Air temperature

: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface.

Climate is the average of that weather. For example, you can expect snow in the Northeast in January or for it to be hot and humid in the Southeast in July. This is climate. The climate record also includes extreme values such as record high temperatures or record amounts of rainfall.

The two most important factors in the climate of an area are temperature and precipitation.

Carbon dioxide

The most important factors affecting climate are latitude, altitude, distance from the ocean and sea, orientation of mountain ranges toward prevailing winds, and the ocean current. Latitude is how far a place is north or south of the equator.

“Global warming, combined with the negative impacts of numerous other human activities, is devastating our ocean, with alarming declines in fish stocks, the death of our reefs, and sea level rise that could displace hundreds of millions of people.”

Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton — drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesize.

Prochlorococcus and other ocean phytoplankton are responsible for 70 percent of Earth’s oxygen production.

One crucial thing we do know we’re losing: much of our air. While coral reefs only cover 0.0025 percent of the oceanic floor, they generate half of Earth’s oxygen and absorb nearly one-third of the carbon dioxide generated from burning fossil fuels.

Oxygen from plants Nearly all free oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis. About one-third of land photosynthesis occurs in tropical forests, the largest of which is located in the Amazon Basin.

Scientists say while the Amazon is important to the world’s ecosystem, it does not produce 20% of the world’s oxygen. In fact, the region absorbs about the same amount of oxygen it produces. THE FACTS: The 20% figure circulated widely this month as concerns grew around fires burning in the Amazon.

Human beings must breathe oxygen . . . to survive, and begin to suffer adverse health effects when the oxygen level of their breathing air drops below [19.5 percent oxygen]. Below 19.5 percent oxygen . . . , air is considered oxygen-deficient.