66 comments

  • jvanderbot 38 minutes ago

    One interesting thing in the paper that I didn't think of, is that our breathing mechanism is tied to CO2 levels. And therefore, higher CO2 levels (not atmospheric high, but artificially high during studies), can trigger panic attacks and general stress. A slow suffocation hallucination, kind of. Even when there's still sufficient oxygen, your body doesn't "measure" oxygen!

    I didn't know that!

      ooboe 24 minutes ago

      This is the reason closed environments (e.g., space vehicles, submursibles, rebreathers) have CO2 scrubbers.

      giraffe_lady 27 minutes ago

      It's a factor in "shallow water blackout" a fairly common death for experienced swimmers. Caused by hyperventilating prior to a long breath hold flushing too much CO2 out of your blood, so your sense of needing to breathe is suppressed relative to your need for oxygen.

        somenameforme 10 minutes ago

        Yeah was going to hit on a similar point. When you hold your breath, that feeling that you need to breathe again isn't because you don't have enough oxygen, but because you have too much CO2. This is why things like hypoxia (lack of oxygen) can be so deadly in environments where it can be a thing (pilots, scuba, etc). Early onset symptoms include things like euphoria which isn't the most helpful warning from your body for 'death: imminent.'

  • himata4113 7 minutes ago

    Humans are extremely adaptable, for example there's people who work in extreme conditions underwater, what would be considered absolutely unbearable and torture is normal. More information on saturation diving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfiHc_rh4EY

    We're already slowly adapting to higher CO2 levels by sitting mostly indoors that have elevated CO2 from 500 to 800 with ranges up to 1500 (taken from my measurements at home).

    Claiming that it would be toxic doesn't pass the most basic checks that humanity experience already.

      UncleOxidant 3 minutes ago

      There's probably a lot of genetic variation. For some it could become toxic in 50 years, for others not so much. And for some swath in the middle it could be less than ideal.

      > We're already slowly adapting to higher CO2 levels by sitting mostly indoors that have elevated CO2 from 500 to 800 with ranges up to 1500 (taken from my measurements at home).

      But won't that 1500 be even higher indoors as CO2 in the atmosphere increases?

  • bottlepalm 4 minutes ago

    Historically levels were around 250 and now they're generally over 450. I wonder if I would feel a cognitive boost or just plain better in general if I were breathing 250. Do they sell home CO2 scrubbers? I can easily increase the CO2 in a room, but how about decreasing it?

      UncleOxidant a minute ago

      > Do they sell home CO2 scrubbers?

      They're called houseplants.

  • strictnein 30 minutes ago

    "Toxic atmosphere" definitely implies something that I don't seem to be finding in the actual paper. We regularly sit in environments that are 2-3x the levels of atmospheric CO2.

    Also, was this paper AI written?

    > "There is now a considerable body of published data showing impacts at levels < 1,000ppm CO2, although the effects of exposure remain controversial."

    Which is followed by this, with the very AI "For example" that seems to mostly contradict that statement?

    > "For example, one study found no impact of exposure to levels up to 15,000 ppm (Rodeheffer et al., 2018), however the study population was a group of highly trained US Navy submariners. Conversely, studies in young adults (Satish et al., 2012), office workers (Allen et al., 2016) and university staff/students (Snow et al., 2019) showed negative effects at CO2 levels as low as 950 ppm."

    And then "Such studies are supported by assessment of CO2-induced changes in human brainwaves, measured by electroencephalography (EEG) combined with cognitive tests (reviewed in (Zhang et al., 2024)). Such studies show that exposure to CO2 between 1,000 and 2,500 ppm results in heightened brain activity."

    "Such studies" ... "such studies". And these studies seem to contradict the proceeding statement even more?

      dwroberts 24 minutes ago

      Not saying the paper isn’t AI, but “for example” is an extremely commonly used phrase that you should not be using as an AI indicator

        strictnein 8 minutes ago

        I get that it's common, but I just spent this week getting some patent docs ready, and was having GPT 5.5 help me with gathering some of the details. I had to remove "for example" dozens of times. So maybe it's just recency bias for me.

      hogwasher a few seconds ago

      with the very AI "For example"??????????????????

      oytis 14 minutes ago

      I don't know about you, but occasionally going outside to breathe some fresh air makes a lot of difference for me

      OutOfHere 21 minutes ago

      Nothing you say has any bearing on 24x7 high CO2 exposure. All the other studies concern with a limited time exposure.

      Also, if you think "For example" is AI, then your ability to reason is highly compromised.

        strictnein 10 minutes ago

        > "For example" is AI, then your ability to reason is highly compromised.

        Thanks for the insult, my friend.

        Earlier this week I had GPT-5.5 help me complete some areas in three different patent docs that were just filed, and I had to remove "for example" from its output dozens of times when I was reviewing it for accuracy.

