Hey there, welcome to Life Noggin!
It’s thought there are 350 quintillion gallons of water in the oceans covering 72% of Earth.
And this water does a lot of good.
It gives you humans food.
It generates power.
It’s home to some of the coolest animals alive.
And it even gives you new medicines, like cancer treatments.
You humans rely on the oceans for a lot.
But still, people dump all kinds of horrible trash and pollutants into the sea every day
and support companies that are polluting at record levels.
What if, all of a sudden, the ocean wasn’t there for you to just take advantage of?
What would happen if you drained the ocean?
Well, for starters, the human race would probably run out of oxygen.
70% of the oxygen you breath on Earth comes from photosynthesis of marine plants, like
phytoplankton.
And they absorb a lot of CO2 as well.
As a whole, the ocean has absorbed almost half the CO2 humans have created in the last
200 years, drastically slowing the rate of global warming.
If you drain the ocean, much of that CO2 would go right back out into the atmosphere and
those organisms wouldn’t be around to create oxygen!
There’s a fair chance you humans would run out of air to breathe pretty quickly without
the ocean.
And global weather patterns would change dramatically.
Without ocean currents circulating warm and cool air across the planet, you’d have a
lot more extreme differences in temperature and climate.
And currents aside, right now, the ocean is absorbing half the heat being beamed down
by the Sun.
This keeps the planet at a liveable temperature, but without the ocean and with a compromised
atmosphere, lots of the warmth our sun provides would be sent right back out into space.
Which could lead to temperatures dropping drastically.
Meaning Earth would be a lot colder than it is now.
Earth’s water cycle would be greatly affected too, leaving us with very little drinkable
water and very little rain.
Lots of water from the ocean evaporates and becomes water vapor which then falls as rain
when it collides with colder air.
86% of all water molecules in the atmosphere come from the ocean.
So, with no ocean and no rainfall, vegetation around the world would struggle.
Crops, feed for livestock, and forests would all suffer.
And without rain, we’d run out of water sources VERY quickly.
Sure, scientists could try to create water for everyone with hydrogen and oxygen molecules,
but it’s a pretty dangerous process.
Plus, it takes a while, it’s inefficient, and it’s costly.
Ok, so no air, no warmth, no water, no rain.
Doesn’t sound great.
Basically, if the oceans just disappeared, the planet would become a dry, barren, freezing
cold wasteland devoid of life.
The disappearance of the oceans may sound like a really unrealistic event, but this
kinda thing has happened.
Take Mars for example.
It used to be warm and wet before its atmosphere was stripped away, its oceans disappeared,
and its temperatures plummeted.
Venus is also thought to have once been covered with vast bodies of water, but scientists
think it evaporated when the planet got hotter.
I bet martians or… whatever you’d call aliens living on Venus... would be really
jealous of our incredible, life-filled oceans.
They’re so important for so many reasons.
It’s up to each and every one of us to protect them, so do your part.
Check out the link below to see what you can do to help.
What’s your favorite way to take care of the planet?
Let us know in the comments.
I know a lot of you watch our videos to “Keep on Thinking," and want to build the skill
sets for doing so, and that’s why I’m so excited to team up with sponsor Brilliant.org.
Brilliant offers you engaging problems to get you interested, and they help explain
how to break the problem down into relevant concepts, think through each part, and build
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up to the conclusion.
Pretty neat, huh?
As always, my name is Blocko.
This has been Life Noggin.
Don't forget to keep on thinking.