# Why is there air? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624 "2015-02-14T02:51:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/41 "2015-02-14T21:15:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Said another way, it wouldn’t take too much lava flow on a planetary scale to augment the current Earth atmosphere with enough freshly liberated lava gases to overwhelm the current oxygen balance and to boost the pressure until our atmosphere looked a lot like Venus’s. :eek: > > Best to hope we don’t have plate tectonics open a really big continental rift anytime soon. A replay of e.g. the Deccan Traps eruption might be enough to finish us off. Yes, but if we phrase it that way, the SyFy channel will make a movie starring a washed-up B-list actor and his 20-year old PhD supermodel assistant who have to save the world by tomorrow, despite the military doing its best to get in their way. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/42 "2015-02-14T22:00:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > [So, it has come to this!](http://xkcd.com/1022/) A duel it is then, good Sir? My second shall call upon you at noon to-morrow to set the particulars. Damn, I was hoping you’d run away sobbing in fear. \*Runs away sobbing in fear ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/43 "2015-02-14T22:46:43Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Damn, I was hoping you’d run away sobbing in fear. > > \*Runs away sobbing in fear Score another one for old age and Treachery. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Sizzlefry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sizzlefry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sizzlefry)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/44 "2015-02-15T05:15:49Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > You must have somehow skipped all of the people that provided answers to precisely that question. > > Though, again, it would be good if we had any kind of damned clue as to what you’re interested in: > > -Why does Earth have an atmosphere? Where did it come from? > -Why does modern life need air? What do we get out of it, and what do we do with it? > -Why is our atmosphere made up precisely of the gas mixture we have now? > > Or what? Nope, I read every post, and most of em made great science sense. None of them answered the why though. How? Yes… When? Yes… What? Yes… Why? Nope, it isn’t something we can answer I guess. Why is there air, why is there rock (so we can PARTY!), why is there water… we have science to explain the how, when, and what… but the why? no, don’t see any answers. Look, I’m bored now. I think I’ll go and make wind… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/45 "2015-02-15T05:18:33Z")
I’m not sure you’re in the right forum. Or on the right board. ---
**Author:** ![Sizzlefry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sizzlefry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sizzlefry)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/46 "2015-02-15T05:28:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m not sure you’re in the right forum. Or on the right board. Right place but perhaps wrong time… LSL came closest, saying that it is random but isn’t that a bit, er… intangible? (randomness). I could just give up and say it is that way because God made it that way (God = my Bic). That just sucks though… I coulda just accepted that from the start and not wound anyone up. That would have really sucked… ---
**Author:** ![Sizzlefry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sizzlefry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sizzlefry)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/47 "2015-02-15T05:31:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The answer to any “why?” question is ultimately fruitless; each answer merely encourages asking “why?” at a lower level of abstraction. So let’s try to peel the onion for at least a few layers of why. But why? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/48 "2015-02-15T06:31:50Z")
You might be best served by the Anthropic Principle. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle) [Deeper exposition](http://www.anthropic-principle.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/49 "2015-02-15T11:18:18Z")
> [@Sizzlefry](#): > > But why? Mu. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/50 "2015-02-15T12:25:40Z")
Why what? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624/51 "2015-02-15T12:32:32Z")
> [@Sizzlefry](#): > > But why? > [@](#): > > Peace came upon me and it leaves me weak > So sleep, silent angel, go to sleep … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-air/712624.md?page=2)