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I don't understand the claim that they are helping fight climate change. Is lack of oxygen in the atmosphere a concern at all? Is it a concern for climate chan

I don't understand the claim that they are helping fight climate change. Is lack of oxygen in the atmosphere a concern at all? Is it a concern for climate change? I've certainly heard of methane and CO2 levels being too high causing problems, but not of Oxygen levels being too low causing problems.

hannob 6y ago
This is a poor explanation in the article. The basic effect isn't hard to understand: A whale is a lot of biomass, i.e. they store carbon. Dead whales don't completely release all that carbon. And whales help other organisms thrive, which is more biomass and stored carbon. Here's a better article on the effect: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-s...
- phyzome 6y ago
  That is also not what the article is saying, which is that whales eat krill which eat phytoplankton which "eat" CO2—more whales = more phytoplankton.
  - Valgrim 6y ago
    Whales are a keystone species akin to wolves in Yellowstone, which prey on deer and allow a greater regeneration of plants. Whales also pump a large amount of nutrients to the surface because they eat deep water species and excrete near the surface when they breathe.
grawprog 6y ago
Photosynthesis uses C02 to convert sunlight to energy which is used by the organism and oxygen, as a byproduct, which is released. The more phytoplankton there are, the more CO2 is removed and converted to oxygen. It's exactly the same reason rainforests are good, there's just a shit ton more plankton than there's ever been trees, and their photosynthesis is efficient. https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-do-oceans-add-to-worlds-oxygen https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-do-oceans-add-to-worlds-...
- basilgohar 6y ago
  Rainforests provide a lot more than the oxygen of their trees. They provide habitats for countless species of diverse animals across nearly the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom, many of which can be found exclusively there. As stated elsewhere in the comments on this article, oxygen in the atmosphere is not an issue for us. It's CO2 and the preservation of other creatures that should motivate us, amongst other things.
caymanjim 6y ago
If 100% of all photosynthesis stopped today, it would still take literally millions of years before animal life would even notice a change. It took hundreds of millions of years to build to roughly present levels, and very little oxygen is actually consumed. All the "easy" oxygen sinks (like iron turning to rust) are used up. Animals don't really use very much.

hannob 6y ago

This is a poor explanation in the article. The basic effect isn't hard to understand: A whale is a lot of biomass, i.e. they store carbon. Dead whales don't completely release all that carbon. And whales help other organisms thrive, which is more biomass and stored carbon. Here's a better article on the effect: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-s...

phyzome 6y ago
That is also not what the article is saying, which is that whales eat krill which eat phytoplankton which "eat" CO2—more whales = more phytoplankton.
- Valgrim 6y ago
  Whales are a keystone species akin to wolves in Yellowstone, which prey on deer and allow a greater regeneration of plants. Whales also pump a large amount of nutrients to the surface because they eat deep water species and excrete near the surface when they breathe.

grawprog 6y ago

Photosynthesis uses C02 to convert sunlight to energy which is used by the organism and oxygen, as a byproduct, which is released. The more phytoplankton there are, the more CO2 is removed and converted to oxygen. It's exactly the same reason rainforests are good, there's just a shit ton more plankton than there's ever been trees, and their photosynthesis is efficient. https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-do-oceans-add-to-worlds-oxygen https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-do-oceans-add-to-worlds-...

basilgohar 6y ago
Rainforests provide a lot more than the oxygen of their trees. They provide habitats for countless species of diverse animals across nearly the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom, many of which can be found exclusively there. As stated elsewhere in the comments on this article, oxygen in the atmosphere is not an issue for us. It's CO2 and the preservation of other creatures that should motivate us, amongst other things.

caymanjim 6y ago

If 100% of all photosynthesis stopped today, it would still take literally millions of years before animal life would even notice a change. It took hundreds of millions of years to build to roughly present levels, and very little oxygen is actually consumed. All the "easy" oxygen sinks (like iron turning to rust) are used up. Animals don't really use very much.