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Metaphors & SoundbitesConsequences & RiskOcean AcidificationFor your second breath, thank plankton
Metaphors & SoundbitesConsequences & RiskOcean AcidificationFor your second breath, thank planktonFor your second breath, thank plankton Featured
Take two breaths. Your second breath comes from phytoplankton, who produce 1/2 the world's oxygen. One more reason to protect oceans.
notes: For more on the contribution of phytoplankton, see "Source of half the worlds' oxygen gets little credit.", National Geographic. Of course, in addition to adding oxygen, they take up CO2 from the atmosphere.
Special thanks to Brian Ettling, for bringing this idea to my attention.
source: inspired by Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation, in A Center to Study Oceans and Climatee, US News & World Report,
image source: Coccolithophores, a common type of phytoplankton, via BBC
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Tom Smerling
Created
2012-05-26
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byclimatechangecomedian
May 28, 2012
Thanks for mentioning me in the bite. Even more, thanks for finding independent and great sources to confirm what I wrote about plankton in the comments. Just think: If Sting and his band the Police had written about plankton, the song would have been called 'Every Other Breath You Take."