        NDlurker 11 minutes ago

        Could be suffering from CO2 toxicity

  • timr 26 minutes ago

    This is such a bad paper. They take the NHANES data, average it for all participants, don’t bother controlling for things that have far more direct relevance to individual bicarbonate levels (e.g. diabetes, antacid use), and just assert that an observed correlation is causative.

      OutOfHere 23 minutes ago

      Huh. If anything, complications of diabetes can lower serum bicarbonate, not increase it. Your analysis is therefore altogether irrelevant, also misleading.

        timr 20 minutes ago

        edit: deleted. posted too quickly and made a mistake.

        Here’s a better link outlining what I was originally trying to say:

        https://protocols.sonichealthcare.com/shared/IP052.pdf

        The point is that individual factors are far more relevant to blood gas level variation than average global CO2.

          OutOfHere 18 minutes ago

          Diabetic ketoacidosis causes low bicarbonate, not high.

  • CrzyLngPwd 15 minutes ago

    What are we, the powerless people, supposed to do with that as we watch super yachts, private jets, and armies bomb oil storage and gas pipelines?

    My office, with the window open, surrounded by trees and in the countryside, and the nearest large town being 20 miles away, shows 422ppm CO2 pretty consistently.

  • boplicity 13 minutes ago

    Anyone else ever think of somehow building an at-home carbon-removal system, for lower carbon content in the air of your living spaces? I know it's a silly idea, but one that has occurred to me from time to time.

      somenameforme a minute ago

      Makes one wonder about the absurdly large number of physiological and psychological changes we've seen in people since the 70s-80s when AC started becoming completely ubiquitous. Before that time, at least in warmer climates, you'd pretty much always have a window open. In some ways we've already been running a decades long high CO2 exposure experiment.

      cogman10 8 minutes ago

      Depends on the approach you want to take. It's possible but IDK if you'd see any sort of health benefits from simply lowering the CO2, you'd probably also want to increase the O2 content.

      This is actually a crazy thing that some of the very wealthy are doing in mountain homes. They have O2 tanks setup with their homes so that when they arrive they don't experience altitude sickness.

      https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/snow-sports/...

      strictnein 4 minutes ago

      Yeah, too many homes were built without fresh air intakes into the HVAC systems. There are definitely reasons you don't want it always pulling in outside air (temp and humidity differences, for example), but it would be nice to have the option to do it once a day just to freshen things up.

      schainks 10 minutes ago

      Uh, do you mean house plants?

      There is also a Ted talk about taking this to an extreme, which does seem to anecdotally work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA&pp=ygURdGVkIGthb...

        cogman10 5 minutes ago

        House plants do reduce the amount of CO2 in your home but not by as much as you'd hope.

        The most efficient system is algae, but you require a pretty massive amount of it to compensate for the amount of CO2 a single person emits.

  • astro-lizard 38 minutes ago

    As a software engineer, what can we do to help with anthropogenic emissions? I want to know how I can use my critical thinking to protect the future for us.

      hinata08 17 minutes ago

      Software is allowing industries to be so much smarter and efficient. Even without advanced systems, a 20€ smart switch allows my personal water boiler to turn on when solar and wind are so available that power prices go low or negative (and a startup, Sobry, allows me to enjoy or suffer spot prices thanks to my smart power meter that sends hourly usage data over the grid)

      Software is allowing governments to provide services online, 24/7, making driving to their overly large buildings a thing of the past.

      Software is changing the way companies work with their customers and suppliers. It cut business trips so much that airlines like United had to review their routes at some point.

      Software allows more trains to run on each track, and improves cross border services in dense areas in Europe

      Software developers who support open source initiative such as LineageOS, ChromeOS or lightweight Linux distributions allow to keep devices for longer. It is valuable when manufacturers and Microsoft would like you to buy new hardware.

      YouTube tutorials and online marketplaces allow customers to fix their old stuff or to buy second hands. It makes the economy more circular than it used to

      Simulators allow new generations to fly cessnas or race cars on 1000 electrical watts at home, while video games allow kids to have fun together without racing cars on open roads like you used to

      jandrewrogers 5 minutes ago

      Any effective approach to atmospheric CO2 reduction on a timescale that matters will require extremely large quantities clean energy, far beyond current generation capacity. This will be the biggest bottleneck so start there.

      Given that this is known required input, we can start by expediting the building this energy infrastructure with all due haste. This would require ignoring various activists with a litany of reasons for why deploying solar/wind/nuclear/geothermal at scale is stupid/immoral/unethical.

      thinkingkong 33 minutes ago

      Its not a software problem or a technical issue. At this point, it’s a social issue. Incentives are misaligned and as a result we’ll burn every last molecule of hydrocarbons to generate shareholder value.

        sam_lowry_ 28 minutes ago

        It is everyone's issue, a software engineer can write more efficient code, choose to work for the sustainable future, not for most if not all AI companies and not for blockchain companies.

      tomaskafka 8 minutes ago

      We build a software that enhances overall productivity and automating things, all of this enables us to extract natural resources faster and cheaper, thus putting out more CO2 into atmosphere.

