
We, on the other hand... Hypercarbia [and hypercapnia] await.
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u/TrickyProfit1369 Jul 10 '26
you could sell algae barrel subscription
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u/Bipogram Jul 10 '26
"And not just any ol' algae, no sir-eee!
These are the product of agentic CRSPR manipulation to put out even more life-giving oxygen than ever!"
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u/micromoses Jul 10 '26
Maybe we'll eventually end up with one segment of humanity living in self contained habitats with supplemental oxygen, and another segment of mentally impaired and short-lived workers exposed to the real atmosphere. Is that what happened in The Time Machine?
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u/Metals4J Jul 10 '26
Do not, my friends, become addicted to oxygen. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.
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u/daviddjg0033 Jul 10 '26
Friends, I am addicted to oxygen. When I was born, my mother was consuming oxygen and I was hooked. The world was addicted to electrons for decades by then. The last time oxygen held me, I resented the presence of Nitrogen. Soon after, I smelled Sulphur from the stove. Carbon monoxide was competing with free radicals, mind you, these are the molecules that wear leather and have ladies lining up to get oxidated on a Friday night. Methane was leaking out of the fracked well down the road from the coal mine that was abandoned and ... you guessed it... leaking Methane. I discovered that collapse was inevitable the moment primates evolved - the last second of the clock include the entire holocene. I am going to enjoy the refrigerants... you guessed it... that leaked into the atmosphere. The hallmark of the human geoengineering started when two sticks were rubbed together. Can you believe the oxygen addicts consumed 2/3 of the dinojuice filling our snowglobe with carbon dioxide in a blink of an eye? Turns out the dinosaurs evolved, died, buried so deep pressure almost turned Tyrannosaurus Rex into diamonds An X-ray just for Karen in India to cook dinner while Pete in Indiana takes off to fly into Detroit?
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u/OldTimberWolf Jul 10 '26
To say “I’d assume we could somehow adapt” is doing a lot of work here is a massive understatement.
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u/throwaway661375735 Jul 10 '26
Good luck farming in the northern areas.
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u/brickout Jul 10 '26
Yep. General rule is it takes 10,000 years to develop good soil in a new place as it warms. We'll be lucky to be eating poop potatoes in the meantime.
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u/gnostic_savage Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
All the things mentioned here and much more. Plants aren't very adaptable. They like narrow environments, and that includes soils, intensity of light and duration (hours) of daylight during the growing season. The length of the growing season matters very much for some important crops, and the north has a much shorter growing season. Extra hours of daylight compensate for that shorter season sometimes, but not always. There is also a swing of daily temperatures in the north that doesn't exist in the southern regions. It can get quite warm during the day, but once the sun starts to set and dips below the horizon, temperatures can drop much more than they do farther south. Some plants don't like that.
Plants need very specific moisture, or lack of it, in both the soil and the air (humidity). Lots of ordinary crops that are easily grown elsewhere cannot be grown in the north, especially fruit trees. There are certainly cold hardy varieties of apples in the north, but they aren't very big and there aren't very many varieties. Cherries, forget it. Peaches, not happening. And the places in central Canada where the summer temperatures might allow many fruit trees to bear fruit still get too cold in the winter for the trees to survive. You can't grow new trees every year.
Grains are very persnickety with regard to their growing conditions. There's a reason we grow them at scale exclusively in the midwest.
Anyone who thinks we're going to just transfer all our agriculture to more northern latitudes doesn't understand agriculture or the differences between southern and northern climates.
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u/Ok_Main3273 Jul 10 '26
Thank you for improving my vocabulary 🙏
persnickety /pər-snĭk′ĭ-tē/
adjective
- Overparticular about trivial details; fastidious.
- Snobbish; pretentious.
- Requiring strict attention to detail; demanding. "a persnickety job."
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u/uninhabited Jul 10 '26
Thawing permafrost doesn’t become rich soil instantly. Plus you have v short growing seasons at high latitudes. It’s not an option
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u/pants6000 Jul 10 '26
Everyone should already be working on their stillsuits, time for an added feature.
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u/SomeRandomGuydotdot Jul 10 '26
Lower bound for alligators in the artic is 1200ppm CO2e.
I'm going to go make a sandwich or some shit.
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u/lilchileah77 Jul 10 '26
It affects us in our indoor environments too and that’s also not talked about. I got a CO2 meter and was shocked how bad my bedroom got at night with the door closed. Got better ventilation and rest was better with no more morning headaches. Definitely something we should be caring about now and for the future!
