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I am asking this question, because I don't know the importance of oxidation process at all, and this question pops into my mind because currently I've been researching why apples turn into brown color when is it exposed to air/oxygen.

And I find at that the cause of this is due to the Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) enzymes being present inside the apple, when the enzyme is exposed to air/oxygen, it triggers a chemical reaction called Oxidation.

Raniel Quirante
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  • Hi Raniel, welcome to Earth Science SE. It's not clear to me exactly what you want to know; the title to your question is arguably "what would be different if chemistry worked differently", which is pretty much unanswerable... Do you have a more specific problem? – Semidiurnal Simon May 18 '18 at 20:50
  • Thanks for commenting, i changed the title of my question into a different one, so it would be relevant to the answer that I am seeking. – Raniel Quirante May 19 '18 at 07:01

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Perhaps this is better put on the Chemistry SE page since oxidation is much more important than beyond earth sciences, but I'll give my take on it from an atmospheric sciences perspective.

If oxidation isn't allowed to take place, then the hydroxyl radical ($\ce{^*OH}$), nicknamed the detergent of the atmosphere, cannot remove pollutants from the atmosphere. I think it is evident why removing pollution is a good thing.

This is just one of many uses that oxidation has.

BarocliniCplusplus
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