Saving Whales Could Be The Secret Solution To Potential Climate Disasters

<p>Christopher Michel</p>
<p>Christopher Michel</p>

Topping out at some 200 tons, whales are the kings of the sea. But their impact on the ocean - and even the world's climate - is even larger.

For a long time, the prevailing theory was that because whales eat fish and krill, they are in competition with humans for these resources. In fact, just the opposite is true: whales are the great stabilizers of the ocean.

A stunning video produced by Sustainable Human and narrated by British writer George Monbiot shows just how this process works - and how increasing whale populations can change the world around them.

click to play video

As Monbiot says in the video, the effect that whales have on the oceans - and on the entire atmosphere - is so powerful that it could even mitigate some of the effects of climate change. By releasing nutrients in their fecal plumes to fertilize plankton and by mixing up the water column to allow plankton to reach the photic zone, whales create what's called a "trophic cascade" throughout the entire ocean ecosystem.

"The return of the great whales, if they're allowed to recover, could be seen as a benign form of geoengineering. It could undo some of the damage we've done, both to the living systems of the sea, and to the atmosphere.

Monbiot produced a similar video last February, called "How Wolves Change Rivers":

click to play video