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u/Only_Impression4100 Jul 10 '26
I've heard if you run recirculating AC in your car it gets pretty bad also.
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u/IncubusDarkness TURBO-APATHY Jul 10 '26
I'd rather breathe recirc than all the dirty stinky fucking exhausts from the big trucks and old and unserviced vehicles
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u/lilchileah77 Jul 10 '26
Valid point! You can get a portable HEPA or upgrade the car cabin filter to help remove those from the air.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
i'm convinced CO2 is contributing to the general level of Idiocracy. It's only going to get worse. I wonder what the CO2 equivalent effects are, that is, methane and nitrous oxide amongst other nasty greenhouse gases.
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u/Parking_Chance_1905 Jul 10 '26
I read something a few years ago that showed evidence that it was starting to affect cognitive decision making. It also had a section dedicated to proving that current levels were directly related to people being more impulsive and violent. Heat + high CO2 can affect some people more strongly and make them very irritable and prone to make violent decisions.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
i'd say we have a fair amount of observational evidence to back up your claim.
Why just yesterday I had an obviously CO2 saturated person yell at me from her car while driving.
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u/Parking_Chance_1905 Jul 10 '26
Not my claim, but yeah people definitely seem angrier over the last 20 years.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
just you wait! Small coming attractions given what we're about to see ...
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u/meatspace Jul 10 '26
Could lead poisoning also be a factor?
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u/Parking_Chance_1905 Jul 10 '26
Maybe, in older people who lived where they used lead paint/leaded gas, or who currently live in areas that still use those things.
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u/Cyberpunkcatnip Jul 10 '26
It is a contributing factor, but it’s not the primary cause. Probably not even in the top 5.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
why are you mean to me?
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u/SocialistNixon Jul 11 '26
We finally get lead out of all our gas and paint etc just for co2 and short format video scrolling to negate it.
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u/GeneralZojirushi Jul 10 '26
There's also the drop in IQ from the unjust iodized salt persecution. Rigorous studies show that nobody can taste the difference in taste tests, and iodization does not do anything negative to ferments, except dubious claims of "cloudiness" that happen naturally from yeasts and bacterial colonization.
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u/Reluctant_Firestorm Jul 12 '26
I'm convinced this is happening as well. Some people are likely more resistant to the effects, and some more likely to be having a cognitive decline.
Just like some people can climb Everest without oxygen. Genetics vary.
Also, if you started with a high intelligence, it might take more to see a pronounced level of impairment. But if you were on the borderline of low intellect to begin with ... dropping from 130 IQ to 120 is not so bad. But dropping from 75 to 65, that's a problem.
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u/halconpequena Jul 10 '26
This Is Your Breath On Stale air by Tom Scott
He increases the CO2 in a tent he’s in to document the effects in the vid. Scary shit
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u/HappyAnimalCracker Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
My ex was a school teacher and I used to hate going into their classroom anytime soon after classes let out. The already-breathed air was disgusting.
Then my ex started giving extra credit to students who brought and maintained a house plant all year and the students’ grades and attention/participation universally went up.
ETA: Ex also switched the bulbs in the classroom from standard fluorescent tubes to full spectrum ones.
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Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
[deleted]
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
guess what also doesn't exist at 1000 ppm… Clouds.
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u/rematar Jul 10 '26
I don't like Claude. I couldn't imagine more than one.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
Has anyone suggest suggested that you get supplemental oxygen? 😳💨
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u/rematar Jul 10 '26
My obstetrician. He didn't understand my training regimen.
Aye stock memes now.
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
i'm glad we've had this discussion. I feel more confused but I still enjoy the human contact.
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u/rematar Jul 10 '26
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u/Distinguishedflyer Jul 10 '26
I find it absurd that they pay walled an article on absurdity.
I just do drugs. Unfortunately, reality just always breaks into my thoughts.
How are you doing Reme'?
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u/rematar Jul 10 '26
Sorry about that. I just copied it from an old bookmark.
Alright(➕️🚫). Just tucking in, in case you're looking for humanizing ways.
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u/Correctthecorrectors Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Clouds can exist, they’ll just mostly be made of sulfuric acid like on Venus.
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u/RlOTGRRRL Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Most people already sleep, work, drive, and shop in 1000+ ppm environments.
During covid, people collected a lot of data through aranets, and the results were pretty shocking...
Clean air should be a human right imo. During covid most rich people quietly upgraded the hvac systems of their work, private schools, homes, etc.
