Analysis Of Colin Woodard s Ocean s End - 1539 Words

In Colin Woodard’s â€Å"Ocean’s End: Travels Through Endangered Seas†, major environmental problems facing our planet are exposed. Woodard exposes the creation of dead zones from pollution, the killing of our coral reefs and the negative effects of the rise of sea-levels. The common theme throughout this book is the dark fate of Oceans and marine life as we know it. Although it may seem like our bodies of water are limitless, vast, and indestructible, they are not. In fact they are vulnerable, and we as humans are destroying them daily through our reckless actions. Major sources of the depletion of our oceans is constant pollution, global warming, and harmful fishing practices. Some environmental services that the oceans provide to the planet is regulations of the Earth’s systems. By having the basins mix across the ocean, it reduces the differences between them and makes the Earth’s ocean a global system. For example, in the North Atlantic Ocean , the wind-driven surface currents go away from the equator to the poles allowing it to cool while it eventually sinks at the high latitudes into the ocean basins which then causes the mixture between them. Since ocean currents carry massive amounts of heat and transfer it all throughout the globe, it allows for the circulation to impact the full effects of climate change in our planet. Carbon and microalgae are also another factor since it exists in all parts of the ocean. For instance, carbon dioxide and organic matter dissolve in