With all the burning and deforestation are oxygen levels staying the same?

Answer 1

Sorry Beth, you got it backwards. All green vegetation PRODUCES oxygen during its lifetime by taking in CO2 and separating the C from the O2. When it's burned the process is reversed and the same amount of O2 is consumed as was originally produced.

The biggest source of veggie O2 is the plankton in the oceans.

Answer 2

Trees produce methane which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 is. See BBC news:

"To their amazement, the scientists found that all the textbooks written on the biochemistry of plants had apparently overlooked the fact that methane is produced by a range of plants even when there is plenty of oxygen.

The amount of the gas produced increased when the air was warmer, and when there was more sunlight. The paper estimates that this unexplained phenomenon could account for 10-30% of the world's methane emissions.

The possible implications are set out in Nature by David Lowe of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, who writes: "We now have the spectre that new forests might increase greenhouse warming through methane emissions rather than decrease it by sequestering carbon dioxide."


This means that the Kyoto Protocol on climate change is all wrong because it allows countries and companies to offset emissions from the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil by funding the planting of new forests or the restoration of deforested areas.

Trees cause global warming.

Answer 3

All the above answers are correct. Also, consider that there is about 7000 times more oxygen than carbon dioxide in the air (air contains 21% O and 0.003% CO2), so even if the increase in CO2 is accompanied by an equal decrease in O2, the difference in O2 levels would be totally insignificant. I don't even know if anyone is bothering to measure it.

Answer 4

Steve is right. The levels are decreasing somewhat however, as not nearly enough forests are replanted compared to levels of deforestation occurring. Which means that that CO2 won't be recycled.

Answer 5

More or less. During its lifetime a tree consumes exactly the same amount of oxygen as is needed to decompose it after its death. The exception is vegetation that is compressed and heated and turns into coal or oil. When you burn that, you complete the decomposition of the partly decomposed vegetable matter from which it was formed.

Answer 6

Actually, there are more trees in the USA than at almost anytime in history. Forrests are getting bigger, not smaller. We are losing old growth, but not the total.