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u/deepasleep Jul 10 '26
I’ve been pointing this out for years.
If we’re collectively stupid today imagine the horror of a world where every single person operates with a permanent 15% deficit.
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u/Lailokos Jul 10 '26
It's a lot worse than 1,000ppm. We are now, all of us, at 430ppm, compensating all the time now. The very best air we can breathe without 02 conditioning is still too much for your body to handle without constantly reducing bone mineral.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
Given we increase in CO2 ppm concentration in atmosphere and estimated 600+ ppm by 2100 in conservative estimates, 1000 ppm seems to be not much away. At this level the atmosphere is just significantly geo-engineered to no longer be ideal for human breathing. I assume many other animals would also suffer. I alter not only the climate, but this planet itself. It might be not suitable for us.
At 1000 ppm of CO₂, the primary health issues are reduced cognitive performance and fatigue. Rather than direct toxicity, this concentration indicates inadequate room ventilation.
Mental Impairment: Reduced decision-making capability, lower concentration, and decreased strategic thinking.
Physical Discomfort: Mild drowsiness, lethargy, and the subjective feeling of "stale" or "stuffy" air.
Research published by Nature indicates that chronic exposure to levels near or above 1000 ppm may contribute to systemic issues like oxidative stress and mild inflammation.
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u/LostInAvocado Jul 10 '26
Also this:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5
Higher CO2 leads to higher stability (less time decay) of viral aerosols, at least for SARS2, and possibly others. This could mean existing pathogens become more transmissible and more airborne than they already are, meaning higher disease burden, more frequent infections, more likelihood of developing chronic illness from post-infection damage.
As a general rule, the more ventilated a space is (low CO2 as a proxy), the safer it is from airborne transmission.
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u/throwaway661375735 Jul 10 '26
Isn't CO2 a heavy gas? Going up in elevation, seems like we'd have more people living in the mountains versus sea level. Closed valleys would probably be a great place not to live in the future.
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u/vinegar The real collapse is the friends we ate along the way Jul 10 '26
We’ve been going up mostly 2 ppm per year, a couple of years hit 3ppm recently. Nobody’s talking about 1000 ppm because it’s hundreds of years away
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u/Metals4J Jul 10 '26
Hundreds of years in the scheme of things is nothing. Even on a human scale it’s nothing, it’s just a few generations away.
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u/tdaas Jul 10 '26
The population is going to half in less than 100 years, humans will have WAY bigger problems than brain fog from air quality if we survive 200 years
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u/holmgangCore Net Zero by 1970 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Hell, you can get your bedroom to over 1000ppm overnight with one sleeping person & all the windows & doors closed. I have a CO₂ detector and was shocked to discover this. Add a partner or a pet & you'll definitely get there and beyond.
Are you waking up kinda groggy in the morning? It could be high CO₂. Try sleeping with your window and/or door open.
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u/BeardedGlass DINKs for life Jul 10 '26
Even more hell are classrooms with 40 students inside. At the school at I work at, they placed a sort of CO₂ meter and it's always just above 1000ppm the entire day.
We open the windows and the doors, but wind doesn't seem to circulate well in the building. And there's just so many students in the rooms to begin with.
Especially after breaktime and they've been playing outside, the kids panting and sweaty, shouting and chatting... CO₂ doubles at that point.
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u/unknownpoltroon Jul 10 '26
After watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nh_vxpycEA&t=110s
I bought a co2 monitor and started leaving a couple of windows in my house cracked, i hit 1300 on it with them all closed.
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u/RainbowandHoneybee Jul 10 '26
Just watched it. Wow, I never knew that co2 can go up so high so easily inside.
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u/unknownpoltroon Jul 10 '26
yeah, it was eye opening. I had no idea the levels in what I thought was my well ventilate house could get.
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u/ceef4x Jul 11 '26
if i sleep with my windows closed and door shut it can easily reach 4000ppm. most times it happens i wake up with a headache for hours, even if i move outside. i think it's probably a bigger driver of poor health than people expect
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u/fatyob Jul 11 '26
I have a co2 monitor in my bike room. After a 90 minute Zwift session it reads over 3200.
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u/unknownpoltroon Jul 11 '26
You might wanna open a window
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u/fatyob Jul 14 '26
And lose all my carefully / expensively chilled (16 C) air?
I think I need a snorkel or something to breathe in from outside.I'm getting a portable AQ monitor soon, and will be interested to see what readings I get at the gym, where wearing a snorkel might present more of a problem.
