The importance of carbon to our climate
Carbon has a major influence on our climate and is a critical building block for life. The continuing increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from human activities is warming the planet, leading to impacts from sea level rise to ocean acidification.
The ocean help regulate atmospheric CO₂. This warming would be substantially worse without the ocean, which has absorbed over a quarter of all the extra CO₂ we've added to the atmosphere. Ocean circulation then transports this carbon away from the surface, trapping it at depth.