How whales help cool the Earth

bbc ^ | Jan. 19, 2021 | Sophie Yeo

[PROCON]

The world's largest animals are unusually good at taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Seeing a whale stranded on a beach often provokes a strong reaction. It can make people curious – beached whales can do strange things, like explode. It can also be upsetting to witness a creature so magnificent in water reduced to lifeless blubber on land. What rarely registers, however, is the lost opportunity for carbon sequestration.

Whales, particularly baleen and sperm whales, are among the largest creatures on Earth. Their bodies are enormous stores of carbon, and their presence in the ocean shapes the ecosystems around them.

From the depths of the ocean, these creatures are also helping to determine the temperature of the planet – and it's something that we've only recently started to appreciate.

"On land, humans directly influence the carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems through logging and the burning of forests and grasslands," according to a 2010 scientific paper. "In the open ocean, the carbon cycle is assumed to be free of direct human influences."

But that assumption neglects the surprising impact of whaling.

[RatRipper]

Their bodies are enormous stores of carbon, and their presence in the ocean shapes the ecosystems around them.

So, I guess our human bodies do not store ANY carbon. . . . /sarc. Bury us in a casket instead of cremation; it traps the carbon. They going to start requiring burial and outlawing cremation??????

[BuffaloJack]

Wow, you hit so many topics, but neglected that they think about destroying trump all the time.

[PROCON]

Dieting should be outlawed. Fat people should get get its reductions, or carbon credits for saving the planet. Fitness freaks need to pay for damaging the planet.