Great oxidation event Memes

The Great Oxygen Catastrophe in meme form. About 2.4 billion years ago, cyanobacteria started photosynthesizing and pumping oxygen into the atmosphere like it was nobody's business. The anaerobic microorganisms, who were perfectly happy in their oxygen-free existence, basically got their entire ecosystem flipped upside down. Imagine throwing a pool party and someone dumps chlorine gas everywhere. That's basically what cyanobacteria did to Earth's original inhabitants. Rude.

Earth's first apocalypse happened when cyanobacteria invented oxygenic photosynthesis ~2.5 billion years ago, pumping so much oxygen into the atmosphere that most anaerobic life forms died in what scientists call the "Great Oxidation Event." Fast forward to modern humans discovering fossil fuels and gleefully pumping CO₂ into the atmosphere like SpongeBob ready for round two of planetary self-destruction. History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme!