Oceanography in Our Global Future

Water Planet

by Isaac Stockdale

Isaac Stockdale presentation

Isaac Stockdale created this video presentation of the Role of Oceanography in our Global Future, as his project on VISIONS '13.

 

Oceanography in Our Global Future

This video was prompted by a question that I often ask myself, “Why should people care about our oceans?”  The first answer that popped into my head was the same as I believe most people would have, which is that Earth’s oceans play host to a massive number of living organisms and vibrant ecosystems.  I believe that protecting life in our oceans is a very important cause, but for this video I wanted to expand that concept from just marine species, to all life on our planet, so I instead decided to focus on the role that our oceans have played and will play in global climate change.  Our oceans produce half of the entire global oxygen supply, they have absorbed half of all the carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuel and yet, we have mapped less of earth’s deep oceans than we have the face of the moon.  This lack of information is a huge problem that we will have to face in the coming decades, which is why I made this video, to highlight some of the areas that I believe greatly need further research and to show what steps we are currently taking towards a better understand of the complex: chemical, biological and physical system that is our oceans.