Summary and Response #1 - Climate change influence sea turtles’ lives

Velasquez-Manoff’s (2007) article expresses the fact that climate change has threatened the lives of the sea turtle. Sea turtles have existed for 200 million years, from the time of dinosaurs to the current time, but the sea turtle is one kind of endangered animal now. Global warming is causing a lot of climate change. There are some problem that will appear, like stronger storms, rising seas and higher temperature. They all influence their lives and cause them to be extinct. The author also mentions that temperature will affect hatchlings to be male or female, but eggs will not be hatched in too high temperature. Sea turtles are looking for new cooler beaches to make their babies survive in this hot weather. People also want to save their lives by unnatural methods like moving eggs in to the nursery. The author also talks about the fact that sea turtles can find a new beach to survive, but people also like the same beaches. People destroy this natural beach to build new houses. People use chemicals to change the original sand. This sand will not be suitable to eggs hatched. Sea turtles’ babies will die on this horrible sand. Finally, the author expresses that scientists are not sure whether extinction of sea turtles will affect the food chain or not. So we need to protect these endangered animals, and should not catch sea turtles.

It is apparent that climate change causes sea turtles to be endangered. The sea turtle is not the only kind of animals that are facing the situation of extinction. Sea turtles have survived on earth for over 200 million years. At the present time they have a large chance of disappearing from this warmer and warmer climate. Maybe people don’t care weather sea turtles exist or not. If they become extinct in the future because of global warming, people probably will die out in the same situation. Global warming is a serious problem that people shouldn’t neglect.

First of all, we need to attach importance to problems of global warming because global warming is threatening animals’ lives. Not only sea turtles but also other animals are endangered, like American pikas, penguins, albatrosses, and Polar bears. Some plants are also threatened by global warming; for example, coral reefs are bleaching because of warmer seas. Even though some scientists argue that climate change that is compared with the past billion years is not very serious, we believe that there are some reasons that cause warmer climate. Furthermore, many kinds of evidence can prove that we have done something that makes earth become warmer and strange climate also can cause a lot of people to die. If we still don’t face this problem, the next endangered specie is humans.

Next, high temperature is a killer for sea turtles. High temperature causes rising seas. The beaches will be smaller than before. The habitats of sea turtle will be less and less. Temperature also determines the gender of sea turtles. According to the article, most sea turtles will be males if eggs are hatched below 29.4 degree C. Now most sea turtles are females because temperature is higher than 29.4 degree C. As a result, it will be hard to reproduce babies in the future.

Finally, the human is an enemy of sea turtles. Global warming is caused by human beings. People are also destroying beaches now. People build houses to make money on the beach. Chemicals and garbage pollute the beautiful beaches. Some people make some tours about the habitats of sea turtle. They want to see sea turtles but also influence the lives of sea turtles. There are fewer and fewer beaches that are safe and no human beings will go to stay there. The human definitely is the biggest enemy of the sea turtle.

In conclusion, we should try to find some methods to prevent global warming from becoming worse. Sea turtles need to be protected by human beings because we cause them to be endangered. Sea turtles want to live continually in this beautiful earth. If we want to see sea turtles in the future, we need to protect them from a dangerous environment and make a suitable environment that sea turtles can live in forever.

References

Velasquez-Manoff, M. (2007, June 21). Climate turns up heat on sea turtles. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0621/p25s03-sten.html