What Have The Oceans Ever Done For Us?

This week on Cleaning Up, I sat down with DrHelen Czerski, Associate Prof at UCL, physicist, oceanographer, author, presenter and open-water canoeist. An incredibly fun and informative conversation!

What have the oceans ever done for us? Cleaning Up with Dr Helen Czerski, physicist, oceanographer, broadcaster, author, canoeist. Image: Cleaning Up / Liebreich Associates

Oceans define every aspect of our planet's physical systems, its ecosystems, human history and human culture. They also define the planet's future: they absorb one third of the CO2 we are pumping into the atmosphere, as well as 90% of the heat. What would happen if that were to stop?

Oceans also represent a potentially vast ally in the fight against climate change, whether as a host for offshore wind farms, an enhanced carbon sink, a source for critical minerals or a route for high-voltage DC cables. But could there be unintended consequences?

This week on Cleaning Up, I sat down with Dr Helen Czerski, whose expertise seems as wide and as deep as the oceans themselves. Helen is a physicist and oceanographer, and associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. Her latest book is ‘Blue Machine', about the physics of the oceans, which I used as a loose guide for our conversation. It’s not just super-informative, it’s also very well written, including plenty of heartwarming stories about Hawaiian canoeing and how ancient Micronesians and Polynesians navigated. If you haven’t already read it, you should most definitely add a copy to your Christmas list.

Listen to the episode with Dr Helen Czerski, or watch it, by clicking here

Here are some of my main takeaways:

• The oceans are not just some vast buffer zone, so much bigger than everything else on the planet that they can absorb whatever we can throw at them. They have exquisite structure, which we can affect and are affecting by our activities.

• We are only starting to understand that exquisite structure. Helen may be able to range knowledgeably up and down the 29 orders of magnitude between ocean currents and the smallest phytoplankton, but every few cubic centimetres of ocean could reward a lifetime of study. Can we please spend more money on ocean research and a bit less on some of the stupid stuff we do?

• When it comes to energy infrastructure, we need to think and research before we do. While it’s probably OK to do subsea HVDC cables, and there may be places we can do fixed or floating offshore wind, we should be very careful before casually assuming we can do Direct Ocean Capture of CO2 on a large scale, or deep ocean mining, without disturbing some pretty important systems in some pretty profound ways.

I have to say, it was an absolutely magical conversation for me. We were on territory about which I admit to knowing shamefully little, despite having often pronounced on with enormous confidence. Helen was very gracious, even when I teased her with canards about the ocean being empty space filled with water. And she is a fantastic science communicator - a role model for anyone trying to get across the reasons why we should look after this one, single, beautiful planet of ours.

Did I mention you should buy her book, ‘Blue Machine’?

---

Cleaning Up is supported by its Leadership Circle, whose founding members are: Actis, EcoPragma Capital, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation and Wärtsilä. For more information, please visit https://www.cleaningup.live

Listen to my conversation with Dr Helen Czerski, physicist, oceanographer, presenter, author and canoeist on your favourite podcast platform, or watch it on YouTube!

If you are enjoying Thoughts of Chairman Michael, or listening to/watching Cleaning Up, please recommend it to your friends, family and colleagues. Our audience is growing, and you can help!

And don’t forget to subscribe to Cleaning Up’s own newsletter: CleaningUpPod.Substack.com