"Were it not for them, copepods' mountain of exoskeletons would starve the ocean of carbon and nitrogen," Shah writes.
That includes doing nothing, which means aligning yourself with the worst of the status quo dragging us down in that ocean of carbon and consumption.
The centre runs research programmes in climate variability and change, the monitoring of sea levels, ocean uptake of carbon dioxide, and Antarctic marine ecosystems.
"In our more recent global model simulations," explained M.I.T., "the ocean heat-uptake is slower than previously estimated, the ocean uptake of carbon is weaker, feedbacks from the land system as temperature rises are stronger, cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases over the century are higher, and offsetting cooling from aerosol emissions is lower.
Despite its climate-centric name and mission, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been focusing increasing attention on direct ocean impacts of carbon dioxide, most notably in an excellent 2011 report, "IPCC Workshop on Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biology and Ecosystems".
They argue that widespread ocean dumping of carbon dioxide could unbalance the aquatic environment.
The agency plans to use the glider to determine the extent of the oceans' rising levels of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas produced by the burning of fossil fuels.
By far the most researched technology is ocean fertilisation, where iron is used to stimulate plankton growth in the ocean, increasing uptake of carbon dioxide.
Before long, the ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide pollution will make seawater corrosive to many animals vital to our marine ecosystems.
Gregoire created the panel earlier this year to examine the implications of dropping pH levels in seawater, a trend caused by the ocean's absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
