Most of the Oxygen You Breathe Comes From the Ocean

Did you know that our oceans generate more than half of Earth’s oxygen and absorb nearly one-third of the carbon dioxide generated from burning fossil fuels? Referred to as the rainforests of the seal, Ocean plants produce up to 85% of the oxygen in the air we breathe!

When was the last time you thought about breathing? We need oxygen, a gas that makes up roughly 21 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere. You might already know that the oxygen you breathe comes from plants because of photosynthesis, but did you know that most of the oxygen you breathe comes from photosynthetic organisms that are in the ocean?

More than half of the oxygen you breathe comes from marine photosynthesizers, like kelp, phytoplankton, and seaweed. These organisms photosynthesize by releasing oxygen while using carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun to make food for themselves.

Land plants started appearing before the dinosaurs, ~470 million years ago, but photosynthesizers have been in the ocean for much longer. The oldest known fossil is actually from a marine cyanobacterium, a tiny-blue green photosynthesizer that was releasing oxygen 3.5 billion years ago.  We also owe the ocean for all of the oxygen that comes from land plants as well, because land plants evolved from green marine algae.

Marine photosynthesizers are indispensable to our survival. So, once in a while, take a breath and thank the ocean and its photosynthesizers for the air you breathe. We’re all in this together. That’s why at Stream2Sea, we’ve taken the time to test and prove that our products are safe and biodegradable for our oceans and all other bodies of water, including your own!