Though talks of climate change typically conjure up images of dripping glaciers and rising tides, it turns out the rapid destruction of our planet is also affecting our bodies in profound ways.
According to new research published in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, the rising concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is weakening human skeletons at an alarming rate.
Australian researchers Alexander Larcombe of The Kids Research Institute Australia and Phil Bierwirth of the Australian National University analyzed the level of HCO3 — bicarbonate, a byproduct of CO2 found in human blood — in the blood of US adults between 1999 and 2020. Since the last year of the 20th century, they found, the amount of HCO3 in human blood rose about 7 percent, which corresponded to a similar rise in CO2 concentrated in the atmosphere.
At the same time, Larcombe and Bierwirth examined calcium and phosphorus levels in US adults, both of which fell over the study period.
This isn’t a coincidence, the study’s authors warn. When our blood has a higher concentration of carbon than our bodies expect, our bones shed calcium and phosphorus in order to absorb more CO2.
Under normal circumstances — before we started pumping our atmosphere full of exhaust, that is — our bones would take a few weeks to reabsorb those nutrients and go about their business. If heightened blood carbon levels become the new normal over time, however, its effect on this complex and delicate system can cause a net loss of calcium in our bodies, therefore weakening the bones of just about anyone who breathes air to stay alive, among other issues.
The trend is becoming so pronounced, the researchers estimate, that it could start to cause serious health issues within just 50 years.
Given that humans have spent the majority of our evolutionary lifespan with a “usually stable level of atmospheric CO2,” the recent rise in airborn carbon pollution has forced our bones to compensate. As the researchers blunty explain: “human physiology has progressively and consistently altered over the last ~25 years.”
Following those trends, the authors suggest that carbon levels will be at the “currently accepted limit of the healthy range within 50 years, with calcium and phosphorus reaching the currently accepted minimum levels shortly after.”
“What effects this may have on physiology remain to be elucidated,” the researchers write, “but urgently need to be considered.”
More on climate change: Earth on Track to Become Uninhabitable, Scientists Say
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