The importance of ocean

Water or diamond, which one is more precious? If we have to choose between these two colorless, transparent substances, 1 gallon of water or a 20-carat diamond, the choice might seem obvious here. A little water can’t make any difference in this society while having a diamond can change our lives forever. However, when it comes to hundreds of millions of cubic miles scale, or in another saying, at ocean’s volume scale, diamond stands no chance against its opponent. Ocean is the place that all the water of this planet comes from, and after a long journey of hydrologic cycle, turns back. They play a vital role in our lives for mainly these following reasons.

Firstly, they are an essential condition for the existence of every single living being, not just on this planet but in this whole universe. When scientists do research to see whether there are lives on a planet, they have to find the water source foremost, if they can’t, it means that’s a dead planet, because no ocean, no life support system. At the very beginning moment of Earth, all around are just rocks and dust, no creatures could live there, and then rain fell, covered up its surface, created one giant ocean. That’s where all lives originated from. At first, they were just single-celled organisms, then multiple-celled organisms, fishes, amphibians, dinosaurs, … and then us. No blue, then no white nor green, without oceans, Earth is just another Mars, imagine it, just an orange-dried-up, deadly sphere nonsensically floating in space. But for the ocean, there wouldn’t be us, like a poet’s quote: “Thousands have lived without love, none without water”. Even today, after leaving the water environment and settling on land almost 400 million years ago, when deep-sea out there is no more our home, we still haven’t stopped depending on the ocean, and never will we. The benefits that they bring about are endless and unmeasurable. In economic regard, maritime transport is the backbone of the global economy. Of all trade methods, ocean freight shipping dominates by carrying around 80 percent by volume and over 70 percent by value of global trade. It offers many advantages such as low cost, safety, oversized, heavy and bulky cargo capability. Besides rich fossil fuel mines all over the world which today’s industrial nations almost entirely rely on, the ocean is also the resource of other potential renewable energies. Thermal energy generated from the sun’s heat or mechanical one produced from waves and tides are likely the future of humanity. It’s also ocean-based industries that carry many countries’ whole economy like Maldives, Singapore, Netherland, etc.

We are putting so much effort to cope with wars, disease, poverty, illiteracy, to make the world a better place, but nothing else will matter if we fail to protect the ocean. The fate of ours and the ocean’s is one. We are asking for too much. We’ve received and taken from the ocean enough. It’s time we pay gratitude to it, not just in speeches but in adequate actions.