The photograph is of a siphonophore, there are species of this marine plankton longer than a Blue Whale. All life on earth depends on plankton,, ranging from the longest animals on the planet to the smallest. Plants are also critically important, such as the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus that was only discovered in 1985, yet it provides 20% of our oxygen and sequesters 20% of our carbon.
We know almost nothing about the Oceans that cover 71% of the planet, yet we continue to dump toxic chemicals in to the oceans. 80% of the world has no effluent treatment and have the mistaken belief that the solution to pollution is dilution. Well this doesn’t work for nutrients such as phosphate and nitrates and lipid soluble toxic for ever chemicals that just float on the surface and get absorbed and concentrated on microplastic and partially combusted carbon.
The oceans are dying….. we have maybe 20 years before there is a trophic cascade collapse of the entire marine ecosystem, after which it really doesn’t matter what we do to the environment and the planets life support system.
www.goesfoundation.com
the GOES report https://lnkd.in/ev6_2cXN
#environment #marine #lifesupport
