Living Waters: Emphasising the need to protect life's breath on this planet
A virus has caused us to scramble for oxygen but our chokehold on the environment is slowly strangling the very waters that breathe life into us. The virus is a timely reminder: We are merely consumers, not producers of life's breath on this planet
Curated By: Madhu Kapparath
A NASA satellite image shows heat radiating from the Pacific
Oxygen is critical to the health of oceans. Their warming has caused a decline in phytoplankton levels by 40 percent since 1950. Ocean currents circulate cold water from depths, pushing nutrients to warmer surfaces, where planktons live, who feed on these nutrients and sunlight to grow. Warmer water disrupts the action of ocean currents, starving planktons of nutrients, thus decreasing their ability to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, a process extremely important to the Earth’s carbon cycle.
