CO2 emissions cause more than climate change. It could also compromise our ability to make decisions and think strategically, say American researchers. At home, this effect on the brain is much stronger, but for the time being there is a simple solution: open your windows before you start a new day at home.
The CO2 concentration of the outside air is now 40 percent higher than before humanity started with large-scale consumption of fossil fuels. And that increase will continue for the time being. The increase in the atmosphere is the background level. In addition, the CO2 we breathe out comes in small, enclosed spaces.
At the end of the century, according to a new study in the journal, people can GeoHealth indoor CO2 concentrations up to 1,400 ‘parts per million’, more than three times the current outdoor air concentration.
“High CO2 concentration affects everyone: from children in classrooms and policy makers in meeting rooms to people in their own homes.”
Kris Karnauskas, University of Colorado
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As a result, the average CO2 concentration in our blood continues to rise to levels that have never occurred in human evolution. In addition, the blood becomes more acidic and the amount of oxygen in the blood decreases.
This makes it less successful to perform complex brain tasks. In addition to loss of concentration, this gives the researchers a sleepy feeling.
If the CO2 concentration is doubled, the mind can halve
“It’s amazing how high CO2 concentrations can build up in confined spaces,” said Kris Karnauskas of the University of Colorado, the study’s lead author. “It affects everyone, from little kids in classrooms and policy makers or business people in meeting rooms to people sitting at home in their own homes and apartments.”
Now the solution is still simple: open a window in time. But in one of the climate scenarios that Karnauskas has counted on, the CO2 concentration of the outdoor air will more than double in the next eighty years. Then, in enclosed living spaces, CO2 concentrations are created, which, according to the researchers, decreases human decisiveness by about 25 percent and even halves the capacity for strategic thinking.
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