Why We Owe Our Lives to Phytoplankton

Thank you to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for partnering with us on this episode of SciShow. Visit https://www.montereybayaquarium.org or if you are in the area, swing on by to learn more about the beauty and wonder of the ocean. Some of the amazing creatures on the ocean floor have immense power to reshape the planet's atmosphere—and you've likely never even seen them before! These microscopic critters are called phytoplankton, and almost all life, both on land and in the ocean, depends on them. Learn about this world changing little friends in a new episode of SciShow, hosted by Hank Green! SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon:   / scishow   ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Kevin Carpentier, Eric Jensen, Matt Curls, Sam Buck, Christopher R Boucher, Avi Yashchin, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook:   / scishow   Twitter:   / scishow   Tumblr:   / scishow   Instagram:   / thescishow   Follow Monterey Bay Aquarium! Twitter: @MontereyAq Facebook: @montereybayaquarium Instagram: @montereybayaquarium Youtube:    / montereybayaquarium   Tumblr: @montereybayaquarium ---------- Sources: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/p... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... https://www.nature.com/articles/s4156... https://advances.sciencemag.org/conte... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... https://www.jstor.org/stable/1542527?... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... https://www.britannica.com/science/Ph... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista/di... http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/academicjou... https://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G102... https://advances.sciencemag.org/conte... https://www.britannica.com/science/bi... Image Sources: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000... https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13021 https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/satelli... https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13192 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...