FAQs about Oceans

2. Are the oceans lungs of the Earth?

Just as the Amazon rainforest is the terrestrial lung of the planet, the oceans are the aquatic lungs of the Earth. The oceans play a vital role in cleaning the atmosphere, since they act as huge carbon sinks.

How is the process? The oceans absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis, carried out by plant organisms suspended in the water (phytoplankton), which also add large amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere.

Human activities have considerably altered this natural process, which is contributing to the increase in global warming and its consequence, climate change.

What are the human damages to the oceans? The main threats caused by human activities, which endanger the oceans, are global warming itself and its consequence, the warming of the waters. Among these activities we can name overfishing, fishing for protected species, plastic pollution, waste pollution, oil spills, water acidification, habitat loss and biodiversity decline.

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Revitalization: collective action for the ocean. World Oceans Day 2022

On June 8 we celebrate World Oceans Day 2022, this year framed in the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences and within which the Conference of the Oceans. The theme of 2022 Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean wants this year to emphasize the greatness of the ocean as a source of life for all human beings and for all other organisms that inhabit the Earth.

The purpose of World Oceans Day is to inform about the impact of humans on the ocean, to develop a global movement of citizens for the ocean, and to mobilize and unite the world’s population in a project for the sustainable management of the oceans.

Our planet Earth is also known as the blue planet because more than 70% of its surface is covered by the waters of oceans and seas, which gives it its distinctive color. These huge bodies of water are essential for life as they provide us with food, as well as being important regulators of climate change and generators of most of the oxygen we breathe.

World Oceans Day was proposed during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992, although it was only implemented in 2008. Since then, World Oceans Day is celebrated on June 8 of each year, by resolution of the General Assembly of the UN. Its objective is to raise awareness about the importance of the oceans and how to preserve them. This year the UN has chosen two reasons to celebrate World Oceans Day.

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