WHAT ELSE SHOULD BE DONE?
After nearly 13 million years of thriving in the Hawaiian Islands, the Hawaiian Monk Seal species population has declined 60% in just fifty years (Hawaiian Monk Seal). Despite the extensive efforts of organizations such as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as the Hawaiian government and the public, Hawaiian Monk Seals still remain critically endangered. With less than eleven hundred Hawaiian Monk Seals alive today (Fast Facts About Hawaiian Monk Seals), what else can be done? Though adult male aggression between seals and shark predation are large contributing factors towards the endangerment of Hawaiian Monk Seals (see our Reasons for Endangerment page for more information), human interaction remains the most devastating as well as the most preventable factor.
Ninety percent of the Hawaiian Monk Seal population rely on low-lying islands (often less than two meters above sea level) as resting, molting and pupping habitat necessary for survival (Threats to Hawaiian Monk Seal Survival). As human-caused climate change begins to rise sea levels, the Hawaiian Monk Seals’ islands quickly begin to submerge underwater, leaving the seals with no place to rest or birth and with struggling and disoriented pups. Though humans cannot undo the harsh effects of climate change, we can prevent from furthering the potential damage of it by taking simple steps to lessen and ultimately end climate change such as lowering our emissions of natural gases.
Scientists currently predict that sea levels will rise between two and seven feet by 2100, completely immersing many the low-lying Hawaiian islands the Hawaiian Monk Seals and pups rely on. By severely cutting our emissions, the National Center on Atmospheric Research (NCAR) claims we could reduce that number to six to twenty inches (Plumer, 2012). By setting laws designated to lowering our emission, eventually leading to less sea level rise, we can take one step closer to saving Hawaiian Monk Seals.
HOW CAN YOU LOWER YOUR EMISSIONS?
The leading contributing factors to human emissions are electricity and transportation. By choosing more energy efficient vehicles and improving the installation of buildings we can immensely lower human emissions and help lower the negative effects humans have on the Hawaiian Monk Seal as well as our planet. If everyone performed simple everyday tasks such as turning on lights only when necessary and finding alternative transportation methods occasionally such as walking or biking in place of driving we could lower our CO2 emissions and help to save not only the Hawaiian Monk Seal, but thousands of other species struggling due to humans’ impact on the environment (Overview of Greenhouse Gases).
