The ocean moves heat without staying still

Ocean water absorbs solar energy, especially in the tropics, stores it and redistributes it through currents and exchange with the atmosphere. Evaporation transfers moisture and energy into air; winds and density differences help move water. A coastline's weather is therefore connected to heat gathered far beyond its horizon.

No single current controls climate, and popular conveyor-belt diagrams simplify a variable, three-dimensional system. Atmosphere, ice, land and ocean act together across many timescales. The useful mechanism is narrower: water's capacity to hold and transport heat makes the ocean an active part of climate, not a blue surface beneath the weather.