Lab 028: There's Something in the Water
This episode is all about the ocean and climate change. Did you know those two are linked?
The ocean is basically involved in everything. It all makes sense when you consider the water cycle - I mean, it’s the same water just condensing, evaporating, and precipitating, over and over again.
The ocean holds 97% of the total water on the planet.
Check out these amazing visualizations of water in the United States. The Mississippi River basin is enormous!
The ocean plays a role in weather. We’re looking at you, hurricane season!
Learn more about “blue carbon,” the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle.
At least half of the Earth’s oxygen comes from the ocean. Shout out to diatoms!
We recommend checking out the explanation of this in National Geographic’s One Strange Rock’s “Gasp” episode
Learn how heat waves in the ocean affect marine life, the problem of plastics in the ocean, and more about protecting ocean habitats.
Show the Oysters Some Respect!
Even if you don’t love briny or creamy oysters, you gotta respect their reefs. Not only do oyster reefs improve water quality, provide storm protection, and provide significant economic value in the seafood industry, they’re nurseries for other species. Shrimp, herring, trout, striped bass, blue crab, anchovies, and others use oyster reefs as a nursery of sorts. Learn more about the value of oyster reefs from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
Policy
Remember the discussion of the Green New Deal? It’s not as long as you may think! Dr. Johnson wanted to see more protection for the oceans and called for a Blue New Deal in The Washington Post.
Homework
Dr. Johnson shared some great links and we came across a couple others that you might enjoy!
Don’t believe the hype. Black people enjoy the outdoors! The Black Outdoors seeks to “increase awareness of and participation in outdoor recreational activity amongst black people and other underrepresented groups.”
Zakiya’s totally into biking and recently looked into some bike clubs in the DMV. Check out Ride Together Club and Black Girls Do Bike.
Climate Change in the American Mind “investigates, tracks, and explains the public understanding of climate change.”
Are you ready to save the oysters? Check out the Billion Oyster Project in New York. So far they’ve engaged over 6,000 NYC students and restored over 45 million oysters in the NY Harbor.
Project Drawdown is a great resource for climate solutions. Check out their solutions by categorized into sectors and explore their partnership with EcoChallenge to learn about impact & social good.
Read more about what we can learn from historical ecology and how a variety of sources can help us paint a more complete picture of the past.
About the Expert
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy advisor, and CEO of Ocean Collectiv. She also co-hosts a new podcast, How to Save a Planet, which asks what we need to do to solve the climate criss and how to get it done!
Transcript & Audio
You can read the transcript of Lab 028 here.
Listen to the episode on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
