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Boiling up
Boiling up
Sienna Chitwood
Movies always described oceans as filled with vibrant colors and swarming with schools of fish, but that is not reality. Global warming is when the Carbon Dioxide or CO2 is a gas that normally our earth can recycle, with plants that perform photosynthesis that changes CO2 into Oxygen. The CO2 that we release into the air when we use gas emissions and fossil fuels leads to a buildup in our atmosphere, and with nowhere to go, it traps in the heat radiation we get from the sun. This is what causes global temperatures to rise. It has sucked the vibrant color out of our oceans and is killing our ocean wildlife.
Coral reefs have many purposes. They provide a home and shelter for marine life. Fish hide in coral when they are pursued by predators, but coral is also a living and breathing organism! It is home to the algae called zooxanthellae; They use photosynthesis and give food to the coral, and in return the coral houses the algae. According to barrierreef.org an official website of the non-profit organization called Great Barrier Reef Foundation that spreads awareness of dying coral reefs and raises funds to combat the environmental problem of our oceans, “when corals are under stress, they expel the microscopic algae that live in their tissues. Without these algae, corals' tissues become transparent, exposing their white skeleton. This is called coral bleaching.” The ‘stress’ that the coral is under is the sudden rise in the ocean’s temperature. It takes billions of years for any organism to evolve to become accustomed to their environment and global warming is relatively new and it changes regularly.
Along with killing marine life, global warming has also destroyed the habitat of land mammals like penguins, seals, walruses and polar bears. Polar bears and penguins rely most on the depleting ice for food and shelter. According to articwwf.org an official website for the WWF Global Arctic Program it funds innovative ways to conserve and find a sustainable way to slow or stop the warming of the arctic, “Polar bears rely on sea ice habitats to hunt, live, breed, and in some cases, create maternal dens, including nourishing seals, the most important source of food for polar bears.” Polar bears are not the only animals that are dependent on the ever-melting ice for survival and shelter, penguins are as well. According to oceangraphicmagazine.com a magazine that spreads awareness of our oceans and arctic of exploration and conservation, “penguin habitats are not just impacted by isolated extreme events, but by their cumulative effects across both land and ocean environments.” Global warming causes the weather drastically to change in the arctic causing sudden high winds and snowstorms.
The animals are not the only ones affected by the sudden rise in the ocean’s temperature; the ocean is also rising due to the melting glaciers. According to science.nasa.gov, “global sea levels have risen more than 4 inches (101 millimeters) since measurements began in 1992, increasing coastal flooding in some places. As ocean water warms, it expands and takes up more space. The added heat in the air and ocean is also melting ice sheets and glaciers, which adds freshwater to the ocean and further raises sea levels.” We as a human species are killing our planet and the animals that we share it with, and if we don't make a change, nothing is going to change and there would be no more us. The Earth has survived billions of years through ice ages and mentor showers, but we as a species haven't, and are killing ourselves more than the planet. The planet can get a restart, we can’t.