Photosynthesis Terraformed Our Planet — And It Only Happened Once - PWR 279

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]But, once CO2 happened, pardon me, once photosynthesis happened and captured that CO2, two things happened.

[00:00:08]One, it oxygenated the entire atmosphere. We didn't have that before.

[00:00:12]That's what terraformed our planet. Now, remember, this is happening in the ocean initially.

[00:00:17]It released so much CO so much oxygen on a scale that we can't imagine. But, oxygen is very reactive. 46% of the Earth is oxygen. 46%. 20% of the atmosphere is oxygen. It wasn't there initially. But, oxygen is reactive. And the iron that was in the the core the crust, not the core the crust, is highly reactive to oxygen and that's what makes rust. That's all it is, iron oxide is rust.

[00:00:50]You can't do anything with iron oxide.

[00:00:52]But, what had happened is it created all these red bands or staining of the Earth all around the planet. And all of the sediment fell into the ocean floor. And it reacted with other minerals. Rubies and sapphires are metal oxides.

[00:01:11]Those didn't exist before photosynthesis. Photosynthesis gave us that.