Earth is our life support system in space, a spinning oasis made up of a vast collection of different atoms which are continually re-arranging themselves. We’re still learning about how this planetary engine works, but the global ocean is the heart of the system and the most urgent questions are about the links between the blue of our blue planet and all the other components. To pick it apart, we need understand ice and whale poo, sunlight, sand and plenty more. But knowledge alone doesn’t answer the question of what to do next. To make decisions about how to live here, we need more than just the physics of the engine – we need a cultural decision about how we view the ocean and our planet. This talk is about how our planet works, and how we humans can learn to fit in.