Ocean Lost Its Main Function for the First Time. What is the Threat?
What does an air conditioner and the ocean have in common? The answer to this question has to do with the further survival of humankind!
The ocean is a whole organism that performs many important functions supporting life on Earth. One of the key tasks of the ocean is to cool the planet’s interior. Like a huge air conditioner, it removes internal heat through the atmosphere, helping to maintain the stability of our planet. The ocean performs heat transfer and cooling functions, similar to cold water in nuclear reactors.
The ocean plays a particularly important role during peak loads on the planet every 12,000 years, when additional energy from outer space heats the Earth’s interior, increasing seismic and volcanic activity. During such periods, the ocean has to cope with an even greater workload.
Why do we currently observe rapidly increasing problems? The reason is ocean pollution. Oil and plastics decompose into microparticles and change the chemical composition of oceanic water, disrupting its thermal conductivity and heat capacity.
Now, instead of releasing excess heat from the ocean into space, the atmosphere accumulates it and thus increases the greenhouse effect. This results in the ocean heating from both above and below, weakening its protective function.
Signs of the ocean dying are already obvious: mass death of plankton, destruction of coral reefs, and abnormal water heating. We are making the situation even worse by filling the ocean with microplastics and disrupting its climatic regulation.
Do we have a chance to go through this? Can we restore the ocean’s original functions and prevent a disaster that threatens humankind? Find it out in this video.