      The end state is to have a direct humanless assembly line turning Earth into cheap crap for monkeys to use once and throw away, with ginormous global GDP. Happiness for everyone.

      duskdozer 24 minutes ago

      Vote for candidates who support mitigations, contact legislators asking them to do so, at all levels of government. Live according to those policies and encourage others to do so.

      My_Name 12 minutes ago

      I may be the only person responding that see the humour in your post.

      I thought it was quite funny TBH

      x86a 19 minutes ago

      Go take a flamegraph of your most CPU-bound system and optimize the most expensive function

      axus 7 minutes ago

      Replace demand for fossil fuels by making cheaper energy sources and electric vehicles.

      Politically, block the straight of Hormuz, attack oil-producing infrastructure. Trump and Zelensky and even Iran are doing us all a favor.

      jeffbee 29 minutes ago

      The same thing anyone else can do: bomb an oil refinery.

        appreciatorBus 6 minutes ago

        Which will do nothing about demand from your fellow citizens to consumer refined oil products such as gasoline, so another refinery will be built and they will carry on as usual.

        As long as it's free for individuals to pollute, we are going to demand polluting products & services without regard for the environment.

        The solution is to price externalities, but your fellow citizens will vote out anyone who suggests those cuz they like polluting for free.

        Collectivism will fare no better unless it's a dictatorship (which they all devolve to eventually, but putting that aside...) After the people's revolution they will demand the right to unlimited driving for $0 and stage a revolt should the vanguard elite suggest that unlimited driving for $0 might not be good thing.

      OutOfHere 17 minutes ago

      Work from home!

      JMKH42 32 minutes ago

      Remember Jevon's Paradox: most of us instinctively look to improving efficiency. But when you do that, people just use more of the thing. Rewriting Python in Rust often won't mean less electricity used, it means your code will get run more.

      For example, none of the improvements in combustion engine efficiency over the last 40 years have results in less gasoline being used, it resulted in bigger, more powerful cars and more driving of them.

      Really the biggest lever is reducing human population growth and mandating renewables when they are workable, even if moderately less economically viable.

      bix6 28 minutes ago

      Build software that improves the situation. That could be monitoring that helps surface data, tools that help governments and industries manage their CO2 goals, AI systems that search for solutions that you then implement, social apps that help us manifest change, etc. This whole category is underserved because everyone just throws their hands up and says it’s unsolvable, governments problem, etc.

      Edit: the only positive response in this thread and I get downvotes lmao what the hell people.

        toasty228 18 minutes ago

        > the only positive response in this thread and I get downvotes lmao what the hell people.

        Because it's not "positive", it's "techsolutionism", which at this point is basically a cult... let's keep shovelling more shit on the gigantic pile of shit and pray it gets smaller

        ratelimitsteve 11 minutes ago

        There are plenty of positive responses, yours got downvoted for being essentially a series tautologies. "Do something that fixes the problem" isn't advice, and "have AI do something that fixes the problem" is actually directly harmful to the end goal.

      WithinReason 20 minutes ago

      plant trees

      2OEH8eoCRo0 33 minutes ago

      Become a monk. The solution is simple and not technical: Stop building and producing CO2

      iknowstuff 30 minutes ago

      prompt Mythos how to engineer a virus that spreads Alpha-gal syndrome and makes everyone on earth vegan. Instant 30% greenhouse gas reduction.

        BuyMyBitcoins 18 minutes ago

        You may just be joking, but such a thing would be a crime against humanity.

        OutOfHere 26 minutes ago

        It's not a good idea because while one can avoid eating red meat, collagen hydrolysate is mainly obtainable only from bovine sources. Fishes are polluted. As one gets older, collagen becomes necessary for remaining healthy, and no synthetic amino acid mixture comes close in effect.

        Also imagine that meat can in theory be lab grown.

          iknowstuff 22 minutes ago

          No thanks. I'd rather not get prion disease. Also:

          1. Eating collagen supplements has not been established as a necessary dietary requirement. Your cells synthesize collagen from amino acids, with vitamin C serving as a required cofactor. Some trials report modest improvements in wrinkles, skin hydration, joint pain, or bone measures, but that supports collagen as an optional targeted supplement, not something everyone must consume to remain healthy.

          2. Bovine is common, but commercial collagen also comes from porcine skin, chicken cartilage, fish skin/scales, and jellyfish. A randomized clinical trial, for example, used pork-skin collagen, while another tested fish-derived collagen. Actual collagen is animal-derived unless produced through recombinant biotechnology.

