How Bad Was The Great Oxidation Event?

Researched and Written by Leila Battison
Narrated and Edited by David Kelly
Art by Khail Kupsky
Thumbnail Art and Art by Ettore Mazza

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Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist.

References:

Image Credits (in order of appearance):

[HistoryoftheEarth]

Hello all! Hope you are enjoying the video. Quick correction - the image of frozen Earth does indeed hide the shape of North America. Oversight on my part. Obviously wouldn´t have been under there back then! Apologies.

[daveslow]

To all the microbes that died during the great oxidation event...
Rust in peace 😔

[johnmcnulty]

It takes a masterful narrator to make one feel empathy for anaerobic bacteria and cast oxygen as a villain. Well done, Sir!

[gregbors]

I used to know a lot about the Great Oxidation Event, but my memory is a little rusty

[TheDragonCat]

"Ha ha! Stupid bacteria... imagine poisoning your own atmosphere out of greed and killing everyone including yourselves because of short sightedness! Sure glad we have brains to prevent that..."

[williamreely]

Humans: We are the most disruptive species ever.

Cyanobacteria: Hold my carbon dioxide.

[danaoconnor]

thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the bacteria that were rusted to death

[twothreebravo]

As a person who likes oxygen, I don't think it was a bad thing at all.

[fordxbgtfalcon]

The person responsible for this masterpiece is extremely talented. Better than what’s on Discovery for sure.

[jefflittle]

"In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
- Douglas Adams

[keesdevreugd]

Most of this I've read or heard before, but the realization how fragile life really is, shocks me every time. We're living on an unimaginable graveyard of billions of wiped out species. Think about that.

[Peter-gqww]

The first few videos I saw of this channel I assumed were taken from somewhere like the discover channel, I couldn't believe and am still amazingly impressed that these videos are privately made! I'd just like to say thanks this content is golden and I'm actually learning something about the ancient world compared to other docs that only focus on the popular events, incredibly well made my friend!

[woodyforest]

What a great series! We are in the era when online content is more interesting than stale television. Great job!

[darth]

The Great Dying almost wiped out all advanced life on Earth. But the Oxygen Catastrophe almost wiped out life completely, even the simplest of forms.

[Iknowtoomuchable]

Other Microbes: "NOOOO YOU CAN'T JUST CREATE ALL THAT OXYGEN, YOU'LL KILL US ALL!!!"

Oxygen-farting Microbe: "Ha ha photosynthesis goes

[livetwilightever]

This sounds so much like a made-for-TV documentary. I've seen a fair number of long-form educational videos on Youtube, and none of them made me feel like a kid watching the Discovery Channel the way this did.

[ripwednesdayadams]

It’s amazing what humans have been able to learn and accomplish in a very short period of time. I’m always blown away by the fact that the earth has lived billions of different “lives”.

[chessdad]

The concept of 2.4 billion years ago is difficult to imagine. That we are lucky enough that this blue planet has been safe for this long is hard to believe.

[TearDownGenesis]

The Great Oxidation Event? I'm a bit rusty on that

[fionagibson]

This is so well narrated that I didn’t even notice there were no subtitles, despite normally preferring them if at all possible. Masterfully crafted.