why does asphyxiation from carbon dioxide cause pain, but other gases such as nitrogen don’t?

Question

Why does nitrogen cause you to just pass out but carbon dioxide causes you to suffocated and feel it? Is it because of the oxygen in carbon dioxide?

In: 42

Answer 1

Evolution and survival. Throughout our evolutionary past it was far more common to find oneself in a dangerously high CO2 situation than a dangerously high nitrogen situation. Sleeping in a cave or even an unvented hut could lead to the former, but not many things before the modern era could lead to the latter. So we only evolved a sensitivity and reaction to the gas that was actually a regular danger.