          3. “No synthetic amino-acid mixture comes close in effect.” This lacks evidence. In a 2025 randomized double-blind study, participants received 30 g of collagen hydrolysate, a free-amino-acid mixture precisely matching collagen’s amino-acid profile, or placebo. Collagen and the amino-acid mixture produced similar blood amino-acid increases, and neither increased muscle connective-tissue protein synthesis versus placebo over six hours.

            OutOfHere 13 minutes ago

            You know much theory, but demonstrate zero practical knowledge:

            0. There is near-zero risk of prion disease from cows in the US considering they're domesticated, not wild. There is no recent history of it either in the US. Collagen hydrolysate is highly processed to be short-chain.

            1. As one gets older, vitamin C, no matter how much of it is consumed, is useful but insufficient for collagen synthesis.

            2. You're right in theory about chicken/fish/pork collagen, but the commercial availability of their derived collagen hydrolysate is terrible or contaminated. Only bovine collagen hydrolysate has excellent and contaminant-free commercial availability.

            3. You're measuring the wrong thing. It is not isolated amino acids have the resulting healing effects. It is only peptides, and these are poorly synthesized from plain amino acids.

            jeffbee 18 minutes ago

            If I understand the literature correctly, there is no strong evidence in favor of collagen as a dietary supplement outside of a dose just before weight lifting, because without the exertion the amino acids in blood simply don't reach tendons and ligaments.

              OutOfHere 11 minutes ago

              You won't understand until you get much older, your joints start to hurt, and your sleep becomes miserable. When you try collagen then in a sufficient amount, e.g. 15g/day, only then might you understand.

                jeffbee 8 minutes ago

                Collagen for osteoarthritis is well-supported by research. I was responding to the statement about connective tissues.

          toasty228 17 minutes ago

          > Fishes are polluted

          Wait until you learn how 99.9% of cows are treated lol

  • ratelimitsteve 13 minutes ago

    my whole state right now is under an air quality advisory that is quite literally off the scale bad. breathing outdoors is currently considered "harmful to everyone" per the advisory and simply going somewhere outside your home requires an N95 mask (https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-code-purple-air-qu...).

  • ck2 9 minutes ago

    personally rooting for a gamma-ray burst within 8000 light years (which incidentally would have been traveling since the start of recorded human history)

    the entire upper atmosphere would be turned to nitrogen dioxide

    even the side of earth not facing the burst would have all life die very quickly because the ozone layer would just be GONE, so now all lethal ultraviolet solar radiation gets in too

    solves ALL our problems

    unfortunately Congress might survive a few more months in their underground bunkers but they are eventually doomed too

  • OutOfHere an hour ago

    Look at your CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel) blood test results. It has a test named Carbon Dioxide. This test may have a reference range of 20-32 mmol/L. Subtract your value from the max value -- that's your leftover buffer as the atmospheric CO2 rises, although serious intermittent problems are risked at a level of 31 itself. There is a more specific blood gas test that only a hospital can perform.

    Fwiw, my value reliably went down after I replaced citrate mineral supplements (calcium and magnesium) with glycinate capsules.

      jeffbee 22 minutes ago

      Mine was 26 mmol/L yesterday, but the reference level is given as 22-29 by my lab, not 20-32.

        OutOfHere 9 minutes ago

        In an objective sense, I actually think your noted reference level is the more correct level. I say this because I have experienced problems in the 30-32 range. Granted, we know that each lab's reference range can also vary for other reasons.

  • bethekidyouwant 31 minutes ago

    +2 PPM per year currently at 400 dangerous at 1000, were all dead in 50 years. not sure on that math.

      ratelimitsteve 10 minutes ago

      Assuming linear change. 5 yard penalty, repeat the down.

      rootusrootus 21 minutes ago

      Who made that argument? It seems to have come entirely out of your own head for the sole purpose of you ridiculing it.

  • jmclnx 36 minutes ago

    Should not be a surprise since we have know about CO2 Levels and fossil fuels for many decades.

    The surprise is nothing was real was done. Compare what our generation did with this knowledge against the sacrifices the WW2 generation did. In WW2 many items were rationed in the US for the war effort, including gas.

    We knew something had to be done to be done in the 70s, but did we sacrifice our lifestyle for the good of the world ? No, our self-centered generation pumped even more CO2 into the air and is continuing to do so. Our grandchildren will pay dearly for what we did and are doing in decades down the line.

      rootusrootus 22 minutes ago

      I assume you mean boomers? Might time to stop blaming them, since at this point some of them are great-great-grandparents and the following generations do not seem to have shown any more appetite for changing course.

        OutOfHere 7 minutes ago

        Biden was all about changing course. The current felon-in-charge, an established boomer, is highly deserving of blame in this regard.