• Question: What gasses would you change in the atmosphere?

    Asked by 08hathwayr to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Hmm, that’s a toughie.

      I think I’d definitely keep Oxygen, that’s pretty useful.

      And Carbon Dioxide is used by the tree, so certain amounts of that are good too.

      The majority of the atmosphere is Nitrogen – so there’s got to be some room for a bit of change there… Nitrogen is really important though, especially in biological processes, so I wouldn’t want to affect the balance so much…

      And the only gas I think would be cool to have around would be Helium. Everyone’s voice may become a tiny bit squeekier?! Although that’s unlikely as Helium is really light so would just float off, so the effects wouldn’t last very long, hence why helium balloons are so good at flying away when you let them go.

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Whatever we change in the atmosphere could have a massive impact on the careful balance mother nature has put in place. As Hayley says, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen all have a very important role in natural processes.

      If, for example, we increased the amount of Helium we would all have squeaky voices, but if we had more Argon everyone’s voices would be much deeper!

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Ignoring the catastrophic effect on our climate that changing our atmosphere would have…

      I think I’d increase the amount of oxygen, that way I’d be less out of breath after going for a run!

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