We are choking ourselves with our effluents… despite efforts to the contrary… and it is getting worse and worse every day. We may be slowing down our toxic emissions and pollutants, but they are by no means stopping their invasion. They continue to aggregate in our air, our atmosphere in general, land, internal waterways (above and underground) and in our oceans. As bad as it may be for humans, including causing natural disasters by the megaton – from drought and fires to storms and flooding – at least we are being punished for our own misappropriation and abuse; the animals and plants that suffer are our innocent victims. Today’s story, the next “canary in the coalmine,” is about what we have done to yet one more species, particularly beloved in our Florida coastlines. The slow annihilation of manatees.
We are watching species all over the earth slow (and not so slowly) face extinction. Loss of habitat. Change in climate, from spreading insect-born diseases, wildfires and pollution. As Australia just faced 123 degrees Fahrenheit, mirroring last summer’s unexpected searing heat in the Pacific Northwest, you have to ask yourself if one of those endangered species might soon be us. Clearly, there is more human starvation, battles to the death for increasingly scarce resources (often over water access and viable farmland), mass migrations of people from their untenable homelands to more environmentally sustainable lands and more deaths from natural disasters caused by climate change.
Manatees, little coastal swamp dwelling vegetarians, are just one more sacrifice man is imposing on wildlife. Their habitat, increasingly polluted, temperature impaired and disappearing, has left them starving to death. Are we looking in our own mirror? Is it ironic that the US states facing some of the worst aspects of climate change disasters support a political party seemingly dedicated to denial and minimization?
Floridians who care are facing this sad reality with dying manatees. The January 15th Associated Press reported on how some biologists are trying to help stave off that approaching extinction. “A feeding station established along the state’s east coast has yet to entice wild manatees with romaine lettuce even though the animals will eat it in captivity, officials said in a news conference held remotely.
“Water pollution from agricultural, urban and other sources has triggered algae blooms that have decimated seagrass beds on which manatees depend, leading to a record 1,101 manatee deaths largely from starvation in 2021. The typical five-year average is about 625 deaths.
“That brought about the lettuce feeding program, part of a joint group response to manatee deaths led by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It remains a violation of state and federal law for people to feed manatees on their own… ‘We have not documented animals foraging on the lettuce,’ said Ron Mezich, chief of the joint effort’s provisioning branch. ‘We know manatees will eat lettuce.’
“During winter months, hundreds of manatees tend to congregate in warmer waters from natural springs and power plant discharges. Because this winter has been unusually mild in Florida so far, the animals have been more dispersed… ‘They’re moving, but they are not being pressed by cold temperatures yet,’ said Tom Reinert, south regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ‘We expect that to happen.’
“In addition to the feeding experiment, officials are working with a number of facilities to rehabilitate distressed manatees. These include Florida zoos, the SeaWorld theme park and marine aquariums. There were 159 rescued manatees in 2021, some of which require lengthy care and some that have been returned to the wild, officials said… ‘Our facilities are at or near capacity,’ said Andy Garrett, chief of rescue and recovery. ‘These animals need long-term care. It’s been a huge amount of work to date.’”
In the face of overwhelmingly clear scientific facts, with virtual unanimity among the scientific community of devastating climate change, there is a major political party – driven by special interests like the oil, gas and coal industries – that continues to downplay the unambiguous linkages between massive, unprecedented and super-intensive natural disasters and climate change.
Opposition to expanded and necessary climate-directed legislation and infrastructure, a veritable digging in of well-worn heels, has created climate fixing minimalism, under-planned responses and lackadaisical political commitments from both major US political parties. Small island nations are disappearing, huge and massive storms (from torrential rains, a continuing polar vortex where warm arctic air pushes freezing air down into our central and eastern regions, unseasonable and ultra-powerful tornados). As younger generations begin to panic at the climate change legacy their parents and grandparents are handing them, we still do too little too late. The manatees are watching… and dying. Are we joining them in our own slow suicidal plunge?
I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder exactly how much pain and misery we have to sustain before we really begin to grapple with what is obviously killing us and our planet.
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