Oceans

Oceans

From Geography Matters by Chris Hamnett

May 19, 2026 · 36 min · Season 2 · Episode 14

About this episode

This episode discusses the critical role of oceans in climate stability and environmental health.

Oceans are very important. They cover 71% of the worlds's surface and, as well as their importance for fishing, trade and transport they play a major role in climatic and environmental stability. They absorb a very high proportion of the C02 we produce and without their absorbtion capacity the world would be heating up much faster. They also transport the heat received from solar radiation from the equatorial belts towards the poles by a series of major currents. This is critical, otherwise there would be a global heat imbalance with equatorial regions heating up and the polar regions getting colder. Britain is a major beneficiary of this process via the Gulf Stream which flows up from the Gulf of Mexico, along the east coast of the USA, then across the Atlantic to the British Isles. This is why the Scilly Isles and Cornwall have Palm trees and other sub-tropical plants. But the Gulf Stream is part of a much bigger system known as the Atlantic conveyor system whereby the warm waters begin to cool and sink as they reach the North Atlantic and Iceland and are transported back at depth towards the equator. There are similar systems in the Pacific and in the Southern Hemisphere…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Hamnett

Topics covered

  • oceans
  • climate
  • environment
  • currents
  • fishing
  • trade
  • transport

Keywords

  • oceans
  • climate change
  • Gulf Stream
  • Atlantic conveyor
  • El Nino
  • fishing
  • transport

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Britain, Gulf of Mexico, USA, British Isles, Scilly Isles, Cornwall, North Atlantic, Iceland, Peru, South America

More episodes of Geography Matters

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Geography Matters podcast page.