1.1. The oceans have a vital role in combating climate change
impacts
The oceans, which are part of the climate system, are the blue
lungs of the planet
e
breathing in CO
2
and exhaling oxygen. Over
the last 200 years, oceans have been responsible for absorbing
nearly half of the increased CO
2
emissions produced by burning
fossil fuels (
WBGU, 2006
) as well as a signi
fi
cant portion of
increased greenhouse gas emissions due to land-use change
(
Sabine et al., 2004
). Importantly, acting as the largest active carbon
sink on earth, ocean absorption of CO
2
reduces the rate at which it
accumulates in the atmosphere, and thus slows the rate of global
warming (
Denman et al., 2007).