June 8^th is World Oceans Day! 

66% of our planet is water.  If you could weigh all of the bodies of water it would weigh 1,450,000,000,000,000,000 short tons!  ( short ton is a mass measurement unit = 2,000 pounds.)

We depend on our oceans for so much – recreation, economics, food supplies, moisture, and last but not least, protection.  Yet, we disregard the vital role it play in our lives.

Oceans have been cooling our planet and stabilizing climate for hundreds of thousands of years.  Yet we take it for granted.  Unfortunately, currently greenhouse gasses are absorbing 90% of the extra heat in our atmosphere into our oceans.

Water has high heat capacity. Think about how long it takes for water to reach it’s boiling point.  Scientists have been recording ocean temperatures worldwide and discovered that the top 700 feet of ocean waters has warmed 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900 and since 1996, our oceans have absorbed the heat of 5 atomic bombs/second!  YIKES!   

Each extra degree of warming has an exponential effect on our oceans. They now store less oxygen causing “suffocation zones” for aquatic life and water chemistry is changing, which threatens the minerals sea life need to build protective shells.  In addition, ocean waters are expanding resulting in coastal flooding and increased moisture in the air producing excessive wind, rain and severe weather damaging our environment.

Let’s not forget about the surge in single-use plastics – 13,000,000 tons of plastic leak into our oceans yearly killing 100,000 marine life annually.  So let’s not just celebrate World Ocean Day today but EVERYDAY!  It is vital that we safeguard our oceans to ensure a healthy planet. 

“One Ocean – One Climate – One Future – Together”