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Comment by keithwhor | Hacker News Reader

It terrifies me that we're asphyxiating ourselves and increased CO2 can seriously impair human cognition. At a global, population-level scale this is almost certainly statistically significant and it scares me that we could quite literally stupefy ourselves to the point of no return. We need to find solutions now before we're unable to stop ourselves from drowning in our own atmosphere.

[0] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/201...

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I have a CO2 monitor in my home office. 800-1100 ppm are pretty normal readings. If I open a window, I can get it down to ~400 ppm, but I don't notice any difference between the two.

I've heard that ~4000 ppm is noticeable and can impair, but it's impossible to get the level that high, even in a closed room with no ventilation.

1,400 to 2,000 is pretty noticeable to me.

What does it feel like? And have you tried to mitigate confirmation bias at all? I'm just curious, bc I work in a small office.

So, it just feels "stuffy." I suspect that there's not much more to it than that. As far as mitigation, if you don't have the ability to ventilate, there's not much you can do about it. I keep an exhaust fan in the window most of the most, when weather allows it. When it's not in there, if all the windows are fully closed, we can get up to 1,600 ppm in a single room if me and my wife are in it for a long time. (eg, sleeping.) With the exhaust fan, I haven't seen it read over 700 ppm, and seldom that high at all.

I cannot work after 900-1000 ppm CO2.

I also have a CO2 monitor and see similar readings. I try to open the windows each morning before it gets hot outside to get some fresh air.

I have noticed sometimes when it gets around 1200, I start to get headaches which are almost always relieved by either opening the windows, or going outside (having the dog sleeping in my office doesn't help either, she definitely helps bump up the CO2 numbers!).

The highest I've ever seen it is around 1500.

Not to be dismissive, but when I hear of an individual reporting symptom X given a meter saying Y, I always wonder whether you read the meter and then focus on whether you feel Y (ok, easy enough to control for by not reading first), read the meter only when you have a headache (perhaps it's above 1200 at other times as well, but ok that's also easy to control for if you care to), or even just get used to the pattern when it's high like in the morning before you open windows, or you can feel when the windows were open (colder/warmer depending on outside temperature). You'd need some completely random CO2 level, not have any way of indirectly knowing the value, then spend time in there and repeat it a few times to say that this is really it.

However, I remember ~1000ppm being the level where studies also said that people start to report headaches. It appears to vary from person to person; both of your observations (you at 1200, GP claiming 1100 is no problem for them) are likely correct, but I wouldn't trust either observation. Just google/ddg it if you want to know what can happen at different CO2 levels.

I got the meter because I was getting headaches here and there. I haven't done a proper study, but anecdotally, if I make sure to open the windows and get some fresh air in the mornings before it gets too hot out, I'm usually ok (and the meter reflects that).

which one are you using?

would you mind sharing the model of the monitor? I'm interesting in getting one now.

Working out indoors I've noticed a pretty drastic correlation in measured splits/watts and CO2 over 1k ppm. I tend to notice it at the 1k mark and it falls off exponentially form there when working out with large numbers of other people in enclosed spaces.

It's probably not as clear cut as that. Studies at the bottom of this article.

[0] http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/genes-carbon-dioxide-ad...

I was hoping for change when the world stopped during lockdowns last year. Like pulling your hand out of warm water after slowly acclimating to it previously then re-entering your hand in the water - the smog/pollution coming back with reopening could result in people experiencing an en-masse revolt to pollution and the things causing it. Or maybe it's too soon to see this effect - since viable alternatives are just coming along?

Electric vehicles certainly went up in profile, and not by a little bit. The bicycle industry had significant growth as well. Related?

China should be the bellwether for this as they had early lockdowns that initially decreased emissions. They still managed to emit more cumulatively in 2020 than in 2019. They keep increasing their emissions while everyone is distracted. They won’t be the only one. In many places, mostly developing nations, there will be pressures to make up for the economic losses.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-carbon-emissions...

Instead we've got economists agitating for taxing at-home workers to punish them for undercutting the expected profits of the owners of CBD property empires.

In the short term we could supplement with portable oxygen.

It's 420 parts per MILLION. You exhales even more than that.

One would certainly hope that your exhaled breath contains a higher concentration of carbon dioxide than is present in the ambient air! For it to be lower, your lungs would have to be somehow removing CO2 from the air, which doesn't sound much like what mammals do; for it to even be exactly equal, you would have to not be emitting CO2.

I'm engineer, so here my solutions:

1. Use sustainable materials for construction (8% CO2).

2. Use thick layer of sustainable insulation and climate battery to reduce need for heating and cooling to 0 (10% CO2).

3. Use cheap suspended light rail system connected to every house to reduce commuting time, road kills, and CO2 emissions (12% CO2).

4. Generate energy and protect coastal line by massive wave electricity generator.

And so on.

>I'm engineer, so here my solutions

>reduce need for heating and cooling to 0

>light rail system connected to every house

>massive wave electricity generator

Ummm, all of these except maybe #1 are far less viable than the proven alternatives. The issue isn't a technological one, it's an adoption, regulation, and funding problem.

Yep. I spent my own $40k (it is huge sum for Ukraine) trying to implement #1 and #2 with some success, but found that nobody really interested in saving of our planet, even when it cheaper and provides better comfort. Western engineers have some interest for my solutions, but nobody else (which is expected, because I'm the engineer too).

For example, climate battery is a very simple thing. In our climate, temperature of earth at depth of 2m is 7°C all year round for $0. By additional insulation and insolation, this temperature can be raised to 20-20°C, to have comfortable temperature in a house all year round for $0. Nobody interested in that, because nobody will buy a house without a powerful heating system.

#3 and #4 are easy to implement too, but my English is too weak to explain it properly. #3 is like e-bike on zip line (google "bike zip"), but with 4 lines for additional safety and comfort. #4 is like a giant sink with generator installed at top of a drain.

Sustainable houses with thick insulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrxuPbPFUhw

Climate battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ntsXyiNBE

Light rail system connected to every house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EqWqVevZMQ , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0js85Y1ImiE

Wave energy generator and coastal line protection (generator part): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2shxVXqtFZU

The typical concentration of co2 in a "well aerated" indoors environment is between 400 and 1000ppm. So, no.

>So, no.

If you're cooking something at a low temperature, but you accidentally turn the heat up really high, do you adjust the temp as soon as you realize what's going on in order to prevent over-cooking, or do you just let it ride and see what happens, high risk of over-cooking be damned?

1000 ppm is about where cognitive impairment starts, and that much or higher is commonly found in classrooms. If the outdoor ppm keeps going up, it only stands to reason the indoor level will as well.

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