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GUEST: David Helvarg, president of the Blue Frontier Campaign and author of the book “50 Ways to Save the Ocean.”

Last week the government agency NASA, released five years of satellite data in the journal, Nature. The data confirms that along with the atmosphere, ocean temperatures have also been warming. There is a drop observed in the growth of phytoplankton in warm ocean years and an increase in cooler ocean years. Phytoplankton are the tiny plants that feed krill, fish and whales and are considered the vital first link in the food chain of the seas. The lack of phytoplankton means less food for fish and other ocean life, but it also means less phytoplankton to absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. In fact, roughly a 100 million tons of carbon are gobbled up each day by phytoplankton.