Coordinating
 data from nearly half a million records, researchers at Dalhousie 
University in Canada have created the first historical climate account 
of phytoplankton, a nearly microscopic organism found abundantly in 
oceans worldwide. 
As a vital component of life, phytoplankton 
currently accounts for half of all the oxygen-generating photosynthesis 
on Earth and is also at the very foundation of the ocean’s ability to 
absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. 
Alarmingly, however, the 
scientists discovered that the occurrence of ocean phytoplankton has 
declined by nearly 50% in the past half century alone. 
Supreme 
Master Television spoke about the significance of this tiny organism 
with Dr. David Siegel, an oceanography professor at University of 
California-Santa Barbara in the USA who wrote an editorial on the 
Canadian research that was published in “Nature” magazine. 
Dr. David Siegel – Professor of Oceanography, University of California-Santa Barbara, California, USA (M):
 As you do photosynthesis, you produce oxygen, all of it at one time 
came from the oceans and came from phytoplankton before land plants 
evolved. 
Now, about 50% of that net partner production comes 
from the oceans, through phytoplankton, that oxygen supports all the 
animals, all the bacteria.
VOICE: The cause for phytoplankton’s 
decline has been attributed primarily to human-caused global warming as 
well as polluting fertilizer runoff arising largely from livestock 
production. 
This worldwide loss has also been associated with large 
decreases in bird and marine mammal populations who depend upon  its 
existence for life. 
Another adverse effect has been the reduced 
capability of the ocean to slow the pace of climate change because of 
being increasingly impaired in absorbing CO2 emissions. 
Dr. David Siegel (M): The
 authors of the paper find through their statistical analysis that the 
amount of phytoplankton biomass has decreased by, globally, as much as 
40% over the last 50 years. And that is just a huge number. 
VOICE:
 We thank Dr. David Siegel and Dalhousie University researchers for 
helping us to further understand our interconnectedness with even the 
tiniest of ocean life. 
May we all use this information wisely to
 quickly reverse such harmful declines and restore the balance of our 
Earth. During a July 2008 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme 
Master Ching Hai, as on many previous occasions, spoke of our 
irreplaceable ecosystems and the caring responsibility needed for their 
ultimate protection.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
 You see, these things are very sad. It happens a lot and we still did 
not learn to be responsible and to feel for the environment and the 
helpless animals, which are our friends and helpers. 
We have 
dumped so much chemicals and poisonous stuff into rivers and oceans. Our
 enduring, giving rivers and oceans have to take in daily so much. And 
they poison the marine life. 
We just feel like it doesn’t 
concern us or that we are not responsible for their plight,for the death
 and disappearance of our precious co-inhabitants. 
But the fact 
is that we are responsible. We have to stop the harmful effect of meat 
consumption, then we will see a happy, sufficient and satisfied world 
manifest in front of our eyes in a matter of weeks.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=23717 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/science/plankton-crucial-to-the-planet-for-food-and-oxygen-in-deep-trouble-global-warming-blamed-99479694.html#ixzz0wKIPvAU4http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/science/plankton-crucial-to-the-planet-for-food-and-oxygen-in-deep-trouble-global-warming-blamed-99479694.html#ixzz0wKIWDBpvhttp://www.rosemerena.org/home/2009/04/04/columbia-river-may-cause-dead-zones-off-oregon-and-washington-coasts-and-contribute-to-problems-with-vancouver-lake-december-11-2006/