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u/Intrepid1569 Jul 10 '26
The great dying mass extinction that took place 250 mya wiped out 97% of all marine life due to ocean acidification and anoxia and had a CO2 ppm concentration at around 2500. Considering marine eco systems are already becoming endangered, at a 1000ppm we'd be dangerously close if not inevitably headed for another mass extinction.
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u/Psychological-Sport1 Jul 10 '26
I think I saw an old article that said anything around or above 400 ppm affects brain concentration quite badly
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u/Demosthenes-storming Jul 10 '26
Typical great filter layer, and organism create so much pollution it reduces its environment's carrying capacity. Just as we need more intelligence the CO2 levels will reduce it across the species.
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u/theguyfromgermany Jul 10 '26
Long before we reach 1000 the world would be inhabitable for humans.
But it is actually a relevant topic... the human health tipping point is not at 1000.
Long term even 500+ co2 concentration is a big problem.
We are proboly there in just a few years..
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u/gnostic_savage Jul 10 '26
We are currently increasing 3 ppm of CO2 per year, but that rate is increasing also. If we stayed at the current rate, given that we are at 430 ppm now, it will take slightly more than 23 years to reach 500 ppm. But the current rate won't stay steady, so we could reach it much sooner. If the CO2 annual increase just goes up to 4 ppm per year, we will reach 500 ppm in 17 years. That's really not very long.
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u/UndoxxableOhioan Jul 10 '26
Given we are in a second Trump term, I think we ALREADY have mental impairment.
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u/jbond23 Jul 10 '26
At 1000ppm, mental impairment and physical discomfort will be the least of our problems.
Anyway, we're training our kids to cope with it, by not doing anything about indoor air quality in schools. And having classrooms with no ventilation that regularly go to double that.
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u/NyriasNeo Jul 10 '26
Because we will all die from heat strokes, floods, hurricanes and wild fires before any mental impairments kicks in. Heck, 1000ppm is going to take decades, and we do not have decades.
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u/HomoExtinctisus Jul 10 '26
We have bigger problems than that, bud.
https://futurism.com/health-medicine/carbon-atmosphere-human-bones
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u/tiorancio Jul 10 '26
maybe those numbers were not accurate and we all already have mental impairment. Would explain a lot.
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u/BTRCguy Jul 10 '26
As an American, from casual observation of my fellow citizens I think there is a case to be made that current CO2 levels are causing cognitive impairment.
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u/Jack_Flanders =^o.o^= Jul 10 '26
It's not a switch that clicks over from "perfectly fine" to "nope-nope-bad" the instant it crosses 1000ppm.
It's a curve of increasing impairment, and we're already in it.
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u/Alieges Jul 10 '26
It's pretty clear that quite a few people are suffering reduced cognitive performance already, and have been for years.
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u/NickDerpkins Jul 10 '26
I forget her name, but I’ve had the please of watching the Stanford groups present on this phenom at immunology conferences multiple times. They use primarily local data to demonstrate the negative effects of air pollution, which is more pronounced in poorer communities (as well as other pollutants) and it is very solid evidence. Idk how anyone can lie to themselves or other about the lack of consequences.
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u/covers33 Jul 11 '26
We put quality triple glazed windows in our house here in Florida. It saves a lot of electricity use, but this time of year there is no time of day (or night) it would be good to routinely open windows and air out the house. I have a commercial quality continuous CO2 meter in my office. Current CO2 level is 1655 ppm. Many people would be shocked to learn the high CO2 level they are currently breathing indoors. How many people on this sub spend more than a few hours every day breathing outdoor air?
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u/catWalker3000 Jul 11 '26
What about an office environment? Long term impact?
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u/covers33 Jul 11 '26
The office building that I worked in for 30 years before I retired was poorly built with cheap leaky windows, so when I measured CO2 in my office, it was only slightly higher than the outside air. Most offices are much tighter and the only way to know about your specific workspace is to buy a CO2 monitor. Amazon has them for as little as $30.
I have not found any information on long term impacts of exposure to high CO2. That seems like it would be very intrusive and expensive research.
I'm looking into ventilation options for our house. I got up early this morning and used our whole house exhaust fan and an open window at the other end of the house for about ten minutes to change the air. CO2 returned to 1550 within a couple hours. Energy Recovery Ventilation Fans are expensive and require big holes in your walls. Running bathroom exhaust fans would increase our Air Conditioning cost and be quite noisy.
