We spend most our time indoors with often 800 ppm… if you’re lucky. I’m a bit annoyed that they don’t specify “the limit of the accepted healthy range” in the summary and didn’t find it with a quick glance over the PDF. But surely there are already people doing over 1000 ppm constantly (ie people that have some outdoors phobia and suboptimal ventilation).
> However, since the advent of widespread industrialisation, atmospheric CO2 levels have exponentially increased (Fig. 1). In just the last ~ 50 years it has risen from < 340 ppm (in 1980), to > 420 ppm in 2025 (Lan et al., 2025). Atmospheric CO2 is currently increasing at more than 2 ppm each year, largely due to humanity’s activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels (Eggleton, 2012).
There's good reason to believe we're on the cusp of a solar energy revolution and, more generally, ready to turn things around. But even in the worst scenarios I can imagine, outdoor air 50 years from now (as posited in the title) would not be as bad as indoor air now.
What that argument misses is that only say 1 in 10 or just 1 in 100 have to be seriously impacted. Currently, these 1 in 100 can open the windows, but what will they do in the future?
Curious if we are already seeing effects because of this in significantly reduced calcium and phosphorous levels, or if any reduction is largely dietary. Conversely, can you really use calcium and phosphorous levels as a proxy if they are driven significantly by dietary changes?
I actually was in the emergency in October last year. I had bicarbonate in the upper range of normal. This caused decreased extracellular potassium, still borderline as per hospital specs. Even so, this drop in potassium had been triggering worrying arrhythmia, specifically extreme tachycardia upon waking, possibly SVT.
Calcium is easy to get from supplements, and phosphorus from food, but don't mess with bicarbonate.
It turned out that my bicarbonate rise was driven by contributions from: potassium citrate (70%), alkaline water (8%), calcium bicarbonate (8%), calcium citrate (2%), and magnesium citrate (2%). I switched to calcium glycinate and magnesium glycinate capsules.
So no, my rise in bicarbonate was not driven by atmospheric CO2, but for a month, I got a taste of what happens even with a mild rise to the upper edge of the normal range.
Well, it is not as if we did not get any warnings, but the rich are getting richer, that is all the US Gov. cares about since 1980. God forbid they and us take a hit on their lifestyle by stop using fossil fuels.
This story could give a hint of what to expect in the far future. Replace Nitrogen with CO2 and you may see what people could be in for :(
We spend most our time indoors with often 800 ppm… if you’re lucky. I’m a bit annoyed that they don’t specify “the limit of the accepted healthy range” in the summary and didn’t find it with a quick glance over the PDF. But surely there are already people doing over 1000 ppm constantly (ie people that have some outdoors phobia and suboptimal ventilation).
I just checked my Awair Element data for today at home - its true; the average is about ~900ppm with high/low peaks around 1600/500.
I live with 3 dogs and was alone the entire day.
For the interested, here is the graph for a year: https://i.imgur.com/mrXI3y1.png
Indeed.
> However, since the advent of widespread industrialisation, atmospheric CO2 levels have exponentially increased (Fig. 1). In just the last ~ 50 years it has risen from < 340 ppm (in 1980), to > 420 ppm in 2025 (Lan et al., 2025). Atmospheric CO2 is currently increasing at more than 2 ppm each year, largely due to humanity’s activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels (Eggleton, 2012).
There's good reason to believe we're on the cusp of a solar energy revolution and, more generally, ready to turn things around. But even in the worst scenarios I can imagine, outdoor air 50 years from now (as posited in the title) would not be as bad as indoor air now.
What that argument misses is that only say 1 in 10 or just 1 in 100 have to be seriously impacted. Currently, these 1 in 100 can open the windows, but what will they do in the future?
Curious if we are already seeing effects because of this in significantly reduced calcium and phosphorous levels, or if any reduction is largely dietary. Conversely, can you really use calcium and phosphorous levels as a proxy if they are driven significantly by dietary changes?
I actually was in the emergency in October last year. I had bicarbonate in the upper range of normal. This caused decreased extracellular potassium, still borderline as per hospital specs. Even so, this drop in potassium had been triggering worrying arrhythmia, specifically extreme tachycardia upon waking, possibly SVT.
Calcium is easy to get from supplements, and phosphorus from food, but don't mess with bicarbonate.
It turned out that my bicarbonate rise was driven by contributions from: potassium citrate (70%), alkaline water (8%), calcium bicarbonate (8%), calcium citrate (2%), and magnesium citrate (2%). I switched to calcium glycinate and magnesium glycinate capsules.
So no, my rise in bicarbonate was not driven by atmospheric CO2, but for a month, I got a taste of what happens even with a mild rise to the upper edge of the normal range.
Simplified version:
Rising carbon dioxide levels now detected in human blood
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-carbon-dioxide-human-blood.htm...
Well, it is not as if we did not get any warnings, but the rich are getting richer, that is all the US Gov. cares about since 1980. God forbid they and us take a hit on their lifestyle by stop using fossil fuels.
This story could give a hint of what to expect in the far future. Replace Nitrogen with CO2 and you may see what people could be in for :(
https://strangerthansf.com/reviews/clement-nitrogenfix.html