--- title: "In the Distant Future, All Earth’s Creatures May Asphyxiate From Lack of Oxygen" description: "In 1 billion years, most life on Earth will eventually die. Find out how a lack of oxygen levels will deplete our planet's atmosphere." date: "2021-03-01" modified: "2021-03-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/distant-future-earth-creatures-asphyxiate-lack-oxygen" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "atmosphere" - "habitable" - "habitable planet" --- # In the Distant Future, All Earth’s Creatures May Asphyxiate From Lack of Oxygen ![In one billion years, all complex aerobic life on Earth as we know it will eventually die as oxygen levels deplete in our planet's atmosphere.]() *\Image: NASA\* All complex aerobic life on Earth as we know it will eventually die as oxygen levels deplete in our planet's atmosphere. Fortunately, that won't happen for another billion years or so, according to an international team of researchers. But eventually, [*New Scientist* reports](), Earth's atmosphere will return to the considerably lower oxygen levels of its early history — and that will be bad news for any surviving inhabitants, including descendants of today's humans. The team, made up of environmental scientists from Toho University in Japan and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta say that in about 1.08 billion years, atmospheric oxygen levels will drop to below one percent. The study was part of NASA's Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, an initiative to study the habitability of exoplanets. While the study paints a dire picture for life on Earth, the results could have larger implications for how we define a habitable planet — or at least if a planet once was capable of harboring life. "The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme — we’re talking around a million times less oxygen than there is today," Georgia Tech researcher Christopher Reinhard [told *New* *Scientist*](). That process could occur over the span of only 10,000 years, a blink in time considering our planet's age of [roughly 4.5 billion years](). As the Sun grows hotter, it will cause more carbon dioxide to absorb heat in the atmosphere. Eventually, these CO2 levels will become low enough that plants will no longer be able to rely on photosynthesis, triggering a mass extinction event. This drop will "most probably be triggered before the inception of moist greenhouse conditions in Earth’s climate system and before the extensive loss of surface water from the atmosphere," the team writes in [a paper]() published in the journal *Nature Geoscience* today. Filling in for the lack of oxygen, the atmosphere will see a considerable increase in methane gases, with levels rising as high as 10,000 times the amount when compared to today. The ozone will also be depleted, causing the Earth's surface to be bombarded with ultraviolet light from the Sun. While oxygen plays a crucial part with how we understand life as we know it here on Earth, the study "suggests that even for planets around other stars that are very similar to Earth, large amounts of oxygen may not be detected in their atmosphere, even if they can support, or have supported, complex life," Kevin Ortiz Ceballos at the University of Puerto Rico, who was not involved with the research, told *New Scientist*. **READ MORE:** [Most life on Earth will be killed by lack of oxygen in a billion years]() \[*New Scientist*\] **More on planet habitability:** *Finally, Scientists Find an Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Its Star's Habitable Zone* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()