Christmas Gifts of Hope: Our Oceans

08 moms birthday show 026We all know that we take too much for granted, especially those of us who live in places like the United States, Canada and the Europe. Lately, we have begun to wake up to the facts that our natural world isn’t an endless supply of “goods and services” but rather a gift to be cherished and preserved. Join us over this holiday season, as Andrew Delvics, an author and creator at Divein, reminds us of all the gifts our world oceans gives and why we must never forget to cherish them. As you surround yourself with loved ones this holiday season, it is important to stop and remind ourselves of what we are thankful for and what we also may too often take for granted. A healthy ocean is not something that magically happens. As with all living and breathing things, it needs to be nurtured and cared for. Andrew’s post reminds us of some of the special gifts the our Oceans gives.

The Oceans: Our Gift for the Holidays and Everyday
By Andrew Delvics

The world’s global ocean is so vast that it covers nearly 71% of the planet’s surface and is the largest ecosystem on earth. The global ocean is the earth’s largest support system. In order for life to survive on earth, we need healthy and prosperous oceans. The oceans provide over half of theoxygen we breathe as well as contains 97% of the world’s water supply and without water all life on earth would not survive. Not only is the ocean essential for us to live and breathe, it supplies a sixth of the animal protein that humans eat. The oceans are also home to the most promising and newly discovered medicines that can combat cancer, pain and even have potent anti-bacterial properties.

We can also thank the oceans for absorbing a huge amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which in turn reduces the impact of climate change.Whether you live near to an ocean, or in the middle of a city, the ocean has a huge part to play in your daily life. Did you know that ocean-based businesses provide nearly $500 billon into the world’s economy? From the air we breathe, to the food we eat, to the films we watch, to the games we play,we have the ocean to thank, as nearly everything comes from or has been transported by the oceans.

Unfortunately, historically, the belief was that you could never take too much out of the ocean and you could never put too much into the ocean and it is this thinking that has led to the oceans demise. The sheer amount of waste that is put into the ocean and the over harvesting of resources has led to reduction in biodiversity, destruction of marine habitats and large numbers of endangered species. Due to this, we are damaging the very system that keeps us alive. The ocean is so important to life on earth and has such a relevance to climate change, however it was omitted from the final UN climate change conference agreement in December 2015. This is of great importance as the ocean absorbs over a quarter of man-made carbon dioxide emissions and has taken on over 90% of the heat which has been generated over time, since the industrial revolution. Without the ocean to
clean up after us, climate change would be much worse than it is now.

We should all be extremely concerned that due to the acidification of the oceans, it is losing its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the environment and this could lead to dangerous circumstances. It has been estimated that the absorption rate is likely to drop to just 20% by the end of the century and this could be extremely detrimental to life on earth.The wonders of the ocean are endless and if you are looking for more interesting fact about the world’s oceans then take a look at the infographic below, created by divein.com that provides 50 fascinating facts about the ocean…
50 fascinating facts about the ocean50 fascinating facts about the ocean – Graphic by the team at DIVE.in

This entry was posted in Climate Mama News, Earth Day is Every Day, Holidays, Oceans & Water and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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