{"id":12445,"date":"2007-04-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reasons.org\/publications\/ode-to-oxygen\/"},"modified":"2007-04-01T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-01T15:00:00","slug":"ode-to-oxygen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reasons.org\/creation\/earth\/ode-to-oxygen","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Oxygen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My seventh-grade science teacher asked the class to list \u201cthe three most essential needs of human life.\u201d The \u201ccorrect\u201d answer\u2014water, food, and sleep\u2014illustrates how easily people take for granted the air we breathe, specifically its oxygen content. Most humans can live a few days without water, food, and sleep, and yet we can\u2019t go more than a few minutes without oxygen. I understood that much in junior high, but at the time I had no idea that Earth\u2019s oxygen-rich atmosphere represents\u2014and facilitates\u2014a miracle.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so special about oxygen? In humans, as in any creature larger than about a millimeter in length, oxygen powers virtually all its life functions. Oxygen typically releases an abundance of energy when it attaches to another element or compound, and that\u2019s how it fuels the metabolic process. Some life-forms called anaerobes do not rely on oxygen for their metabolism, but these creatures are tiny, no larger than unicellular filaments, with relatively low rates of metabolism. Organisms that approach even one millimeter in length require orders of magnitude more energy to survive. Their metabolism is aerobic, or oxygen-based, like our own, and with incremental increases in size come hugely increasing power demands. For example, species averaging about a meter in length (as adults) need at least 70% as much oxygen as we humans do for their bodies to do the \u201cwork\u201d of living. Two other elements, fluorine and chlorine, also release significant amounts of energy, but they are relatively rare and highly volatile by comparison. Of the three reactive elements, only oxygen is sufficiently stable to accumulate in Earth\u2019s atmosphere and provide for life\u2019s metabolic needs. Today it constitutes about 20% of Earth\u2019s atmosphere. (Nitrogen makes up most of the remaining 80%.)<\/p>\n

How did oxygen get here? Inorganic chemical reactions and radioactivity passing through water produce only miniscule amounts. Nothing but photosynthetic life (such as cyanobacteria)\u2014and lots of it\u2014can possibly generate enough atmospheric oxygen to sustain aerobic life in any abundance. However, because oxygen is so highly reactive, most of what photosynthesis produced throughout Earth\u2019s history lasted only briefly in the atmosphere. As soon as these tiny life-forms (powered by sunlight) converted carbon dioxide and water vapor into sugar and oxygen, the oxygen was swallowed up by enormous \u201coxygen sinks\u201d (oxygen-absorbing chemicals and decaying organic matter) in Earth\u2019s mantle and crust. Not until these oxygen sinks began to fill up could the atmosphere hold onto significant quantities of oxygen. The oxygen history of Earth\u2019s atmosphere has been difficult to trace, but breakthroughs are coming. In a series of seven research papers, a team of chemists and physicists were able to write the early chapters of that history. They described two great oxygenation events: the first occurred roughly 2.4 billion years ago, and the second in three episodes between 635 and 545 million years ago.1 Additional research shows that these two events set the stage for a third event that occurred about 200 million years ago.2 While scientists continue to investigate the exact causes of these three great oxygenation events, they agree that catastrophic upheavals played a significant role. These disruptions buried large quantities of decaying organic matter, thereby preventing the carbon in this material from gobbling up oxygen. This circumstance would allow a major buildup in atmospheric oxygen if two crucial conditions were met. First, photosynthetic life would have to be extremely abundant and diverse to stay ahead of oxygen consumption by other oxygen sinks. Second, at least one of the other oxygen sinks would have to be filled up by the time the burials occurred.<\/p>\n

What does science show? Both conditions appear to have been met with precise timing and with even more remarkable results. The earliest oxygenation event (2.4 billion years ago) provided for the sudden and widespread appearance of eukaryotic bacteria (cells with definite nuclei) existing both as individual cells and as mats of cells. The second oxygenation event (from 635 to 545 million years ago) precipitated the appearance of the first large animals. The last great oxygenation event (200 million years ago) coincided with the appearance of the first birds and mammals. This profile of available oxygen followed immediately by the appearance of creatures equipped to exploit it defies the assumptions of naturalism. A biblical creation model, on the other hand, can explain why the fossil record looks the way it does.3 The Creator of the universe orchestrated and timed these events on purpose, as part of a larger plan that includes you and me.<\/p>\n

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Endnotes<\/h5>\n
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  1. D. A. Fike et al., \u201cOxidation of the Ediacaran Ocean,\u201d Nature<\/em> 444 (2006): 744-47; Richard A. Kerr, \u201cA Shot of Oxygen to Unleash the Evolution of Animals,\u201d Science<\/em> 314 (2006): 1529; Don E. Canfield, Simon W. Poulton, and Guy M. Narbonne, \u201cLate-Neoproterozoic Deep-Ocean Oxygenation and the Rise of Animal Life,\u201d Science<\/em> 315 (2007): 92-95; David C. Catling and Mark W. Claire, \u201cHow Earth\u2019s Atmosphere Evolved to an Oxic State: A Status Report,\u201d Earth and Planetary Science Letters 237 (2005): 1-20; David C. Catling et al., \u201cWhy O2 Is Required by Complex Life on Habitable Planets and the Concept of Planetary \u2018Oxygenation Time,\u2019\u201d Astrobiology<\/em> 5 (2005): 415-38; James F. Kasting, \u201cUps and Downs of Ancient Oxygen,\u201d Nature<\/em> 443 (2006): 643-45; Colin Goldblatt, Timothy M. Lenton, and Andrew J. Watson, \u201cBistability of Atmospheric Oxygen and the Great Oxidation,\u201d Nature<\/em> 443 (2006): 683-86.<\/li>\n
  2. Paul G. Falkowski et al., \u201cThe Rise of Oxygen Over the Past 205 Million Years and the Evolution of Large Placental Mammals,\u201d Science<\/em> 309 (2005): 2202-04. 3. Hugh Ross, Creation as Science (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006): 125-47.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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