It’s classic science experiment. It’s the one you learn before they show you the Vandegraff generator and how to light a fluorescent tube using 7 ‘volunteers’ from the class. It’s a mystery how we survived secondary modern science. It’s not a mystery why as a species we wont survive much longer.
Just as the candle in the bell jar consumed the air and eventually was extinguished we too will deplete the atmosphere, by obvious things such as coal fired electricity stations and by the inevitable things such as the need for every new born baby to breath.
As a species we are as a child; everything seems possible, and we have little understanding of the damage we do. On Easter island, when the trees were depleted their civilisation turned to sacrifice, and eventual extinction.