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jay-20426472 · 2 years

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The Effects of Climate Change on the Green Sea Turtle

By Jay Marais 20426473

On the northern tip of the great barrier reef, is a small and innocuous coastal island, and on that island is a beach. It’s not much, the island is so small in fact that it is practically all beach, but once a year, for one species of turtle, for only a few short weeks, this island and this beach is the most important place in the world.

Green Sea Turtle Foraging off the coast of northern Queensland

The name Green Sea Turtle has nothing to do with the colour of the turtle’s shell, it is instead due to the colour of their fat. The Green Sea Turtle is the only species of turtle to be completely herbivorous as adults. They live along coastlines in vegetation rich reefs and seagrass pastures in tropical and subtropical waters and are seldom seen in the open ocean. It is thought that this plant-rich diet is what gives them their distinctive colouration.

While the green sea turtle has nesting grounds all over the world, Raine Island in north Queensland is host to the largest group of green turtles, with up to 60,000 females nesting there each year. The females will travel up to 2,600 km to reach the place of their birth, which in turn will become the new nesting grounds for their own hatchlings should they survive until adulthood. 99.9% Won't.

The Green Sea Turtle was first listed as endangered in 1978, and as climate change progresses, rising sea levels and rising temperatures are putting this beautiful species more and more under threat.

The Rising Tidelines

An eroded sea turtle nest at Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge

With Sea Levels set to rise from 40-80cm this century the nesting grounds of these beautiful reptiles are becoming increasingly threatened. Scientists studying the nesting habits of Green Turtles on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea have predicted that on many beaches, up to 80% of these habitats could be lost within our lifetimes. While nest location along the beach varies between site, the turtles have been found to be more likely to nest on steeper beaches, using the vegetation line which is often made up of grasses, as a barrier between the nest and the ocean. However, with sea levels on the rise, the shape and vegetation of these beaches are predicted to change.

Coastal erosion is causing steep beaches to become steeper still, while dense root systems are becoming exposed as the sand beneath them is washed away. Green Sea turtles have been found stuck in these roots more frequently in the last few years. With tide lines growing higher, turtles are having to move further and further inland to find dry sand to nest in, where the vegetation becomes denser and denser, and thus more deadly to both the mothers and the hatchlings, should they hatch at all.

Those nests that do not manage to remain out of reach of the rising tide line are at serious risk of what is called Tidal Inundation, where the nest becomes so waterlogged that the eggs die before hatching.

The Rising Temperatures

The rising temperatures themselves also have a very direct impact on Turtle populations. Many Reptile species, including turtles, crocodilians and some lizards have Temperature Sex Determination (TSD), where the sex of the hatchlings is directly dependent on the temperature of the egg during incubation. Green Turtle eggs that are warmer than 29.1°C will produce female hatchlings, while those incubated at cooler temperatures produce males. Fluctuations in temperature result in a mix, with some hatchlings being male and some female. The temperatures of turtle nesting sites naturally range between 20 and 30°C. The Northern Great Barrier Reef for example has an average temperature of 29.3 so even a 1°C difference will tip the scales and result in a significant increase in female hatchlings. With rising global temperatures, there is a serious risk of the natural gender ratio of these turtles becoming unbalanced, making it that much harder to find mates for the already endangered species.

Turtle Cooling Project

Photos from the Turtle Cooling Project on Milman Island

However, Scientists have already begun researching methods of mitigating this risk. The Turtle Cooling experiment by the World Wildlife Fund was conducted in northern Queensland, testing the effects of various types of shade, as well as the effect of irrigating the sand with seawater to lower the temperature. Both tested methods have shown an increase in male hatchlings. The hatchlings from these nests were also faster and more active than their unshaded counterparts, giving them a much higher chance of survival in their first 2 days, the most dangerous time of their lives.

Other Threats

Turtle Hatchling caught in a Fishing Net

While Climate change is a significant and increasing threat to their continued survival, it is not the only threat that these turtles face. A major threat to them is the pollution of chemicals and sediments into the water. As Green Sea Turtles spend most of their adult lives near the coast, those whose feeding grounds are near humans are exposed to a large variety of chemicals, both agricultural and industrial. The other major threat is entanglement in discarded fishing gear and nets.

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gduncan969 · 3 years

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Conflicting Advice

Exodus 14: 13 - 15 13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” 15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

Of all the challenges we have faced during this on-going pandemic, the biggest has not been keeping ourselves safe from infection by wearing our masks, socially distancing ourselves from each other, staying home and putting up with a multitude of Zoom meetings. Rather, it has been making sense of and trying to obey all the conflicting rules and regulations supposedly designed to make sure we don’t catch and don’t spread the virus. Even the simplest of questions like, “How dangerous is this virus?” has a multitude of conflicting answers that depend on which news channel or Twitter feed or expert you listen to. “It’s deadly and we must do all we can to stop it even if it means locking ourselves up in our homes for a year or more”, say some (and not a few!) “Relax,” say others, “if you’re not over 70 living in a care home with co-morbidities, your chances of surviving an infection are greater than 99.9% so don’t worry about it!”

