Oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s Campaign to Save the Oceans

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Well, Sylvia, thank you so much for joining us. And congratulations on this new book, “Ocean: a Global Odyssey.” I have to ask. You have logged more than 7,000 hours of underwater dives. What are you trying to convey in this book to readers?

SYLVIA EARLE, AUTHOR, “NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC OCEAN: A GLOBAL ODYSSEY”: So, the book is like a journey. It is an odyssey, starting out with, what do we know about the ocean? Where did water come from? How about all that salt? Where did that originate? And life in the ocean, who lives there? And what do we know about them? And what don’t we know? But, finally, to pull it together and try to share, OK, why should we care about the ocean? How does the ocean influence us with every breath, we take every drop of water we drink, a climate that works in our favor? Or at least it has until we began fooling around with it. But, also, how are we influencing the ocean?

GOLODRYGA: This has clearly been a passion of yours, marine life and ocean exploration. But you hit on, why should everyone care about this, those that aren’t as passionate about it? Why should this be a priority for us?

EARLE: If you like to breathe, you will listen up. Over, I will say gazillions of years, it’s like at least two billion years, photosynthesis, the process that generates oxygen, captures carbon that we know is accomplished by trees and grass and all green things on the land, except for frogs, of course, and the like, but plants, in the ocean. The ocean is where this really began and dominated the process of capturing carbon and generating oxygen. And we now have an atmosphere that works in our favor, 20 percent oxygen, 80 percent nitrogen, just enough carbon dioxide to power photosynthesis and keep this cycle moving in our favor. But on our watch, what we’ve done to the chemistry of the planet, through what we’ve done on the land, clear cutting forest, diminishing the diversity of life overall. And then, ocean similarly, clear cutting the fish and disrupting the carbon cycle. It’s — you know, why should we care? Because our existence depends on the healthy ocean that has taken a very long time to shape the planet in ways that favor us. It’s taken us a short time to disrupt those very basic systems. It’s not too late to turn the corner.