Seven Seas, Seven Reasons why

Seventy percent of our planets surface is covered with water. The marine eco-systems in these waters produce about another seventy percent of the Oxygen contained in the atmosphere. The Oxygen we breath every single day. So destroying marine eco-systems might be worse for your lung than smoking. It’ll be best if you just quit both.

The ocean already stores over fifty times more carbon than the atmosphere. So far, it has absorbed a quarter of the CO2 emissions caused by human activities, thus mitigating the effects of climate change. The ocean is therefore massively dampening the consequences of our man-made climate crisis. A huge help. But even the ocean has its limits. And they could be reached soon.

The oceans and its currents have a huge impact on our climate and weather. The oceans absorb a lot of the sun’s radiant energy and are a massive heat reservoir for the entire planet. They balance out temperature differences in the atmosphere and stabilize the climate. But with the man-made climate change that is now straining the limits of this heat reservoir this stabilization could change.

Fisheries and aquaculture provide a livelihood for more than ten percent of the world’s population. Overfishing and the destruction of marine ecosystems mean that many people are threatened by starvation. Their livelihoods and often their tradition of living with the sea is being destroyed.

Plastic pollutes the sea, from production to use to disposal. When oil is extracted or transported, accidents occur form time to time, resulting in environmental disasters. The production of plastic contributes to the climate catastrophe, because plastic production requires a lot of energy and releases large amounts of carbon dioxide. Much of the plastic waste is in return incinerated, emitting carbon dioxid, or ends up in nature. Around nine million tons of plastic waste end up in the sea every year. Millions of marine animals die because they mistake the plastics for food or get tangled up in them.

Even if we don’t like to think about it we are still part of the worlds eco-system. Every harm we cause to the ocean will come back to us. Humanity will not be excluded from the consequences, as we already see it already today. We as humans stand at the top of the food chain. Every poison that goes to the sea will someday come back to our own bodies, as we feed on the already poisoned ones. Microplastic has lately been found in peoples brains and the consequences of that are unknown. So if you don’t want to save the ocean for someone else, may it be a fish or your neighbor, please do it for your own good.

Of the approximately three hundred million square kilometers of ocean floor, just five percent has been explored to date. Scientists estimate that – apart from certain microorganisms – there are between seven hundred thousand  and one million species in the ocean, of which around at least two thirds have yet to be discovered or officially described. The marine eco-systems must be protected, so that all this hidden life, beauty and potential can be discovered.