Benefits of Ocean Exploration for Humans Today and Tomorrow

The ocean covers 71 percent of the Earth‘s surface, but many of the hidden treasures the ocean holds have yet to be discovered In comparison Earth is just a speck in a sea of space. But in recent years, many discoveries of a different way to live off earth, and ways to receive resources from different planets have taken over the news, space exploration is very exciting. Getting to discover something new and untouched, where no one has ever gone before, makes people even more interested in wanting to know more about space.

Humans’ fascination with discovering the unknown has given the world a new outlook on exploring territories that have fulfilled this fascination. But why to go to such lengths for the longing of knowing the unknown when the search could be done at home with ocean exploration? The benefits of discovering different resources, food, and the overall weather climate could lead to a new way of life here on earth.

There is this idea as to where life on Earth is doomed, and that the harm humans have done to Earth makes it impossible to save Earth for future generations. This idea has pushed scientists to further investigate the possibility that humans can survive outside of Earth. The prime example is the possibility of humans living on a similar planet to Earth Mars. In “The Microbial Case for Mars and its implication for human expeditions to Mars” by Gerda I-Iorneck, the possibilities and outcomes for humans living on mars is explained.

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If humans, where to live on mars, the similarities between Earth and rears, would have to be close, if not identical. Horneck says “…there is growing evidence that the physical and chemical surface properties of early Earth and Mars were very similar” (Horneck).

With the ever-growing technology that can detect much more on Mars’ surface, the similarities between Earth and Mars can be researched even more. Specifically, the research of the most essential thing for human survival on Mars is water. Horneck goes on to explain how “…the geological flow features provide evidence of abundant water at the surface of Mars, at least at some time in the past” (Horneck). When rovers where sent up to Mars, the data brought back showed that water did exist on Mars. The pictures taken of Mars‘ surface showed where, how deep, and at what point in time water did exist. With the discovery of water that once, and could even still exist on Mars, the need of scientists to discover more has grown throughout different news outlets promoting the idea of space exploration. But as I continue to explain, the benefits of ocean exploration outweigh the benefits of space exploration when the factors are to benefit human life now and in the future.

As humans continue to live on this Earth the search of natural resources has become limited. The need to find new and efficient ways of retrieving natural resources has been something scientists have been searching for for years, and by exploring the depths of the oceans scientists have found one of many solutions, geothermal energy. Well, what is geothermal energy and how can humans use it to their advantage? geothermal energy is the “production of electricity using the heat in geothermal reservoirs of hot water or steams found under the land” (Shnell). Although scientists have found this solution of geothermal energy there is still the problem of how to access this energy. As of today, the ongoing exploration to find a way to extract geothermal energy has led scientists to Iceland. ln “Energy form Ocean Floor Geothermal Resources” by Jim Schnell, Schnell explains more in the depth of the possible ways to extract geothermal energy and the different tools that can keep the extraction going on for years.

The importance of Iceland according to Schnell is that “An exception to the temperature limitation Iceland, which has very productive geothermal resources because it is located on the mid-ocean rift zone” (Shnell). With Iceland being located in a spot that is perfect for the extraction of geothermal energy the process of retaining and generating electricity for many more years has begun. Giving a longer life to electricity, and giving humans the opportunity to continue using electricity as a power source food is a resource that humans absolutely cannot live without. But as humans continue to live the resource of food coming from natural places from forests, gardens, and the ocean have and will become limiting. In “Sea Cucumber fisheries: Global analysis of stocks, management measures and drivers of overfishing” by Steven W. Purcell, the example of the sea cucumber shows how underfunding and limited knowledge of the ecosystem sea cucumbers grow in can hurt the economy of the country using them, and the life of the sea cucumber spices.

Purcell goes on to explain that “Sea cucumbers have been harvested and have been economically important in the western Pacific for over a century” (Purcell). With something being so important to a country’s economy for years the amount of funding should be significant enough to where the species being needed and the people living off the sea cucumbers benefit. The need to invest more money in ocean exploration to continue the cycle of growing sea cucumbers efficiently and to keep an economy that somewhat relies on sea cucumbers is greater than ever. Purcell also points out that knowledge on the habitat sea cucumbers grow in is important too. “Resilience in sea cucumber fisheries requires participatory combine local and scientific knowledge to take responsibility for the resource” (Purcell). For most countries knowledge about how and where sea cucumbers grow is unknown to the people whose job is to capture and sell the sea cucumbers.

By investing more Lime into knowing about the habitats sea cucumbers grow in and finding more on how sea cucumbers live the scientist can lend the information to the fisheries to improve their way of collecting and eventually growing the sea cucumbers themselves. Thus, improving the overall cycle of finding new ways to grow the sea cucumber, improving the economies of the countries that rely on sea cucumbers and learning more on the environment sea cucumbers grow in Earth‘s weather climate has been changing for many years, but as of late the weather climate has had a serious impact on the life that lives on Earth. In “A new direction in effective accounting for the atmospheric C02 budget: considering the combined action of carbonate dissolution, the global water cycle and photosynthetic uptake of BIG by aquatic organisms“ by Zaihua Liu the idea of how carbon dioxide (C02) can be recycled to help the environment is through oceans.

In a world, full of C02 in the atmosphere Liu says, “Roughly half of the C02 emitted by burning fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere, and the other half is absorbed by the oceans and the terrestrial biosphere” (Liu)t When the C02 gets absorbed by the ocean, the C02 then goes through a cycle called the carbon cycle. This is where the absorbed C02 gets broken down and released back into the Earth to supply living organisms with nutrients.

The case for increasing ocean exploration” by Amitai Etzioni, the author also explains how C02 can be recycled back into the Earth through the carbon cycle, Etzioni explains how “Researchers are exploring a variety of chemical, biological, and physical geoengineering projects to increase the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbont” and advocates that “Additional federal funds should be allotted to determine the feasibility and safety of these projects and then to develop and implement any that are found acceptable.” (Etzioni). The idea of scientist being able to discover ways to balance out the C02 in the atmosphere through the carbon cycle can save life here on Earth for quite a bit of time. No one can prevent climate change to stop and make the atmosphere clean of the toxic amount of C02 in the air, but giving a chance to scientists in trying to help to problem continuing can do.

As Etzioni said in his essay, by giving the scientist some time and funding this problem can be balanced out to where it can do little to no harm to life. Getting to explore new and exciting things is something many people are willing to invest time and money into today. Although space exploration leads the way in that search for something new for human life ocean exploration has more important factors to benefit life on Earth for a right-now solution and possible well into the future. From creating a new way to get electricity more efficiently, learning more on how to gather food wisely, and by finding a way the recycle carbon dioxide through the oceans properly; the ocean could help life live much longer than expected. Promoting more of ocean exploration could one day give life a new way to live at home without having to take a journey to the unknown.