It was well over twenty years ago that I first read that algae -- that green stuff in the water --replenishes the earth's oxygen every fifty years. Not trees, although they add their share. Algae. From the kelp forests to the gulf stream plankton, all within eighty feet of the surface of the oceans and lakes, mostly oceans.
But something is happening. On NPR yesterday, I heard a report that scares the green clean out of me. Over the last century, records exist that help scientists determine that the world's algae, as well as zoo plankton, are deminishing rapidly. With satellite imnages over the past few decades to help, it looks as though we are losing one percent of this material every year. More blue seas, less green -- universally, in all major bodies of water. Less food for the whales, and more importantly, less air to breathe, since we carbon based life forms breathe photosynthetic bi-ptoducts.
They think global warming is the reason: more stretches of the ocean's surfaces remain too warm to allow nutrients to rise up from the cooler depths.
Can you feel the air getting thinner?
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