Congressional Digest

Excerpt

Oceans represent three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. They contain 99 percent of the planet’s living space and 97 percent of its water. Oceans control climate and weather, regulate and stabilize global temperature, generate most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, and absorb a significant amount of carbon dioxide and pollution. Oceans are home to a wide variety of plant and animal species that are an indispensable source of nutrition to much of the world’s human population. They are also essential to livelihoods and economic growth: Nearly a million people in the United States alone have jobs that depend dir…