If The Ocean Dies, We Die
Vast amounts of water, deep depths containing unknown organisms, and dark areas in which humanity has never seen. Oceans are miraculous, incredible, and scary. They cover the majority of the earth but are something we know the least about. Oceans contain huge amounts of biodiversity and countless amounts of species. They are home to the largest species, and the smallest species and anything in between. Not only is the ocean home to many species, the ocean and all that lives in it hold the Earth as we know it together.
“The oceans have been estimated to contribute a total of ∼21 trillion US$/year to human welfare (compared with a global GNP of ∼25 trillion US$), with ∼60% of this from coastal and shelf systems and the other 40% from the open ocean, and with the oceans contributing ∼60% of the total economic value of the biosphere. The social importance of the oceans for global transportation and as a unifying element in the cultures of many coastal countries cannot be overestimated” (Costanza, 1999).
The oceans make our Earth inhabitable. If they were to stop functioning the way they do now, we would be in big trouble.
1. Oxygen Levels Would Decrease.
About 50% of the nice clean air we breathe comes from Phytoplankton in the ocean. If ocean acidification continues to increase, soon those little plankton will all die, and they will not create the breathable air that they do, resulting in less air for us to breathe. (Marine Science Graduate Student Blog, 2015).
2. Food Shortages Galore!
The ocean supplies tons of different types of food that everyone around the world enjoy. Some smaller countries rely mainly on fishing and fish as a large source of their food. If the oceans were to not function properly, large amounts of fish would fall off the map, disappearing forever, and creating a huge food crisis for several countries. (Marine Science Graduate Student Blog, 2015).
3. Rising Temperatures
Our oceans have helped us to buffer huge amounts of climate change. The ocean absorbs a lot of the earth’s heat. That heat is used by organism that live in the ocean for energy. The ocean also has absorbed large amounts of carbon dioxide that otherwise would have stayed in our air and created higher climate levels. If the ocean were to die, or stop functioning the way it does today, it would not absorb heat the way it does now, or the 93% of carbon dioxide that it does now. Scientists say that if the oceans were not there to help us out, with the amount of climate change we have already have, our earth would be 96 degrees hotter in its lower atmosphere. Imagine trying to live in 160–180 degree weather. I don’t think that’s going to happen. (Dell-Amore, 2016).
Ultimately, if the oceans die, we will die. We need to take ocean conservation more seriously before we are unable to breathe, run out of food, and/or burn to death. To do this we need to work on stopping the huge amounts of pollution that get dumped into oceans annually, decrease our CO2 emissions, and reduce our consumption of things that do not support ocean conversation in their companies.