this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
67 points (87.6% liked)
science
14726 readers
822 users here now
just science related topics. please contribute
note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry
Rule 1) Be kind.
lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about
I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's only become as big of an issue now due to our own influence. Fertiliser runoff being a huge contributor.
What swnt meant were the precambrian cyanobacteria in the ancient anaerobic world that started producing oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis. Oxygen was toxic to all then existing organisms. The cyanobacteria were so successful that they managed to poison the whole world, which later lead to the evolution of oxygen breathing organisms like us, but at that time, it was a global catastrophe.
Exactly!
Not to mention, that this new oxygen was also poisonous to these bacteria themselves as well!
Yeah, they were releasing toxic waste into the atmosphere!