Sentinel-3In this Commentary, published today in Nature Climate Change, Paul Durack and co-leaders in the ocean observation community report the hard-won successes of Argo and GO-SHIP, extremely relevant for understanding and monitoring global energy and global water budgets. Chapeau to the ocean observations community! But they also report fragile prospects for future funding of these systems. Recent events in Australia prove their point - loss of support from any key nation will threaten the entire system. Read the Commentary