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The two greatest unknowns of our time could hold the greatest resources that would ultimately benefit humankind: the unexplored depths of the ocean and space. First of all, focusing on the sea, SeaWeb, a reliable article talks about the benefits of the ocean to humans. They want to help clean the oceans, and give reasons on why the ocean should be maintained. The second article, from NASA, talks about why we explore the heavens above us, and what benefits we can have from exploring them. I will firstly talk about some of the benefits of the oceans, and then switch to benefits to space.
Firstly, some benefits of the ocean are that the ocean affects the climate, and in all, it helps keep the weather balanced.
“...transferring heat from the equator to the poles and moderating carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.”
The ocean helps us regulate carbon dioxide levels, as shown in the quote, and equally distributes heat throughout the world.
One of the other numerous benefits is that it also provides humans with food. It provides a wide abundance of seafood.
“Per capita consumption of seafood is increasing around the globe.”
Sea food is starting to increase around the world, and it brings in more money as well, beneficial to trading, relating to another benefit of what the ocean provides us. The ocean provides us with a booming economy through many aspects.
“ Ocean-related industry provides revenue through fishing, seafood distribution, tourism, recreation and transportation.”
Through these many different ways of producing revenue, we gain more money. The last two are related to the economy one, them being transportation and medicine. Both help the economy but they have their own separate benefits. As I said before, trade is an important aspect itself, whether relating to the economy or not.
“Ocean-bound shipping accounts for more than 90 percent of global trade.”
And lastly, there is medicine. We can find many types of new medicines, or medicine that has previously existed from marine life, from plants and animals in the ocean.
“Biomedical products derived from marine plant and animal sources provide important medicinal products and health benefits.”
These are just some benefits I found that we receive directly from the ocean. I still haven’t researched into what deep sea exploring, or other subjects I’d like to focus, which would further show why the seas are beneficial to us. The next topic and it’s benefits I will talk about is space. From the official NASA site, it told me the benefits there are to exploring space.
Firstly, one of the reasons listed saying space was good to explore was the it innovates people to build better and better technology so we can extend our reach in the heavens above us.
“Through addressing the challenges related to human space exploration we expand technology, create new industries, and help to foster a peaceful connection with other nations.”
NASA is saying that because of our focus on space exploration, we make peace with other countries we previously fought over, and as we continuously put effort in space exploration, better technology is created,and new industries come up. Another side effect benefit of this would be more jobs available. Also, by exploring translunar space, the area in between Earth and the Moon, we can discover more about a dangerous type of radiation, galactic cosmic radiation. If we study this dangerous element, we can improve our understanding of space and improve our medicine as well.
“Operating in translunar space, NASA can research galactic cosmic radiation–potentially the most threatening element to humans exploring deep space–and develop mitigation strategies that may also lead to medical advancements on Earth.”
Another benefit space yields to us is an essential question as well. How did elements like water or organic material like carbon form on Earth? And the answer to that may lie on asteroids. If we learn more about asteroids, we can answer numerous questions about Earth possibly, and may find a way to reduce the danger of asteroids hitting Earth. Another benefit we could gain is that we could find new materials in space, or find resources that we require.
“These robotic missions are a critical step in preparing humans to visit asteroids where we will learn about the valuable resources available in space…”
And for the last reason NASA gave me is about exploring Mars. Mars could be beneficial to us because, as we know, we have found evidence of water on Mars. Also, Mars shares a somewhat similar history as Earth does, and exploring Mars could give us a better insight to Earth.
I hold more interest in the sea, and the mysteries and benefits it may hold because its closer to us and the most unexplored. Both the ocean and space provide numerous benefits, but these are only a few. I think that the depths of the ocean might hold more benefits, in my own opinion, and since I, personally, have had a fascination with the unknown ocean, than I have had of the endless space.
For the next questions I will research for the sea are: What resources are available in the ocean? What possibilities can be uncovered from deep sea exploring. How many estimated new species could be discovered from exploring the sea?
Its so interesting to see how many vital resources we can gain from more exploration of the seas and space. I like how you included many different quote from each article that related to your topic and how you go through each quote and relate them to all the ecological services that are provided. I also think its interesting to see how scared people actually are to explore these "unknown depths" and how much it will help our economy prosper.
ReplyDeleteI find your topic really interesting, but there were two things I was wondering about. The first was being the Bio medical medicine that can be found from the ocean. Can you give some examples because I have never heard about this. The other thing I was wondering is wouldn't it be cheaper to explore the ocean rather than space?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy how your topic includes the depths of the ocean as well as outer space, because people usually forget about just how little we know about it! One extremely common argument that you'll have to combat however is that further exploration of either domain is simply too expensive for what we receive in return. If someone proposes that excess funds should go towards humanitarian efforts such as fighting starvation and diseases instead, what will you be prepared to tell them? Bill Gates is known for supporting this position so if you're looking for more from that viewpoint then I would recommend looking into that, deconstructing his argument, and ultimately proving that your priorities are more important. Good luck and awesome topic!
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