Why the Oceans Are Losing Breath

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Are the world's oceans actually in danger? And what does in danger mean?

[00:00:05]There's two big processes. We breathe in oxygen, we give out CO2. If the CO2 builds up, think about if you were in a locked room, a car, and the CO2 builds up, basically it's going to kill you.

[00:00:19]So, we need oxygen and we need to get rid of the CO2. And the earth is big, but there's an atmosphere there. The CO2 just can't be released out into the atmosphere forever. So, who absorbs the CO2? Green plants, single-celled algae that live in the ocean, and they give off oxygen. When the world first started, it was not an oxygen-filled environment. It was anoxic. Anoxic means no oxygen. Over time, it switched and the organisms consuming all this CO2 and other chemicals started producing oxygen and it built up in the atmosphere, eventually giving rise to us. So, what does an unhealthy or polluted ocean mean? It means that it can't absorb the CO2. If it can't absorb, the CO2 builds up into the atmosphere. So, that's number one. Basically, can't breathe.

[00:01:14]The other thing is the ocean is a big source of food. If this polluted in the nearshore, that's nurseries. The mangrove swamps in the Philippines where I was in the Peace Corps, but all these estuaries and things are nurseries for small animals. Fish, crabs, all sorts of invertebrates. If they don't have nurseries, then the population collapses and then we don't have enough food.