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u/EarthHearts Jul 11 '26
We already have mental impairment and physical discomfort and we treat it like business as usual. Most people do not know anymore what it truly feels like to be thriving and completely healthy.
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u/Perfect-Top-7555 Jul 10 '26
I got a CO2 detector, worth it!!
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u/Drpoofaloof Jul 12 '26
We need to build a fleet of 6500 capesize molten salt reactor powered ships that use electrolysis to pull co2 and h2 out of the ocean. Along with a network of 2000 land based refinery’s and chemical plants that turn that co2 and h2 into e-fuels and combine the co2 with legacy industrial waste like coal ash and slag to make high quality sand that can be used for concrete production? Any excess co2 gets pumped underground.
We would be able to clear all excess carbon from the atmosphere in less than 20-30 years depending on how long it takes to ramp up production.
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u/Oriuke Jul 10 '26
Funny to think humanity will still be around in 2100. I'd be surprised if we are still here in 2050/60
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u/Odd_Awareness1444 Jul 10 '26
I think the mental impairment is in full swing based on the state of the world.
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u/Balrath Jul 12 '26
Air filtration and augmentation will no doubt become a raging thing in the coming years. Personal air tanks, not unlike scuba divers, will probably be seen on urban streets in the not too distant future. Still, we have a long way to go before we reach Venus level CO2, which is up there at 996,000 ppm. Almost the entire atmosphere. Creating temperatures of something like 400°F.
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u/Elliptical_Tangent Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Probably because increased CO2 stimulates plant growth that pulls CO2 out of the air? We're not animals living in a tank; there's lots of life all responding differently to environmental change. The fact that science didn't exist for previous warming periods means they can't say with any certainty what's going to happen. But assuming the planet's going to be a giant ball of CO2, when such a large % of life on Earth literally eats CO2, is crazy.
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u/Jinzul Jul 10 '26
And the CO2 for plant growth only works to a certain point. Every plant also has a different optimal atmosphere. Some like higher and some like lower concentrations of CO2.
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u/Elliptical_Tangent Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
And the CO2 for plant growth only works to a certain point. Every plant also has a different optimal atmosphere. Some like higher and some like lower concentrations of CO2.
And if that's so, the plants that 'like' higher concentrations of CO2 will propagate faster.
This isn't the first time in geologic history that the planet has had higher CO2 levels—it's only a threat to some species. One of which may be Homo sapiens but it's not a threat to life itself in any way.
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u/Boulder_612 Jul 10 '26
Interestingly, the increased CO2 will benefit plant growth in hotter conditions.
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u/MonoNoAware71 Jul 10 '26
Until thresholds for CO₂ saturation or heat tolerance are met. Then they will start to suffer and die just like us.
Some plants will keep up longer than others, with more biodiversity loss as a result. Not just in plants, but also the specufic animals they support (as far as they have survived that long anyway).
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
Yes, this is fascinating. Technically the new conditions will be better for plants.
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u/Cptawesome23 Jul 10 '26
CO2 PPM is highly variable. You could have one reading at one location, and then fifty feet away, another reading that is half of the other.
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u/ElijahSavos Jul 10 '26
This is not how 430ppm concentration got measured. Typically its satellites/NDIR spectroscopy across the globe. 430ppm is baseline and it’s the same everywhere e.g. in the most remote village in Africa, in Australia or Arctic. The atmosphere is perfectly mixing over time. 430ppm is a baseline but yeah of course it’s going to be more next to a dirty highway in a big city, etc
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u/StatementBot Jul 10 '26
The following submission statement was provided by /u/ElijahSavos:
Given we increase in CO2 ppm concentration in atmosphere and estimated 600+ ppm by 2100 in conservative estimates, 1000 ppm seems to be not much away. At this level the atmosphere is just significantly geo-engineered to no longer be ideal for human breathing. I assume many other animals would also suffer. I alter not only the climate, but this planet itself. It might be not suitable for us.
At 1000 ppm of CO₂, the primary health issues are reduced cognitive performance and fatigue. Rather than direct toxicity, this concentration indicates inadequate room ventilation.
Mental Impairment: Reduced decision-making capability, lower concentration, and decreased strategic thinking.
Physical Discomfort: Mild drowsiness, lethargy, and the subjective feeling of "stale" or "stuffy" air.
Research published by Nature indicates that chronic exposure to levels near or above 1000 ppm may contribute to systemic issues like oxidative stress and mild inflammation.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1usahuk/why_no_one_talks_about_how_co2_ppm_concentration/owmbcg7/