Thank the ocean

The bumper sticker said “Take a breath, thank the ocean”.  Even if you live far from the ocean, the world’s oceans have a profound effect on your life – and on the life of every creature on earth.  Oceans are not just about water and the fish, mammals, and corals that we can see.  Tiny organisms called phytoplankton are very important in the Earth’s carbon cycle. They take up CO2 and sunlight through photosynthesis to grow and reproduce.  More than half of the oxygen you breathe comes from marine photosynthesizers, like seaweed and plankton (a very diverse group of small organisms including algae, bacteria, one-celled animals, mollusks, and others).  All use carbon dioxide, water and energy from the sun to make food for themselves, releasing oxygen in the process.  In addition, plankton and other tiny ocean organisms are the bottom of the food chain for larger creatures including humans. 

However, the oceans and its inhabitants are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, overfishing, and habitat degradation.  In the last 200 years, the oceans have absorbed a third of the CO2 produced by human activities and 90% of the extra heat trapped by the rising concentration of greenhouse gases.  As the climate responds to the increasing carbon emissions, energy and heat from the atmosphere builds up in the ocean. This can lead to more extreme weather events, changing ocean currents, rising sea levels and temperatures, and melting of sea ice and ice sheets.

Although the oceans help reduce climate change by storing large amounts of carbon dioxide, increasing levels of dissolved carbon are changing the chemistry of seawater and making it more acidic. Increased ocean acidity makes it more difficult for certain organisms, such as corals and shellfish, to build their skeletons and shells. These effects, in turn, could substantially alter the biodiversity and productivity of ocean ecosystems. 
Even if you live far from the ocean, there are things you can do to help protect this vital resource that affects the entire planet.  Here are a couple general items to get us started, and I’ll post more next time. 

• Reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions into the atmosphere.  There are thousands of ways to do this.  Start by reducing your use of energy produced by fossil fuels and reducing the amount of organic material you send to landfills.  Many of my old posts have information that will be helpful.
• Reduce the amount of pollution that gets into the waterways (lakes, rivers, and streams).  Sewage treatment plants don’t remove all chemicals from the water they treat, so some of the chemicals you send down the drain end up in the ocean, too.  The pollution affects life in the waterways and some of it eventually ends up in the ocean where it affects the creatures that live in the ocean.  Don’t discharge waste or garbage directly into the ocean.