Now that we are well underway with a world-wide vaccination program, questions now abound about the vaccine’s safety. “Which one should I take? Pfizer? Moderna? Astrazenica? J & J?” and to boot there’s a whole slew of people refusing to take any of them no matter how much the government pressures them to do so. “What about blood clots?”, they ask, “What about expert so-and-so who says the vaccine might kill me, aren’t they all just experimental treatments that have yet to be proven safe?” It might not be so bad if the experts on occasion simply admitted, “We don’t know” but in these days of instant communication across the globe, everyone with an opinion can inform the world what they think—unless, of course, they use the big-tech media platforms which will tell you what your opinion must be and censor any opposing view. The result of all this is a deluge of conflicting information resulting in confusion in the minds of many along with a gnawing fear that things will never be the same again. These dramatic changes that have befallen us have created a lot of anxiety about the future. As humans, we are wired to resist change because it takes us into a threatening unknown where we may not know how to survive. In the meantime, conspiracy theories abound to fill the void in our understanding of what lies behind all of this.

As Christians, what do we do?

Reactions to the pandemic by Christians have been as varied as in the general population: a mix of panic, fear, concern, ambivalence, exasperation and for some, denial that there is a pandemic since the number of infections (which is far lower than the number of “cases”) nowhere reaches the level that qualifies the use of the term “pandemic”. However, like many varying opinions in the Church, these opposing views are causing divisions among the believers and the government’s closure of the churches over the past fifteen months has only added to the lack of open discussion among its members. Shutting down the churches has had a devastating effect on many local assemblies and some have even had to close their doors permanently. For those few churches that have disobeyed the ban on meeting together in person, tremendous persecution from the authorities has ensued but they remain firm in their belief that the Church should submit to God rather than men (Acts 5:29) and that the right to freedom of religion and freedom of worship is guaranteed and irrevocable in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These pastors have been jailed and members have been fined for meeting together but it remains to be seen how the courts will interpret their actions under the Charter. Whether you view such actions as foolhardy or courageous, we can all admire their courage in taking a stand. If the courts rule in favour of these churches—and they may well do— then the rest of the churches will be faced with the question, “Why did we close our doors for over a year for a government that usurped God’s authority over His Church and acted illegally against its own constitution?”

For all Christians, the question of “What do we do?” must first be directed to God, not man because we belong to Him who saved us, having been “bought at a price” by Him (1 Corinthians 6:20). We will not find an answer to this question from men or women because there is far too much conflicting information flying around the internet and far too little “hearing from God” in our daily communication with Him. Even Moses got caught out on the shore of the Red Sea as Pharaoh’s armies approached. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today..” he told the children of Israel (Verse 13) only to hear the Lord tell him the exact opposite! “And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward” (Verse 15). Moses wanted the people to stand still and watch God deliver them from Pharaoh’s advancing army but the Lord wanted them to keep moving with His already stated plan to bring them into the promised land. The fact they were facing an impassable sea in front of them may have been a problem to Moses but not to God. Likewise, when the disciples thought they were sinking in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus was fast asleep in the boat knowing that the Father wanted them all on the far side of the Lake (Luke 8:24) and even if the boat did sink, they could all just walk the rest of the way to the shore! In the midst of all the conflicting advice about this pandemic, we need to hear from the Lord what He wants us to do and let that settle in our own hearts and minds rather than worry about which vaccine to take or not to take or which rules to obey or not to obey, remembering that he said “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

For all of us facing this “Red Sea” of COVID and wondering what to do, we can sing an old chorus that will get us through such times as this:

Roll back, Red Sea, we’re coming through, Roll back, Red Sea, we’re not afraid of you. When the man of God stretches forth his rod, Roll back Red Sea, we’re coming through.

Jehovah rolled those waters back Jehovah rolled those waters back. Well, He made a way where there was no way And He’s just the same today.

It may seem there’s no way out of the mess we are in right now but our prayers during this time must be to see God’s plan for this pandemic and to get on with it. Worrying about whether we will ever get back to normal, or whether we should take or not take the vaccine or about all those other troubling issues the world is facing, the bottom line has always been to know that God is in control and will carry us through but only if we keep moving and pressing forward. Remember that Jesus is not returning for a broken, bleeding Church but for His Bride without spot or blemish. Tough times likely lie ahead but God is ever faithful and will not allow us “to be tempted more than we are able to withstand it but will provide us a way of escape that we may be able to bear up under it” and be strengthened by it (1 Corinthians 10:13). Stay strong and stay confident.

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